Ferdinand the Holy Prince

Early life

Ferdinand was the sixth surviving child and youngest son of King John I of Portugal and his wife Philippa of Lancaster. Ferdinand and his brothers Edward of Portugal, Peter of Coimbra, Henry the Navigator and John of Reguengos, plus sister Isabella of Burgundy and half-brother Afonso of Barcelos, constitute what Portuguese historians have traditionally labelled the 'illustrious generation' (Ínclita Geração).

Ferdinand was born in Santarém on 29 September 1402, the feast day of St. Michael, a saint to whom he would remain affectionately attached. He had a complicated birth and would remain a sickly child throughout much of his youth. Relatively sheltered because of his illnesses, Ferdinand had a quiet and very pious upbringing, a favorite of his English mother, from whom he acquired a preference for the Sarum Rite of Salisbury in the religious liturgy of masses he attended.

Master of Aviz

Ferdinand was too young to participate in the 1415 Conquest of Ceuta led by his father, John I, in which his older brothers distinguished themselves and were knighted. As the youngest of many sons, Ferdinand did not obtain a substantial endowment from his father, only the Lordship of Salvaterra de Magos and a lifetime grant of Atouguia in 1429.

In 1434, after the death of his father and the administrator João Rodrigues de Sequeira, Ferdinand was appointed lay administrator of the Knightly Order of Aviz by his brother King Edward of Portugal. Ferdinand was also offered the titular office of cardinal by Pope Eugene IV, but turned it down. Despite his piety, Ferdinand had no intention of pursuing a clerical career.

Siege of Tangier

In 1436, dissatisfied with his meager domains, Ferdinand asked his brother King Edward for permission to go abroad to seek his fortune in the service of a foreign king (reportedly, Henry VI of England). Ferdinand's request prompted the reluctant Edward to endorse a plan, long promoted by his brother Henry the Navigator, to launch a new Portuguese campaign of conquest against Marinid Morocco. As a bachelor, Ferdinand made out a will naming Edward's second son, the Infante Ferdinand (future Duke of Viseu) as his heir before departing.

In August 1437, the Portuguese expeditionary force, under the leadership of Henry the Navigator, set out to seize Tangier. Ferdinand brought his household and Aviz knights with him, choosing as his personal banner an emblazoned image of the Archangel St. Michael. The Tangier campaign proved to be a disastrous fiasco. Henry impetuously launched a series of assaults on the walls of Tangier with no success, while allowing his siege camp to be encircled by a Moroccan army rushed north by the Wattasid strongman Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Wattasi, governor of the Marinid palace of Fez (called Lazeraque by the Portuguese chroniclers). The Portuguese besiegers, now besieged and unable to break out, were starved into submission.

To preserve his army from destruction, Henry the Navigator signed a treaty in October 1437 with the Moroccan commanders. It called for the restoration of Ceuta (which had been captured by the Portuguese back in 1415) in return for allowing to his army to withdraw intact (albeit with their weapons left behind). By the terms of the treaty, Henry handed his younger brother Ferdinand over to the Moroccans as a hostage for the delivery of Ceuta. It was later reported that Henry personally volunteered to go as hostage instead of Ferdinand, but that his war council forbade it.

Hostage in Asilah

Ferdinand was formally a hostage of Salah ibn Salah (called Çallabençalla in the Portuguese chronicles), the Marinid governor of Tangier and Asilah (and lord claimant of Ceuta). Ferdinand was allowed to bring along a private entourage of eleven household servants into captivity with him. This included his secretary (and future chronicler) Frei João Álvares; his household governor Rodrigo Esteves; his wardrobe keeper Fernão Gil; his confessor, Frei Gil Mendes; his physician mestre Martinho (son of the late chronicler Fernão Lopes); his chaplain Pero Vasques; his head cook João Vasques; his chamberlain João Rodrigues (described as a collaço, meaning a foster-brother or close confidante of Ferdinand); his quartermaster (aposentador) João Lourenço; his hearth-keeper João de Luna; and his pantry keeper (homen de reposta) Cristóvão de Luviça Alemão. Álvares was entrusted with Ferdinand's money purse, estimated to be carrying some 6,000 reals for expenses. They were joined by an additional set of four Portuguese noble hostages identified as Pedro de Ataíde, João Gomes de Avelar, Aires da Cunha and Gomes da Cunha/Silva. The first three were knights of Ferdinand's household, the last a knight of Aviz. These four were not part of Ferdinand's entourage, but part of a separate temporary hostage swap to ensure the smooth embarkation of the defeated Portuguese troops back to their ships, for which Salah ibn Salah gave his own eldest son as hostage to the Portuguese in return. These were meant to be released once the troops were boarded, whereas Ferdinand and his entourage were only to be released upon the evacuation and handover of Ceuta.

