Padeira de Aljubarrota
(Aljubarrota's Baker)
Aljubarrota is the name of a small town in central Portugal. The place owes its fame to the big battle that ocurred there in the 14th century , opposing Portugal and Castela (now Spain).
In this battle the Portuguese were quite out-numbered and the tactics used to vanquish the invaders would be enough to a post of their own.
But there is one single figure who is known to everybody here in Portugal to this day, even more famed than the Kings and Knights of her time.
That figure is Brites de Almeida, a woman, owner of a bakery in Aljubarrota.
Legend has it Brites was born in southern Portugal (where Faro is today).
Her family was quite poor and Brites was a bit of a Tomboy. When her parents died she used all the little money they have left her to buy a sword and some fencing lessons. With the newly acquired skills she started fighting in fairs, thus earning some money in an earnest way.
One day she caught a soldier’s attention. The poor fellow fell for her. He asked her to marry him, to what she declined. Amused with her answer the soldier called her out for a duel: if he could defeat her she would marry him, if not she could kill him. A duel to the death it was, and much like today killing soldiers in peace time was a crime (however a soldier could easily kill a peasant and get away with it). After slaying the poor overconfident idiot Brites had to flee.
After killing a soldier, stealing a dingy to try and reach Spain wasn’t much of a crime and she would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for the damned pirates who caught her and who are supposed to have sold her to some Arabs in Algeria (I am almost tempted to say some of cream’s ancestors must have bought her, probably with as much truth as this bit of the legend anyway).
She managed to convince two other Portuguese slaves to escape and they made it back to Portugal, where she dressed in drag and stealing a couple of mules pretended to be a merchant (and I still wonder why people in my country vote for crooks, it seems most of our heroes were robbers at one time or another…)
Well, on with the story.
She ended up a beggar in Aljubarrota, where the old lady who owned the bakery noticed how strong she was. The old woman hired her and when she died she left the bakery to Brites.
After the battle of Aljubarrota many Spaniards tried to make a run for their lifes while others simply tried to hide and escape the hunting that ensued the battle (the peasants seem to have chased and slayed most of the enemy soldiers who survived the battle).
A group of some eight soldiers found their way to Brites kiln.
Brites herself is said to have led a few of her countrymen in chase of enemy soldiers.
When she got back to Aljubarrota she dismissed those peasants she had led and went back to her place alone. There she noticed the sounds from the kiln and armed with a baker’s shovel she killed the Spaniards one by one as they tried to get out of the kiln.
Tags:Portugal
In this battle the Portuguese were quite out-numbered and the tactics used to vanquish the invaders would be enough to a post of their own.
But there is one single figure who is known to everybody here in Portugal to this day, even more famed than the Kings and Knights of her time.
That figure is Brites de Almeida, a woman, owner of a bakery in Aljubarrota.
Legend has it Brites was born in southern Portugal (where Faro is today).
Her family was quite poor and Brites was a bit of a Tomboy. When her parents died she used all the little money they have left her to buy a sword and some fencing lessons. With the newly acquired skills she started fighting in fairs, thus earning some money in an earnest way.
One day she caught a soldier’s attention. The poor fellow fell for her. He asked her to marry him, to what she declined. Amused with her answer the soldier called her out for a duel: if he could defeat her she would marry him, if not she could kill him. A duel to the death it was, and much like today killing soldiers in peace time was a crime (however a soldier could easily kill a peasant and get away with it). After slaying the poor overconfident idiot Brites had to flee.
After killing a soldier, stealing a dingy to try and reach Spain wasn’t much of a crime and she would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for the damned pirates who caught her and who are supposed to have sold her to some Arabs in Algeria (I am almost tempted to say some of cream’s ancestors must have bought her, probably with as much truth as this bit of the legend anyway).
She managed to convince two other Portuguese slaves to escape and they made it back to Portugal, where she dressed in drag and stealing a couple of mules pretended to be a merchant (and I still wonder why people in my country vote for crooks, it seems most of our heroes were robbers at one time or another…)
Well, on with the story.
She ended up a beggar in Aljubarrota, where the old lady who owned the bakery noticed how strong she was. The old woman hired her and when she died she left the bakery to Brites.
After the battle of Aljubarrota many Spaniards tried to make a run for their lifes while others simply tried to hide and escape the hunting that ensued the battle (the peasants seem to have chased and slayed most of the enemy soldiers who survived the battle).
A group of some eight soldiers found their way to Brites kiln.
Brites herself is said to have led a few of her countrymen in chase of enemy soldiers.
When she got back to Aljubarrota she dismissed those peasants she had led and went back to her place alone. There she noticed the sounds from the kiln and armed with a baker’s shovel she killed the Spaniards one by one as they tried to get out of the kiln.
Tags:Portugal
posted by DCveR at 7:13 PM
11 Comments:
Tough girl. Not my type at all :)
Dcver, this is the wildest, most entertaining story I've read in a lonnnng time. I can't stop giggling. I just promised my ma I'll read it to her tomorrow when she's more awake.
psst...Viking...something's wrong with your blog :-(
és um senhor embaixador da cultura portuguesa! (este teu trabalho é mesmo notável) ;)
Love it love it love it!
I wish you would write this in VERY simple Portuguese, throw in some illustrations and send it to me as a language learning tool.
Or, better yet, do a podcast and read this VEEEEEEEERY slowly.
So, DC, I bet that to slice the bread, she threw a loaf in the air and sliced Zorro-style with her sword!
viking: There is a bit of Brites in all women, just you be warned.
GG: Most of it is probably just lore the people kept adding as they told her story over and over. I've heard of other versions, more elaborate. It seems everybody adds something to it.
mrf: Obrigado. Não é nada de muito especial, apenas tento mostrar a quem não é de cá que somos um pouco mais que umas praias num cartão postal.
portuguesa: The few posts I've made in both Portuguese in English were a lot smaller and without illustrations what you are asking for would take some time and I can't really do it for now.
cream: And blindfolded too I bet. Sorry for messing with your ancestors, but it's true people say she was sold in Algeria.
DC, no worry! I am sure that had my great-great-great-great-grandfather been at the auction, he would have bought her to bake his bread! Must be where I get my love of bread from...
D,
I like this story, strong woman, outlaw, hero, I can see Hollywood written all over it, big budget, big names, of course they'll have to change the location to the US and change the lead to a male, oh yeah and change the enemy to Middle Eastern types but hey it'll still make a good story. And there'll have to be helicopters and a car chase and maybe a renegade nuclear weapon. I can see it all now.
You mention asking why your people insist on voting for crooks, I think the modern phenomenon in voting for crooks is that most modern politicians are crooks and they're all that are on offer. One result of this is the growing number of people who do not vote at all. In the UK New Labour who won last year received less than 30% of the franchise. The question of why in history we liked crooks and so many of our legends are about crooks, in this country the highwayman Dick Turpin or Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest for example is that they are people outside the law, who were free from a corrupt system. People like Brites represent a freedom not just from law but from corruption. In every culture there are outlaws who were villified by the state but loved by the ordinary people. These people represent something real, an honesty and integrity. Hurrah for them all is what I say.
dan: Sorry, maybe it is the fact there are so many crooks into politics, but I really think there should be a limit somewhere, that ethics shouldn't be forgotten along the way only because part of the outcome is nice. The ends don't always justify the means.
"There is a bit of Brites in all women"
Ha :) Well put!
Eh Viking? Meek, mild me?
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