#duke of lerma

[classicalcanvas]

Title: Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens

Date: 1603

Style: Baroque

Genre: Portrait

[artandthebible]

Saint Thomas

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)

Date: 1610-1612

Medium: Oil on Panel

Collection: Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

DESCRIPTION

Around 1612 Rubens made a series of portraits of the apostles, in commission of the duke of Lerma. All paintings show an attribute to identify the apostle. Thomas holds a spear, the weapon that supposedly killed him and made him a martyr.

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” ~ John 11:16

[peter-paul-rubens-paintings]

-Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma-

[royalty-nobility]

Charles I (1600-1649) with M. de St Antoine

Artist: Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599-1641)

Date: 1633

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: The Royal Collection Trust, United Kingdom

Description

On his appointment as Principal Painter to Charles I in 1632, the Flemish artist Van Dyck - Ruben's most gifted follower - was required to specialise in portraiture. This is one of the chief paintings to result from his appointment, which revolutionised British painting and provided us with the enduring image of the Stuart court. With great fluency Van Dyck here portrays Charles I on horseback on an unprecedented scale, as ruler, warrior and knight, in the long tradition of antique and Renaissance equestrian monuments. The prominent display of the crowned royal arms and the triumphal arch framing the armed King reinforce his image as ruler of Great Britain, while the King's refined features, loose hair and the sash of the Order of the Garter worn over his armour convey the impression of a chivalrous knight. Van Dyck may have designed the painting for its first position at the end of the Gallery at St James's Palace, where its theatrical effect impressed visitors. Both artist and patron admired and collected works by Titian, but a more direct influence was Rubens's 1603 portrait of the Duke of Lerma (Madrid, Prado) which Charles I would have seen on his visit to Spain as Prince of Wales in 1623.

Skilled horsemanship was regarded as the epitome of virtu and here Pierre Antoine Bourdin, Seigneur de St Antoine, a master in the art of horsemanship, carries the King's helmet. Sent by Henry IV of France to James I with a present of six horses for Henry, Prince of Wales, in 1603, he remained in the service of the Prince and later of Charles I, as riding master and equerry. He looks up at the King, whose poise stabilises a scene filled with baroque movement.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Antonio Rodríguez Beltrán, attributed (Spanish, 1636-1691) María Luisa de Toledo e indígena, 1670 Museo Nacional del Prado

Doña María Luisa de Toledo y Carreto, Marquesa de Melgar de Fernamental, was the only daughter of Don Antonio Sebastián de Toledo Molina y Salazar, II Marquis de la Mancera and Viceroy of New Spain -between 1664 and 1673-, and of his first woman, D. Leonor de Carreto. And, therefore, she was also the granddaughter of another viceroy, in this case of Peru, D. Pedro de Toledo y Leiva, who held that position between 1639 and 1648. And also, she was the sister-in-law of a third viceroy, D. Gaspar de la Cerda y Sandoval, Count of Galve, her husband's brother, who held office in New Spain between 1688 and 1696. She was a great-great-granddaughter of the first Duke of Alba de Tormes, one of the leading noble houses in Spain, and her husband was the son of the Dukes of Pastrana and the Infantado, another of the main noble families. So, in her person, María Luisa combined an entire noble inheritance linked to some of the great Spanish aristocratic families and to the main positions in the American viceroyalties. She lived part of her childhood and adolescence in the city of Mexico, where, around 1670, she must have made this portrait of her. She returned to Spain, together with her father, in 1674.

She married Joseph de Silva, linking in this way with one of the most powerful houses in the Peninsula, which held the dukedoms of Pastrana, Infantado and Lerma among many other titles, although all of them were part of the inheritance of the eldest son, for which reason None of the consorts had, at the time of the marriage, a noble title. The title enjoyed by María Luisa and her husband, Marquises of Melgar de Fernamental, was granted as a marriage dowry by the Queen herself, Mariana of Austria, in the name of King Carlos II.

