We discovered the tale of Inês and Pedro on our first trip to Portugal. We undertook a subsequent trip to visit locations and museums. Despite the language barrier we found numerous individuals willing to share their knowledge in museums in towns small and large.



You won't regret a visit to Portugal. You can spend some time at the beach and still get in a side trip to towns and cities. Portugal is a small country - about four hours across and seven hours north to south. If you do rent a car, just be sure its a very small car. Numerous streets retain their medieval narrowness!

As any historical novelist will tell you half the fun of writing a novel is the research. In the case of medieval Portugal there are challenges. The destructive power of the Earthquake of All Saints Day 1755 left little of Lisboa intact and swamped the city with a tsunami. Over the period of 1807-1810, Napoleon invaded and his troops took their looting opportunity seriously. Damage from both historical events spread far beyond the capital. The damage to the graves of Pedro and Inês is attributed to French troops.



Having no capacity to research in medieval Portuguese, I relied on numerous sources. Look here for a list. Not all the sources I consulted are listed. Any and all errors in the novel are my sole resonsibility.