Ferdinand The Saint Prince - Prisoner in Fez

Prisoner in Fez

The Marinid authorities in Morocco were surprised and angered by the Portuguese repudiation of the treaty. Rumors of a plot to land a Portuguese amphibian force to break Ferdinand out of Asilah (a coastal city) prompted a decision to move him inland. On May 25, 1438, Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Wattasi, the powerful vizier of the Marinid palace in Fez, took charge of the hostages from Salah ibn Salah, and ordered Ferdinand and his entourage transferred from his comfortable quarters in Asilah to a prison in Fez. Of the original entourage, two did not make the transfer to Fez: Frei Fernão Gil, the confessor, had died in the winter of 1437–38; Rodrigo Esteves, the head of household, fell ill, and Ibn Salah gave him permission to return to Portugal, his son Pedro Rodrigues arriving in from Portugal to stand hostage in his father's place. Pedro Rodrigues and the four knightly hostages would remain in Asilah, while the others went on to Fez.

Upon arrival in Fez in late May 1438, Ferdinand's entourage was placed in a prison where they met two Portuguese prisoners previously incarcerated – Diogo Delgado and Álvaro Eanes of Alverca. Master Joseph, a Jewish surgeon and emissary of Salah ibn Salah who had accompanied the transfer from Asilah, was sent back by Abu Zakariya, with instructions to inform Lisbon of the new circumstances. The entourage (plus the two prior prisoners) were sealed in the prison while awaiting the response. Conditions in Fez were considerably worse than at Asilah. Nonetheless, the two Portuguese prisoners taught the new arrivals how to get better food smuggled in from the city markets, and put them in contact with a Majorcan merchant in Fez willing to supply the prince on credit. After four months, on October 11, 1438, with no satisfactory reply received from Lisbon, Ferdinand's status was downgraded from treaty hostage to common prisoner. Moroccan guards searched through the cells, and confiscated much of their remaining money, contact with the outside was cut off (the Majorcan merchant was flogged for his troubles). The twelve men were shoved into a smaller dungeon built to hold eight, given prison clothing and set on a strict diet of bread and water. It was at this point that Ferdinand and his entourage were first put in leg irons. Fellow-prisoner Álvares reports that although the jailers occasionally threatened beatings and whippings, they never physically harmed Ferdinand or his companions, as they feared that any injury done to their prisoners would diminish their ransom value. Nonetheless, they forced Ferdinand to undertake manual laboring tasks, humiliating and unbefitting a noble prince, e.g. hoeing the palace gardens, cleaning the horse stables. Even so, Álvares reports that Ferdinand was determined to partake in the same fate as his companions, and when they were assigned to the harder prison jobs that Ferdinand had been spared, Ferdinand volunteered to go and labor alongside them (although this was soon forbidden him).

King Edward of Portugal died in August 1438 (of pestilence, said his doctors; of heartbreak over the hapless fate of Ferdinand, said popular lore). As (mis)fortune would have it, shortly before his death, Edward had changed his mind and dispatched an emissary, Fernão de Silva, to inform the Moroccans that the Portuguese would be fulfilling the treaty after all, and to make preparations for the Ceuta-for-Ferdinand swap. But the death of Edward had left Silva stranded in Asilah without credentials. Having come so close to being freed, the news (which arrived in Fez in November 1438) came as a double blow to Ferdinand, who promptly fell into despair. Nonetheless, Abu Zakariya ordered the leg irons taken off in the expectation that a deal might yet be struck with the new regime in Lisbon.

The new state of affairs took some time to sort out – Edward's death provoked an internal conflict in Portugal over the regency for his young son, the new king Afonso V of Portugal. At length, the upper hand was gained by Edward's brother, Peter of Coimbra, who finally became regent of Portugal in early 1439. In May 1439, Ibn Salah and Abu Zakariya finally received a missive from the new regency council that they intended to fulfill the swap. But things took another strange turn, as Salah ibn Salah and Abu Zakariya now bickered for control of the prisoner. In October, 1439, a Jewish emissary from Ibn Salah (probably Master Joseph again) arrived in Fez intending to take Ferdinand and his entourage back to Asilah, but Abu Zakariya sent him away, saying he intended to continue holding on to the prisoner in Fez until the Portuguese sent someone with higher credentials, empowered to actually undertake the surrender of Ceuta. As soon as the emissary left, Ferdinand and his entourage were clapped back in leg irons, stripped of nearly all clothes and kept permanently locked up in their dungeon, day and night. These new harsh measure were possibly precautionary rather than punitive, to prevent any attempt by Ibn Salah's agents from trying to abscond with the valuable prisoner. In December, the prisoners (Ferdinand and his chaplain, Pero Vasques, excepted) were taken out of their permanent confinement to undertake hard road repair work in Fez.