The dwarf woman who accompanies her would come from the Chichimeca area, due to the tattoos that adorn her. She has been represented wearing a long and straight huipil, which is superimposed over a green skirt or dress whose lower part protrudes from the previous one. The huipil has been arranged "a la española", that is to say, it seems to be cinched at the waist and has wide added sleeves and a bottom edge with an ova-shaped lace band. The presence of this small indigenous woman was highlighting the uniqueness and exoticism, and therefore the power and prestige of her family. The color of the complexion, the tattoo and even the type of clothing that the little woman wears reveal her connection with American places and the access that the protagonist of the canvas exhibited in relation to some networks of circulation of transoceanic goods and products. New Spain (modern day Mexico) came to be called Mexico in 1821, after the Mexican War of Independence. The viceroyalty was dissolved and the Mexican Empire was established.

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

NOT AMELIA INSPIRING SHAKESPEARE TO WRITE MACBETH AND MAKING IT ABOUT THE QUEEN AND THE DUKE OF LERMA

[jasmineleeplays]

King Fernando's first son, Infante Jaime Fernandez of Leon has come of age and became a Fortune Builder (3rd Stewardship education trait). Although he has chosen to cope with stress by becoming Inappetetic (rejecting food). And finally, given his reaching of adulthood, Infante Jaime married Milia Bernaldez Quinones, the genius.

King Fernando's royal court is at level 8 and is now currently ranked 2nd in the world out of 79 other royal courts. We only lose out to Basileus Lazaros of the Byzantine Empire.

King Fernando is on the prowl for his new best friend, and settled on Baqi, who has a high stewardship education that he can synergise with to gain the 3 extra stewardship points. King Fernando decides to commission a small poem comparing his and Baqi's deeds, focusing especially on Baqi's accomplishments.

A Castillian mercenary band from Lerma in Burgos wishes to donate 50 gold to the crafting of King Fernando's crown to which King Fernando gladly accepts.

King Fernando's cousin and Master of the Horse, Duke Diego Elvirez of Beja decides to create a cadet house branch from the main Jimena dynasty, called House Hijar.

King Fernando finally becomes Baqi's friend but unfortunately cannot become Best Friends yet as there is a cooldown timer for the swearing of the unbreakable oath.

Finally the unveiling of the Jimena Crown brought much disappointment as it was revealed that the crown was only a normal Headgear rank and not a Masterwork, despite the fact the description calls it as "of masterful craftsmanship".

[theonlinecollector]

Juan Pantoja de la Cruz

Francisco Gómez de Sandoval-Rojas y Borja, I Duke of Lerma (1602)

Fundación Medinaceli

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.16 (before 1940)

1457 BC – Battle of Megido - the first battle to have been recorded in what is accepted as relatively reliable detail. 69 – Defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Roman emperor Otho commits suicide. 73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the First Jewish–Roman War. 1346 – Stefan Dušan, "the Mighty", is crowned Emperor of the Serbs at Skopje, his empire occupying much of the Balkans. 1520 – The Revolt of the Comuneros begins in Spain against the rule of Charles V. 1582 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina. 1746 – The Battle of Culloden is fought between the French-supported Jacobites and the British Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, in Scotland. After the battle many highland traditions were banned and the Highlands of Scotland were cleared of inhabitants. 1780 – Franz Friedrich Wilhelm von Fürstenberg founds the University of Münster. 1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor: Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre. 1818 – The United States Senate ratifies the Rush–Bagot Treaty, limiting naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. 1838 – The French Army captures Veracruz in the Pastry War. 1847 – Shooting of a Māori by an English sailor results in the opening of the Wanganui Campaign of the New Zealand Wars. 1853 – The Great Indian Peninsula Railway opens the first passenger rail in India, from Bori Bunder to Thane. 1858 – The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is dissolved. 1862 – American Civil War: Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia. 1862 – American Civil War: The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia, becomes law. 1863 – American Civil War: During the Vicksburg Campaign, gunboats commanded by acting Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter run downriver past Confederate artillery batteries at Vicksburg. 1878 – The Senate of the Grand Duchy of Finland issues a declaration establishing a city of Kotka on the southern part islands from the old Kymi parish. 1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle. 1908 – Natural Bridges National Monument is established in Utah. 1910 – The oldest existing indoor ice hockey arena still used for the sport in the 21st century, Boston Arena, opens for the first time. 1912 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel. 1917 – Russian Revolution: Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd, Russia, from exile in Switzerland. 1919 – Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British colonial troops three days earlier. 1919 – Polish–Lithuanian War: The Polish Army launches the Vilna offensive to capture Vilnius in modern Lithuania. 1922 – The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations, is signed. 1925 – During the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia, Bulgaria, 150 are killed and 500 are wounded.