Ferdinand, his entourage and the four knights were handed over to Salah ibn Salah on the evening of 16 October 1437 by the Portuguese negotiator Rui Gomes da Silva (alcaide of Campo Maior), who then received the son of Salah ibn Salah in return. The hostages stayed in a tower inside Tangiers while the troops evacuated the beach. But the embarcation did not go smoothly. Discipline broke down and a skirmish broke out on the beach, apparently provoked when some of the Portuguese soldiers were caught smuggling forbidden items. After the troops were all embarked (19 or 21 October 19), Henry the Navigator refused to release his own temporary hostage, the eldest son of Salah ibn Salah, cut the moorings and sailed off. As a result, the four noble hostages were now stranded in Moroccan captivity. Hearing of the beach skirmish and receiving no communication from Henry, Ferdinand was beside himself in tears, fearing that his brother had been among those killed. Ibn Salah sent a few men to investigate the bodies to assure him that Henry was not among them, and when that was insufficient to comfort the prince, Ibn Salah even sent a messenger to Ceuta to try get written assurance from Henry himself.

Prisoner in Fez

The Marinid authorities in Morocco were surprised and angered by the Portuguese repudiation of the treaty. Rumors of a plot to land a Portuguese amphibious force to break Ferdinand out of Asilah (a coastal city) prompted a decision to move him inland. On 25 May 1438, Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Wattasi, the powerful vizier of the Marinid palace in Fez, took charge of the hostages from Salah ibn Salah and ordered Ferdinand and his entourage transferred from his comfortable quarters in Asilah to a prison in Fez. Of the original entourage, two did not make the transfer to Fez. Frei Fernão Gil, the confessor, had died in the winter of 1437–38, whereas Rodrigo Esteves, the head of household, fell ill, and Ibn Salah gave him permission to return to Portugal. In the case of Esteves, his son Pedro Rodrigues arrived from Portugal to stand hostage in his father's place. Pedro Rodrigues and the four knightly hostages remained in Asilah, while the others went on to Fez.

Upon arrival in Fez in late May 1438, Ferdinand's entourage was placed in a prison where they met two Portuguese prisoners previously incarcerated: Diogo Delgado and Álvaro Eanes of Alverca. Master Joseph, a Jewish surgeon and emissary of Salah ibn Salah who had accompanied the transfer from Asilah, was sent back by Abu Zakariya with instructions to inform Lisbon of the new circumstances. The entourage (plus the two prior prisoners) were sealed in the prison while awaiting the response. Conditions in Fez were considerably worse than at Asilah. Nonetheless, the two Portuguese prisoners taught the new arrivals how to get better food smuggled in from the city markets and put them in contact with a Majorcan merchant in Fez willing to supply the prince on credit. On 11 October 1438, with no satisfactory reply received from Lisbon, Ferdinand's status was downgraded from treaty hostage to common prisoner. Moroccan guards searched through the cells and confiscated much of their remaining money, contact with the outside was cut off and the Majorcan merchant was flogged for his troubles. The twelve men were shoved into a smaller dungeon built to hold eight, given prison clothing and set on a strict diet of bread and water. It was at this point that Ferdinand and his entourage were first put in leg irons. Fellow-prisoner Álvares reports that although the jailers occasionally threatened beatings and whippings, they never physically harmed Ferdinand or his companions, as they feared that any injury done to their prisoners would diminish their ransom value. Nonetheless, they forced Ferdinand to undertake manual labor that was humiliating and unbefitting a noble prince, e.g. hoeing the palace gardens and cleaning the horse stables. Even so, Álvares reports that Ferdinand was determined to partake in the same fate as his companions, and when they were assigned to the harder prison jobs that Ferdinand had been spared, Ferdinand volunteered to go and labor alongside them (although this was soon forbidden him).

Death

Ferdinand's isolation in Fez continued. He only met his physician at mealtimes and his chaplain once every two weeks. By bribing the guards, he was sometimes allowed to meet other members of his entourage. He was not assigned to labor like the others, but spent his days largely confined to his cell, praying and writing prayers. After fifteen months in these conditions, Ferdinand fell ill on 1 June 1443 and died a few days later, on 5 June. According to his hagiographers, on the evening before his death, Ferdinand reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary, the St. Michael the Archangel and St. John the Evangelist.

After his death, the Fez authorities had Ferdinand's corpse embalmed with salt, myrtle and bay leaves. Ferdinand's heart, organs and intestines were taken out in the process (and promptly acquired by his fellow prisoners, who hid them in clay pots buried underground in a corner of their dungeon). Ferdinand's naked and disemboweled corpse was subsequently hung upside down from the battlements of the walls of Fez for public display. After four days, the body was placed in a sealed wooden coffin and once again hung from the same battlements "for a long time". In his hagiography, Alvares reports several "miracles" subsequently attributed to the coffin.

