While on vacation in Portugal, Catherine Mathis was gripped by a story that wouldn’t let go of her imagination: a 14th century king had his dead wife crowned queen and forced the court to pay her homage to fulfill a promise. Mathis’s unrelenting curiosity about this peculiar deed and the couple known as Iberia’s Romeo and Juliet led to untold hours of research and the publication of her debut novel: Inês. With intricate detail and world building, Mathis brings to life the captivating tale of a forbidden love, along with the intrinsic danger of being born into the highest realm of a kingdom. Pedro, heir to the throne of Portugal, is attracted at first sight to the beautiful Inês, and with good reason. A daughter of royal blood, she is beautiful, smart, and self-assured. She is also of illegitimate birth, which eliminates her from any consideration that she can be more than a mistress to Pedro. Pedro is commanded to acquiesce to the dictates of his father, King Afonso IV, but when Pedro asserts his own desires, he puts lives at risk. Mathis’s book covers forty years of tumultuous history (1324-1364) on the Iberian peninsula. She takes us into battle, on travels across dangerous roads, through the ravages of the plague, but most compellingly, into the court life of 14th century Portugal with its behaviors and machinations. The food, the architecture, the clothing are presented in detail, serving as a rich background to the ill-fated love of Pedro and Inês. Readers who relish a deep dive into the history of a faraway land and time will find great enjoyment in Inês. And there’s more to come: Mathis is now working on book two of the Queens of Portugal Trilogy.
With intricate detail and world building, Mathis brings to life the captivating tale of a forbidden love, along with the intrinsic danger of being born into the highest realm of a kingdom. Pedro, heir to the throne of Portugal, is attracted at first sight to the beautiful Inês, and with good reason. A daughter of royal blood, she is beautiful, smart, and self-assured. She is also of illegitimate birth, which eliminates her from any consideration that she can be more than a mistress to Pedro. Pedro is commanded to acquiesce to the dictates of his father, King Afonso IV, but when Pedro asserts his own desires, he puts lives at risk.
Mathis’s book covers forty years of tumultuous history (1324-1364) on the Iberian peninsula. She takes us into battle, on travels across dangerous roads, through the ravages of the plague, but most compellingly, into the court life of 14th century Portugal with its behaviors and machinations. The food, the architecture, the clothing are presented in detail, serving as a rich background to the ill-fated love of Pedro and Inês. Readers who relish a deep dive into the history of a faraway land and time will find great enjoyment in Inês. And there’s more to come: Mathis is now working on book two of the Queens of Portugal Trilogy.