[steliosagapitos]

~ "The Countess of Porto Hermoso's Emerald and Diamond Tiara. This tiara, made with a characteristic design of the Belle Époque, is packaged with 7 square-shaped cushion-cut Colombian emeralds, where 6 are arranged on the base and the remaining is placed in the center of the scroll motif, all studded with diamonds. Furthermore, the piece enjoys particular versatility, since it can be disassembled and worn as a brooch or a bracelet, where the latter can alternatively also be worn as a choker with an additional extension. The tiara was created in 1910 by the Marzo jewelers for Doña Maria del Carmen Domecq Nuñez de Villavicenzio, probably as a gift from her husband, Don Fernando Soto González de Aguillar, 4th Count of Puerto Hermoso, 8th Marquis of Arienzo, and 11th Marquis of Santaella. It is not clear what history the tiara had, because the sources are few and hardly reliable, however the main hypothesis assumes that the tiara was inherited by his son, Don Ignacio Soto y Domecq, 5th Count of Puerto Hermoso, 9th Marquis of Arienzo and XII Marquis of Santaella, who donated it to his wife, Doña Bentrán de Lis y Pidal. Upon Cristina's death, the tiara may have taken a different path, as it was presumably inherited by her daughter, Doña Monica de Soto Bentrán de Lis, who was married to Don Fernando Larios Fernandez de Bordoba, 17th Duke of Lerma, who is likely that they put the tiara up for sale in 2022 at Christie's where it was initially valued between €153,000 and €205,000, finally selling for around €233,000." ~

[thesimoni-blog1]

Blog 4 Cities, Cathedrals and yet more churches

We arrived in Santander at 2.30pm on the 29th September in the midst of a heavy rain storm, which made you feel sorry for the dockers, police and customs officials who were standing out in the open directing the traffic.

Disembarkation itself was a smooth affair and took approximately 20 minutes, and involved a cursory peep inside Toa, Toa, Toa to ensure that there were only two of us on board. There were no checks of the contents of our fridge and, no need to show COVID passports etc.

We had decided a few days before departing that we would drive to Covarrubias and stay on a campsite, approximately 40 kms south east of Burgos, to decompress – as we’d packed a lot into our final few weeks in the UK. The first thing we noticed after landing was that our mapping software on our phones wasn’t working (schoolboy error we hadn’t switched data roaming on) so we therefore had to navigate to Covarrubias using the road map that we’d bought on the ferry. We did pretty well and managed to only add 30 miles to our journey, arriving at the campsite in Covarrubias at around 5.30pm. The site turned out to be a strange mix of chalets and camping pitches, with an onsite bar/restaurant and swimming pool (which was closed). After checking in we had a stroll around the town. Covarrubias is a village that was built predominantly in the 13th century, along the Rio Arlanza and is full of half-timbered houses, a palace and a very grand church – a lovely place to spend some time.

Covarrubias

We were surprised how cold it got at night but then when we considered that the village’s altitude was over 900m it was hardly surprising. On the Friday we spend time getting ourselves sorted, buying some provisions from the only grocery shop in the village, there was also a butcher, baker, a tabac/newsagent, a bodega, a hardware shop, a pharmacy, library, school about 5 or 6 bars, a number of restaurants, two hotels and a tourist information. Pretty impressive for a village of fewer than 700 people.

On the Saturday Jo and I,), went on a long walk into the hills, using the Wikiloc app to navigate along a trail, which was a circular walk to and from the village. It was very hot and the first part of the walk was mainly uphill, past a hermitage until we got to a part of the trail that required us to scramble up a very steep scree slope, something that neither of us were that keen to do, so we retraced our steps back to the village, returning in the late afternoon.

The countryside around Covarrubias

 On the Sunday we got our bikes off the cycle rack and rode the 24kms from the campsite to Lerma. Lerma is a described as a village with a population of 2,500 but contains a palace built in the 17th Century by the Duke of Lerma (now a Parador), a number of fine churches and convents, a stunning square, many shops, lots and lots of bars and restaurants, and fantastic looking sports facilities. We had a leisurely lunch and rode back to Covarrubias. on excellent roads with little traffic, where motorists gave cyclists loads of space making the journey much more pleasurable.

