Historicalness: The Calvario Monarchs
Alberto and Marina are the two most well-known leaders of San Pedro. Why? Mostly because of their ruthless quest for power over the island. Secondly, because of their ill-tempered marriage. They were pretty much the most disfunctional marriage of San Pedro's history.

Above: Portraits of Queen Marina & King Alberto.
The two got married in 1471. Alberto was the heir to the San Pedrian throne, while Marina was the cousin of the heir to the Crown of Aragon. A century or two earlier, the Crown of Aragon was helping the Christians in the north of San Pedro kick out the Almohad-controlled region in the south, on the condition that San Pedro keep certain trade agreements.
Since San Pedro and Aragon became allies from this battle, it was decidedly strategic for Alberto & Marina to get married, despite their personalities completely clashing with each other. Alberto was reportedly a timid, socially awkward drunk who spat frequently while speaking. His wife was said to have bloodthirsty fanatical tendencies as a child, burning her first heretic at the age of 9. It was also under the rule of Alberto and Marina that the remaining Moorish Muslims & Jews who stayed on the island were forced to either convert or leave San Pedro.
Below: A map showing San Pedro on a map from the 13th century of the Mediterra-wait a minute, who put in those speech bubbles?

Below: A map showing the unified island of San Pedro later, during the reign of Alberto & Marina.

They are referred to as the Calvario Monarchs because they of the famous Moorish fortress Alcazar de Calvario, which they transformed into a royal castle and temporarily moved the royal family to Calvario. The royal family moved back to Cárife a few decades after the reign of Alberto & Marina ended.
Below: The Alcazar de Calvario while it was under Muslim control.


Above: The castle after the royals moved in, with an additional part added with a church.
Marina, a fanatical Catholic, oversaw the later "Purge of Heresies" , which sought to destroy forbidden books and silence beliefs considered heretical by the Catholic Church. Despite this, she took some of the books for herself, including sensual Roman literature, in a secret room of the Calvario castle. One such books is "The Lustful Affair of Venus," (or Aphrodite in some translations) which became a moral scandal when it was publicized prior to the purge. Then people completely forgot about it and found something else equally shocking - a book that was reportedly the autobiography of the Devil. (It later turned out to be a hoax perpetuated by Inquisitors)
Alberto was much more involved in promoting the San Pedrian crown's dominant authority over the people of the island, through sometimes fearful means. He helped in confiscating the wealth of Muslims and Jews that were expelled to Africa and forced to leave it behind. Many of the Jews and Muslims simply just went to the island of Tarusaia, where they became merchants.
Towards the end of their marriage, the New World was discovered and the monarchs made sure that family members were involved in claiming lands for San Pedro, and therefore claiming lots of wealth. Then, King Alberto was caught committing adultery with a voluptuous young French noblewoman from Corsica. Apparently, Queen Marina died from complications while planning to castrate the king.
Alberto then married another voluptuous woman, this time from Castile, who had little to no interest in politics or religion. Many historians suspect Alberto contracted syphilis in his later years, which explained the rashes claimed to be a "condemnation from God" that he received for being unfaithful to his previous spouse.
The end! The next update will continue the historicalness story-telling...
(btw, I'm not sure if historicalness an actual word, I just chose it because "history" sounded too generic
)


4 Comments
Recommended Comments
Sign In or register to comment...
To comment in reply, you must be a community member
Sign In
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In NowCreate an Account
Sign up to join our friendly community. It's easy!
Register a New Account