During the reigns of King Afonso IV and of his son King Pedro, there existed in Portugal only one count, namely the Count of Barcelos. The rank of count was given by the aforesaid King Pedro to Dom João Afonso Telo, whom we have already mentioned. Dom João Afonso had a son, who was the Count of Viana and was married to a daughter of João Rodrigues Portocarreiro, and had by her a son, Count Pedro by name, who became governor of the city of Ceuta during the reign of the most noble King João, as you will hear in due course.

Count João Afonso Telo had a brother, Martim Afonso Telo by name, who in turn had two sons and three daughters. His sons were Dom João Afonso Telo, who was the Count of Barcelos, and Count Gonçalo, who was the Count of Neiva and Faria. As for his daughters, a bastard daughter by the name of Dona Joana was the Commander of the Monastery of Santos but abandoned that position, as she was able to do within the rules of her Order, and married João Afonso Pimentel; the next was Dona Maria Teles, married to Lopo Dias de Sousa, and the last, known as Dona Leonor Teles, was the wife of João Lourenço da Cunha, the son of Martim Lourenço da Cunha, the great lord of the estate of Pombeiro.

At that time, King Fernando being then, as we have said, a young, lighthearted and valiant man, his half-sister Princess Beatriz, the daughter of Dona Inês de Castro and of his father King Pedro, kept a great household of ladies and maidens of grand and noble lineage, because there was no queen or princess at that time whose favour they could seek. It so happened that, owing to the long-standing affection which existed between them, there arose in the king such a desire to have her as his wife that he decided that he wanted to marry her, something which before then was quite unheard of.

What more is there to be said about this? Once it had been proposed that they should seek a dispensation to marry, the frequent play and conversations between them, mingled with kisses and hugs and other amusements of a similar nature, led numbers of people to harbour the unworthy suspicion that she had already lost her honour to him.