Lerma

On the Monday, we left Covarrubias to drive the short distance to Burgos, to stay on a free Aire a 25-minute walk from the City Centre. (Aires are places where Motorhome owners can park and live in the vehicle in villages, towns and cities which are generally free of charge and have facilities for filling up with fresh water and discharging waste water and toilet cassettes

Burgos, is a fine city its more modern parts contain wide boulevards and its historic areas are quite striking, particularly the Cathedral (where the remains of El Cid are entombed) and the many, many churches that surround it. The Plaza Mayor is also beautiful as are the gardens beside the main theatre. It had the feel of a big city and we spent two days sightseeing, walking and enjoying the bars and vino.

Burgos by day

 Burgos by night

 From Burgos we moved onto the small town of Penafiel a drive of around 100kms. The town is in the Duero Valley and has a population of around 5,000. Penafiel is famous for its castle which sits atop a steep hill just north of the town centre and its Plaza del Coso which is still used for bullfighting and it would be fair to say we loved the place and the great campsite was a bonus. It was whilst we were in Penafiel that we used up the 12GB of data that since Brexit you’re allowed to take abroad with you on your UK SIM card, so we had no WI-FI in Toa, Toa, Toa so we started our quest for a local SIM card. Whilst in Penafiel we had a lovely walk up through vineyards and around a reservoir, which was teaming with bird life, a day or so exploring the town and the castle.

Penafiel and the Duerro Valley

We left Penafiel on the Saturday, moving onto Valladolid, and another city centre another Aire. Valladolid was a city that neither Jo nor I had any knowledge of, apart from the fact that I knew they had a football team, and we were very pleasantly surprised to find a bustling city of about 300,000 people at the confluence of the Rio Esgueva and Rio Pisuerga, which was full of historic buildings having been settled since Roman times. During the day and the evening, we toured the city on foot marvelling at the amazing buildings in the city centre, stumbling upon a religious procession which involved a uniformed 60 piece marching band and enjoying tapas dishes in a number of recommended tapas bars. The city centre was full of supporters of Real Betis (a football team based in Sevilla) who were either touring the city like ourselves, or in bars drinking and singing songs in support of their team who were playing Real Valladolid on the Sunday. For a British football supporter like myself it was amazing to see the fans of opposing teams drinking in the same bars, singing their songs and not a hint of trouble.

Valladolid by day

Valladolid by night

On the Sunday morning we left Valladolid (vowing to return to this amazing city) and travelled to the village of Castronuno, a village with a population of 800, midway between Valladolid and Salamanca. We stayed on a lovely council run Aire, which provided electric hook up as well as all other facilities for a fee of 5 Euros. That afternoon we had a great walk along the banks of the Rio Duero and on our return met our first fellow British travellers, a couple from Sheffield, as we have been amazed at the lack of British motorhome travellers that we’ve encountered in Spain, we’d mainly seen Spanish, German, French and Dutch motorhomes. The next morning, we drove onto Salamanca, encountering the first rain of our stay in Spain along the way.

Rio Duero from Castronuno

We arrived in Salamanca shortly after midday and found the privately run Aire that we were staying on, on the western outskirts of the city, where the owner Juan offered to act as our taxi service in and out of the City Centre for 20 Euros. We spent the afternoon and evening exploring the city on foot. Architecturally, I would describe Salamanca as one of the most beautiful cities I’ve visited (Jo agrees), which looked amazing floodlit at night. Juan, stopped at a couple of places on our way home to enable us to take pictures of the Cathedral and Roman bridge from a non-tourist vantage point (last two pics). Visiting a city like Salamanca on a Monday meant that many places weren’t open or closed early and the city didn’t have the buzz that Valladolid had when we visited.

Salamanca by day

 Salamanca by night

 The next day we drove the 100kms to another UNESCO World Heritage site – the city of Avila, the old town of which is surrounded by a stunning set of walls. We parked up on another privately run Aire a short walk from the old town. We spent some of the afternoon exploring the old town, which we both felt wasn’t comparable with Salamanca but beautiful in its own right, we had just been spoilt!!