Ferdinand was unmarried and childless at the time of his death. The lay mastership of his Order of Aviz was passed to his nephew Peter, Constable of Portugal (the son of Peter of Coimbra).

Fate of companions

Many members of Ferdinand's entourage died in prison in the subsequent years, primarily of disease. Their fates, according to Frei João Álvares, in chronological order, came as follows:

Frei Gil Mendes, the confessor, died in Asilah in the winter of 1437–38.

Rodrigo Esteves, head of household, fell ill and was released from Asilah in 1438 in return for his son Pedro Rodrigues

Diogo Delgado, Portuguese prisoner in Fez, was the first to die in Fez, sometime between 1443 and 1448

João de Luna, hearth-keeper, died in Fez, 1443–48

Mestre Martim, the physician, died in Fez, 1443–48.

Fernão Gil, the wardrobe-keeper, died in Fez, 1443–48.

João Lourenço, the quartermaster, died in Fez, 1443–48.

Álvaro Eanes of Alverca, the other Portuguese prisoner in Fez, converted to Islam

Cristóvão de Luviça Alemão, pantry-keeper, converted to Islam

Frei João Álvares, the secretary, ransomed by Peter of Coimbra in 1448

João Vasques the cook, ransomed by Peter of Coimbra or João de Lisboa in 1448.

João Rodrigues, the collaço, chamberlain, ransomed by Frei João Álvares in 1450

Pero Vasques, the chaplain, ransomed by Frei João Álvares in 1450

Saintly cult

News of Ferdinand's death was met with great mourning in Portugal. The regent Peter of Coimbra, who had perhaps done the most to get Ferdinand released, ransomed some of the imprisoned members of his party, notably Ferdinand's secretary, Frei João Álvares, in 1448. Shortly after arriving in Lisbon, Álvares returned to Morocco in 1450 to ransom the remaining prisoners. Álvares also had hoped to ransom Ferdinand's remains, but he only managed to recover the hidden pot with Ferdinand's entrails. He returned to Lisbon and made his way to the court of King Afonso V of Portugal in Santarém in early June 1451. Frei João Álvares and João Rodrigues were instructed to take the relics and deposit them in the prepared tomb reserved for Ferdinand in the Aviz necropolis, the Founder's Chapel in Batalha Monastery. Álvares reports that on the way to Batalha, they passed through Tomar, where Prince Henry the Navigator joined the procession and subsequently led the religious ceremony depositing the relics at Batalha. The tomb was originally carved with Ferdinand's personal arms and knightly motto le bien me plet ("Good pleases me"), which combined the motto of his father, por bem, with that of his mother, il me plait.

A popular saintly cult soon developed around the figure of Ferdinand, encouraged by the ruling House of Aviz. In January 1444, Peter of Coimbra endowed a fund for a yearly mass to be said in Ferdinand's honor at his chapel in Batalha. Henry the Navigator commissioned a triptych of the life and sufferings of Ferdinand, painted by João Áfonso, to be set up in his own (Henry's) chapel. Some modern authors believe the celebrated Saint Vincent Panels by Nuno Gonçalves were commissioned by Peter of Coimbra as a funerary homage to Ferdinand the Holy Prince.

The religious iconography of Ferdinand the Holy Prince usually portrays him as a miserable prisoner, hungry, bearded, disheveled in a black cloak and hood, his feet in leg irons and chains held in his hands. He also sometimes holds a hoe, for his labors in the palace gardens in Fez. Later on, Ferdinand was sometimes depicted in the armor of an imperial warrior.

The promotion of the saintly cult, in particular the narrative twist that Ferdinand had "volunteered" for martyrdom rather than allow Ceuta to be surrendered, was principally due to Henry the Navigator and may have been motivated by an attempt to deflect responsibility for his death away from himself. In the 1450s, Henry commissioned Frei João Álvares to set down the details of Ferdinand's life and captivity. Finished sometime before 1460, and first published in 1527, the Álvares chronicle is the principal source of the life and travails of Ferdinand. Although originally intended as a piece of Christian hagiography to supplement the cult of the "Holy Prince" and the Henrican interpretation, the Álvares chronicle did not flatter Henry's leadership nor absolve him of responsibility for Ferdinand's fate. He makes it reasonably clear that Ferdinand did not seek out a martyr's fate, but had it imposed on him by the delays and machinations back in Portugal. At several points, Álvares surreptitiously points an accusatory finger at Ferdinand's brothers via speeches from the mouth of Ferdinand, his companions and his captors. Another hagiography, the Martirium pariter et gesta, written by an unknown author, appeared around the same time or shortly after. Some have speculated the Martirium might have been written by Pero Vasques, the ransomed chaplain, although others believe it was a largely derivative piece, hurriedly written by someone else, commissioned by Isabella of Burgundy to support the campaign in Rome to promote Ferdinand to sainthood.