Road work finished in February 1440, the companions were assigned to new work in the palace gardens and carpentry and masonry shops. However, things had taken another twist in the interim – Salah ibn Salah had died over the winter of 1439–40. As his eldest son was still in Portuguese captivity, the government of Asilah-Tangier (and notional control of Ferdinand) was passed to his brother Abu Bakr (known in the chronicles as Muley Bubuquer). Álvares reports that Abu Zakariya tried to lay claim on Ibn Salah's lands, provoking a quarrel with Abu Bakr. In turn, Abu Bakr conspired with a certain "Faquy Amar", who as tutor to a Marinid prince had access to the palace of Fez, to break Ferdinand out of prison. But Abu Zakariya got wind of the plot, and Faquy Amar fled the city. Things got more confusing when Gonçalo de Sintra, an agent of Henry the Navigator, arrived in Salé, and told the Marinid authorities there that the Portuguese intended to only give cash, not Ceuta, for Ferdinand, causing the Marinids to accuse the Portuguese of double-dealing and reneging on their earlier offer. A letter finally arrived from the dowager-queen Eleanor – but it only pertained to some minor matter relating to the transfer of some lands back in Portugal and made no mention of the Ceuta swap. Each of these incidents infuriated the Marinids, who felt the Portuguese were being false and toying with them, and their anger fell harshly on Ferdinand, who was threatened and subjected to tighter conditions of confinement. Even the sympathy of the Marinid sultan Abd al-Haqq II and his wives – who had previously mitigated Abu Zakariya's harshness, and gently treated the prince, occasionally inviting him to eat with them in the palace gardens – was now alienated.

Despite the undermining missteps of his relatives, the regent Peter of Coimbra was determined to undertake the swap and he dispatched two emissaries, Martim Tavora and Gomes Eanes, to Asilah to negotiate the logistics. As a preliminary, Abu Bakr demanded that the governor of Ceuta, Fernando de Noronha, must be relieved from office – his reputation was such that the Moroccans believed Noronha would contrive to prevent the swap. Peter had little trouble agreeing to it – the Noronha family, closely allied with the Braganzas, were among Peter's keenest political enemies; indeed, Noronha's brothers had led the conspiracy of nobles which tried to deprive Peter of the regency back in 1438.

In early April 1440, Peter of Coimbra dispatched D. Fernando de Castro, a notable diplomat, to take over the government of Ceuta from Noronha and undertake the evacuation of the Portuguese garrison. The operation started out inauspiciously. Castro's flotilla set out from Lisbon in a celebratory mood – the ambitious Fernando de Castro openly fantasized that, upon release, the Infante Ferdinand might be persuaded to marry his own daughter on the spot, and prepared a rich and well-stocked expedition, packing the ships with banquet finery, an entourage of notables, and a bodyguard of some 1200 troops. But on the outward journey, around Cape Saint Vincent, the Portuguese flotilla was ambushed by Genoese pirates. The lead ship was boarded and Fernando de Castro killed. The pirates scampered away before the other ships could rescue him. Suspicions have been raised (but no proof) that Fernando de Noronha may have had a hand in directing the pirates against Castro in an effort to sabotage the mission. Ceuta was something of a corsair's nest, Portuguese governors routinely allowed foreign pirates to operate out of it in return for kickbacks and a share of the spoils, so it is almost inconceivable that Genoese pirates would dare attack Castro's fleet without Noronha's knowledge and consent. With the ambassador dead, the fleet put in at Tavira (in the Algarve) and sent an urgent message to Peter to inform him of the denouement. The regent immediately dispatched instructions ordering Castro's son, Álvaro de Castro, to take over his father's credentials, proceed to Ceuta and fulfill the mission.

In the meantime, unaware of Castro's fate, Tavora and Eanes arrived in Asilah to inform Abu Bakr of the undertaking. Abu Bakr immediately dispatched Master Joseph to Fez to request and arrange the transfer of Ferdinand and his entourage back to Asilah, to be handed over to the Portuguese emissaries. Master Joseph arrived in Fez in May 1440, and presented Abu Zakariya with sealed letters from Peter of Coimbra, containing copies of the order for Noronha's dismissal and the evacuation instructions given to Fernando de Castro. What happened thereafter is murky. Ferdinand himself was called to an audience before Abu Zakariya, with Joseph present, to be asked if he wanted to return to Asilah. While escorting Ferdinand back to his dungeon, Abu Zakariya's guards "found" a secret note on him, which they said Master Joseph had slipped to him during the audience. Master Joseph was accused of a scheming to help Ferdinand escape, and was promptly detained. Álvares believes this was all a ruse by Abu Zakariya to gain some time. Abu Zakariya sought to reap the glory of recovering Ceuta, and needed time to assemble an army in Fez for a triumphal march on Ceuta. In September, 1440, once the army was assembled, Master Joseph was finally released and sent back to Asilah without Ferdinand, carrying only Abu Zakariya's promise to undertake the swap himself, i.e. that he would personally take Ferdinand to Ceuta, and release him upon taking control of the city. It is uncertain what else Joseph reported about Abu Zakariya's intentions, but the Portuguese ambassadors rejected the change of plan, arguing that they were not prepared to "hock Ceuta for paper promises", that they needed to have some sort of hold on Ferdinand's person before the city was delivered.