The walls of Avila

The following morning (12th October) we drove the 60kms to the equally historic city of Segovia, arriving at the Aire just outside of the centre of the city, at around 11am. On arrival we walked into the town centre following the path of the Roman aqueduct, to a plaza where we encountered a parade featuring members of the Guarda Civil and civic dignitaries. We hadn’t realised that 12th October is the Dia de la Hispanidad (the National Day of Spain which is a public holiday) and Segovia was packed with tourists. We explored the town and to escape the crowds walked around the city beneath the city walls, which was cool and very green. When we re-entered the city, we promptly got a little lost and stumbled across a lovely little bar (which was just off the Plaza Major, as it turned out), which we returned to that evening when we went for our customary evening stroll around the city, which is much more pleasant when most of the tourists have left.

Segovia

The next morning, we left Segovia to drive the 160kms to Toledo, a city with a rich history and amazing architecture - our last city stop for a while. We arrived at the campsite just outside of the old town of Toledo at midday and booked in for 2 nights. We had a leisurely afternoon relaxing on the site and in the evening walked the short distance into the old town, exploring a little of the Jewish Quarter. The next day and night we spent exploring the city, walking around the city – again mainly beneath the city walls and then exploring the old town itself. We found the old town of Toledo, beautiful - a labyrinth of narrow streets (alleys in most cases) which meant hardly any traffic. Four storey buildings, meant you couldn’t focus on a point in the distance to help you navigate and GPS didn’t work well in such tightly built-up area, so we got lost on numerous occasions, but that was all part of the fun and the exercise regime.  A bonus whilst we were in Toledo was that we managed to get the local SIM card we’d bought in Salamanca to work, after many hours of frustration trying to make this happen.

Toledo by day

Toledo by night

 On the Saturday morning we left Toldeo, to drive to the countryside of Castilla La Mancha, ending our tour of cities for the time being. We found it exhausting moving from city to city in the manner we did. If we had our time again, we’d spend more time outside of the cities during the week relaxing and only spend weekends in the cities, when they tend to come alive. We were amazed by the beauty of each city and the rich history of each. Every city we visited was very different from the last but a common theme was the stunning stone masonry work on the centuries old, churches and palaces. However, the number of churches and their close proximity, to each other was overwhelming (in Toledo there were three churches so close to each other that you could easily have thrown a cricket ball under arm from each to the next).

[royaltyandpomp]

THE DUKE

Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, Duke of Lerma  (1553-1625)

[stephaniehasekisultan]

A few moments later:

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

I do not think that the news of the Queen’s death is necessarily a bad thing, though I certainly wish that she had been converted first.

Isabel Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria and the sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, to the Duke of Lerma regarding the death of Elizabeth I of England. 16 April, 1603. Quoted in “Isabel Clara Eugenia: Daughter of the Spanish Empire” by Cristina Borreguero Beltrán in The Limits of Empire: European Imperial Formations in Early Modern World History by Tonio Andrade (ed.), William Reger (ed.)

Good to know that Isabel Clara Eugenia didn’t want Elizabeth to go to hell. :)

[artist-rubens]

Study for an Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma, 1603, Peter Paul Rubens

Medium: pen,ink,paper

[cynicalclcnes]

( ana de armas, cis woman, she/her, 35) ** ♔ announcing INES STUART,  the QUEEN CONSORT OF SCOTLAND! in a recent portrait they seem to resemble ANA DE ARMAS. it is a miracle that SHE survived the last five years, considering they are CONCEITED, DEFIANT, and IRON-WILLED. i hope the plague has not changed them. they are AGAINST working together with the other kingdoms. 

hi, i’m ella (she/her)!! and i’m so excited to be part of this roleplay. there’s not a lot about me. i’m an architecture student and i work at a bookstore, and that’s who i am.

