The Baker Who Pretended to Be King of Portugal
On August 4, 1578, in an ill-conceived attempt to wrest Morocco back from the hands of the infidel Moors, King Sebastian of Portugal led his troops to slaughter and was himself slain. Sixteen years later, King Sebastian rose again. In one of the most famous of European impostures, Gabriel de Espinosa, an ex-soldier and baker by trade—and most likely under the guidance of a distinguished Portuguese friar—appeared in a Spanish convent town passing himself off as the lost monarch. The principals, along with a large cast of nuns, monks, and servants, were confined and questioned for nearly a year as a crew of judges tried to unravel the story, but the culprits went to their deaths with many questions left unanswered.
“Ruth MacKay draws upon a wealth of new materials culled from various archives, both Spanish and Portuguese, together with an array of printed primary sources—chronicles, spiritual treatises, ambassadorial reports, et cetera—to offer new insights into the gripping tale of the pastelero de Madrigal. Her account of the young King Sebastian and his 1578 death in Morocco at the fabled ‘Battle of the Three Kings’ is by far the best I have ever read. The Baker Who Pretended to Be King of Portugal is beautifully crafted and a true delight to read.”
“Ruth MacKay’s readers have come to expect much from her books—a fascinating topic, an engaging style, characters that are slightly larger than life—and they will not be disappointed with The Baker Who Pretended to Be King of Portugal. She brings back to life an improbable cast of characters who prove that fact is often stranger than fiction: a baker of obscure origins who convinced Ana, a nun who was the illegitimate daughter of Philip II’s brother, that he was her long-lost cousin, King Sebastian of Portugal; Ana’s Portuguese confessor who facilitated the fraud for his own ends; and her fellow nuns who pretended to see nothing. The fact that this hoax took place in the 1590s, one of the least known decades of Spanish history, makes the story of the man who would be king an important addition to the historical record as well as a ripping yarn.”
List of Illustrations
List of Characters
Prologue
Chapter 1. Morocco: King Sebastian
Chapter 2. Portugal: Don António and Fray Miguel
Chapter 3. Castile: King Philip II and the Baker, Gabriel de Espinosa
Chapter 4. Madrigal: Ana of Austria
Epilogue
Appendix. The 1683 Pamphlet and Other Chronicles
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
History: European History
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