Abu Zakariya's column had set out from Fez in September 1440, Ferdinand in tow, but they did not get far. Only now hearing of Castro's death, and receiving the vigorous reply from the ambassadors in Asilah, they paused and after some deliberation, Abu Zakariya called off the march and returned to Fez in October. (Reports of the mobilization of Moroccan arms for the march to Ceuta caused alarm in Portugal. Fearing that Abu Zakariya intended to take Ceuta by force, preparations immediately began to send an armed Portuguese fleet to reinforce Ceuta; it is uncertain if the fleet was actually sent, but news of the preparation of fresh troops would likely have been received in Fez, sending mixed signals about Portuguese intentions.)

Negotiations resumed, this time swirling around potential hostage-swapping and material guarantees to supplement verbal promises. But there was little trust between the parties. In early November, the Nasrid sultan Muhammad IX of Granada stepped in and offered to break the impasse. He proposed that Ferdinand be placed in the hands of a group of Genoese merchants under his jurisdiction, giving his solemn promise to Abu Zakariya that he would not allow them to hand Ferdinand over to the Portuguese until the evacuation of the city was confirmed. The Portuguese did not give an immediate reply to Granada's offer.

An outbreak of pestilence in Morocco in early 1441 delayed matters further. Three of the four noble hostages that had remained in Asilah (separately from Ferdinand in Fez) – João Gomes de Avelar, Pedro de Ataíde and Aires da Cunha – died of the plague at this time. (In a curious note, when the Moroccans asked Ferdinand how Christians dealt with the plague, Ferdinand replied that "they removed themselves from places where people were dying of it", a reply which was reportedly received with derisive laughter.) By September 1441, the disappointing news arrived of the breakdown of Granada's offer and Ferdinand was once again clapped in leg irons.

Whatever hope remained for a peaceful solution was dashed a few months later in March 1442. According to Álvares, that month, the Moroccan noble Faquy Amar (tutor of a Marinid prince) was arrested by Abu Zakariya's men, and on his person were found several Portuguese letters, originating from Queen Eleanor's council, outlining a hare-brained scheme to break Ferdinand out of prison. Faquy Amar was brutally flogged in Ferdinand's presence, and subsequently executed along with his conspirators. It was now clear to Abu Zakariya that the Portuguese had no intention to yield Ceuta, that nothing remained to do with Ferdinand but to extract the largest cash ransom that he could get. Negotiations ensued with the prisoners – Ferdinand offered that he might be able to raise a total ransom of 150,000 dubloons (dobras) and the release of 150 Muslim prisoners for the release of himself and his companions.

Ferdinand was subsequently separated from the rest of his entourage. He was moved to a new small dark, windowless cell – more accurately, an empty weapons storeroom in the qasr of Fez, where he could be more closely guarded. Only his physician Master Martinho was allowed to see him. The rest of the entourage remained in the palace dungeon and were assigned to hard labor, principally in the stables and roadwork, but occasionally also in the castle, where they might exchange words with Ferdinand through a crevice in the wall. Abu Zakariya raised his price to 400,000 dubloons and 400 prisoners and asked Ferdinand to inquire of it from his relatives. But the reply from Portugal, which came four months later, said it was far too much, that they could afford 50,000, but offered to dispatch the ambassador Vasco Fernandes to negotiate a comprehensive ransom, which would include the son of Salah ibn Salah, and the pair still being held in Asilah – the surviving Aviz knight Gomes da Silva and Pero Rodrigues (the stand-in for his father, Rodrigo Esteves). The reply infuriated Abu Zakariya, particularly the codicil which implied the son of Salah ibn Salah would have a say in the negotiations over Ferdinand. The son of Salah arrived in Fez three months later to open talks, but he was brusquely received and nothing more came of it. Ferdinand was reportedly depressed and exasperated with his relatives – at one point refusing to hear any more news from Portugal. (his companions duly kept the news of the death of his brother John of Reguengos in 1442 from him.).