BASIC INFORMATION

BIRTH NAME: Maria Inés Catalina Alva de Sandoval Rojas y Belmonte

AGE:  Thirty-five

DATE OF BIRTH: April 26, 

PLACE OF BIRTH:  Lerma, Spain

GENDER: Cis Woman

PRONOUNS: She/her

LANGUAGES: English, Spanish, French and some Russian

BACKGROUND

** this is gonna be a mess and i’ll add more info as i get more plots

Ines was born in one of the many bedrooms of the Ducal Palace of Lerma. The only child of newlyweds, Armando Sandoval Rojas, Duke of Lerma, and his wife, Leonor Belmonte, Marquise of Castellbell. Unlike many men of his time, Armando was not disappointed by the birth of a daughter au lieu of a son.

death tw: Memories of her mother are scarce as Ines mostly remembers seeing her mother through a distance, lying in the gardens or in bed. Her father and staff always kept her away from her, because she was sick with lethal tuberculosis and there was a fear of contagion. Ines was just six years old when her mother passed away. His father, who adored her mother, never recovered from the heartbreak of losing her and never remarried. He focused his entire life on serving the king and his daughter.

Ines was educated by governesses and spoiled rotten by her maternal grandmother. There was nothing in this world Ines could not get, and the people around her made sure to let her know that she, indeed, deserved anything she wanted.

But all good must come to an end and by the time Ines was sixteen years old, her family had lost most of their wealth, leaving them with only a sumptuous title and nothing more. Undaunted by the loss of social and economic status, Ines plotted to advance herself in society.

Blessed with smarts and beauty, it did not take much to capture the attention of several members of the aristocracy but money or social status were no longer enough for the ambitious duchess. She craved power as one does when they've experienced everything in life. The kind of power she longed for would not be achieved by marrying any noble, if she was going to get what she wanted she would have to become a queen.

death tw: In one masterful maneuver, Ines managed to revive her family's social position and financial status when she met the next King of Scotland. Her father, who had by this time ruined his health worrying about the future of his family was unable to attend the wedding due to his failing health and died ten days after the wedding, but not before thanking Ines for bringing him peace of mind.

It all was supposed to be simple as her life had been nothing but easy. How could she ever imagine that her marriage to the King would bring more hardships than pleasures into her life? After their wedding, it didn't take long for Ines to get pregnant. Motherhood petrified her as she had no experience with it given her own mother died when she was young and even so she barely spent time with her. However, she knew she would figure it out when the moment came. All she had to do was to bear a child, a son.

miscarriage tw: But Ines wouldn't know motherhood as she lost the baby three months before birth. That was the first time in her life she felt like a failure. For the next years, she kept trying to give the King an heir but nothing came to fruition.

The pressure was starting to affect her, sleepless night thinking that the King could leave her for someone else, someone fertile who would provide him with the children the kingdom claimed for. The plague, in an ironic twist, was her salvation. The worries suddenly went from her giving birth to an heir to survival. It gave her time. Time to come up with a plan to stay in her position.

Life kept denying Ines what she wanted, though. Her husband has found solace in the arms of another woman. It didn't bother her at first, as she thought of her as nothing more but entertainment. 'Every man has a mistress, Ines. It's nothing to worry about.' That's what everyone said and for long she believed it. After all, she knew not every man could devote their entire life to one woman. Except for her father, who claimed to have met the love of his life in her mother.

Her nightmares materialized when the rumors turned out to be true. His mistress was pregnant with his child. It was almost a slap in the face when she found out she had given birth to twins. Unbelievable. She couldn't even give birth to one, and here it was this woman giving her husband two heirs.

Her exterior looks as regal as ever but anger, jealousy, and fear are festering within her and that's a dangerous combination for a woman like Ines who is used to winning in life and would do anything to keep it that way.

PERSONALITY

Even as a child, Ines was strong-willed, arrogant, ill-tempered, opinionated, liberated, and tyrannical, traits that intensified rather than moderate in later life.

Extremely ambitious. She detests the feeling of failure and the idea of it. Which is why sometimes she would go to any length in order to get what she wants.

It’s really hard to get to know as she has played the part of being submissive and polite for too long.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

confidants: she doesn’t trust a lot of people but this person has gained not only her trust but her friendship. it’s not often that she finds someone as trustworthy as this person.

first love: i like the idea of ines having been in love for someone before she married the king. maybe, he/she didn’t have a good enough royal position for them together and ines’ ambition was more powerful than what they had but sometimes she does wonder what would have happened if she had chosen her own happiness over power.

enemies: of course, ines is not that all well liked among the other royals while she always appeared to be nice and polite, some people can see through her act and that’s why they are not fond of her.

childhood friends: people she met while she was still living in spain.