Baker Who Pretended to Be King of Portugal

图书信息

作者	MacKay
出版社	Ruth
ISBN	9780226501109
出版时间	2012-01-03
字数	62.9万
分类	University of Chicago Press,进口书,外文原版书,文学,自传,回忆录

读书简介

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 recalls this conspiracy, marked both by scheming and absurdity, and the legal inquest that followed, to show how stories of this kind are conceived, told, circulated, and believed. She reveals how the story of Sebastian, supposedly in hiding and planning to return to claim his crown, was lodged among other familiar stories: prophecies of returned leaders, nuns kept against their will, kidnappings by Moors, miraculous escapes, and monarchs who die for their country. As MacKay demonstrates, the conspiracy could not have succeeded without the circulation of news, the retellings of the fatal battle in well-read chronicles, and the networks of rumors and correspondents, all sharing the hope or belief that Sebastian had survived and would one day return.?With its royal intrigues, ambitious artisans, dissatisfied religious women, and corrupt clergy, The Baker Who Pretended to Be King of Portugal will undoubtedly captivate readers as it sheds new light on the intricate political and cultural relations between Spain and Portugal in the early modern period and the often elusive nature of historical truth.

目录

Cover

Copyright

Title Page

Epigraph

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Characters

Prologue

Color Plates

1. Morocco: King Sebastian

2. Portugal: Don António and Fray Miguel

3. Castile: King Philip II and the Baker, Gabriel de Espinosa

4. Madrigal: Ana of Austria

Epilogue

Appendix. The 1683 Pamphlet and Other Chronicles

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index