Pedro (1429–1466)

Portuguese noble, constable of Portugal from 1443. His father Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, acting as regent for Afonso V, furthered his own political interests by appointing his son constable (condestável) in 1443 and Master of the Order of Avis in 1444. His father's death and Afonso V's victory in 1449 caused Pedro to flee to Castile, returning to Portugal and collaboration with Afonso in 1456. His final years were spent fighting in Morocco and stirring up trouble in Catalonia.

Aside from his request to Iñigo Santillana for an anthology of his poems, Pedro himself was author of several works, and set a much-followed precedent for Portuguese writers by composing in both Portuguese and Castilian. In 1453 he translated his Satire on Happy and Unhappy Life, written earlier in Portuguese, into Castilian; shortly after he composed the Castilian poem ‘Coplas del menesprecio de las cosas fermosas del mundo’/‘Lines on Scorning the Beautiful Things of the World’, which he dedicated to Afonso V.