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Dana Schwartz
This is an I Heart Podcast. I'm someone who spends a lot of time in front of a computer screen, which means that I get dry eye symptoms. I didn't realize, but people who spend extended periods in front of a computer screen tend to blink less often, which may lead to increased tear evaporation and thus symptoms of dry eyes. So if you're like me and spend all day staring at a computer screen, give your dry burning or irritated eyes a daily refresh with Refresh Digital Lubricant Eye Drops, a preservative free formula that provides fast acting soothing relief. It's safe to use as often as needed. Find Refresh online or in the Eye Drop section at all major retailers. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Erin Menkey. Listener discretion advised. The year was 1588 and the soon to be parents were eagerly awaiting their child's birth with excitement and trepidation. In 1588, you couldn't blame any couple for feeling nervous about childbirth, but Petrus and Catherine, the parents, had bigger worries even than getting through the birth with mother and baby alive. Catherine was a perfectly ordinary woman, but the father was the French Court's most unusual looking member. The question everyone, including the parents, wanted to know was what sort of child this baby would be. As soon as he or she was born, they would know if the wrath of God or the superstition of myth might be waiting for them. As her labor progressed, Catherine gasped with pain. She gritted her teeth, squeezed her eyes, and focused only on the immediate task ahead of her. As the contractions overtook her more and more heavily and frequently, she did what any mother of any child does. She pushed. And then the baby came, crowning with hair at the top of her head. A new baby girl. But no one had been too terribly concerned about what the baby's sex would be. Catherine craned her neck, trying to see the baby. Exhausted, no doubt, but still trying to sense the feeling in the room. Even through the haze of pain and hormones. Catherine must have felt the energy in the room shift because the baby was born with hair not just on her head, but cascading from the entirety of her face and body. No, this isn't a scene from the new off brand wicked spin off with a child magically born hairy instead of green. It was the reality of one of the most unusual families ever to be received in Royal Court. The brand new baby girl was named Madeleine Gonsalves, and within moments those in the room knew that she, like her father, was what was then called a hirsute, a rare person who was almost entirely covered in hair. The girl's father, Petrus Gonsalves, was one of the most famous hirsuits of his day. His entire face was covered in long, silky hair. His forehead and cheeks were covered. On his face, the only skin you could see was the pink of his lips. Today, we have a scientific understanding of the genetic condition that causes excessive hair growth called congenital hypertrichosis. But in the 16th century, Petras was considered a wild man. But the strangest, most interesting thing about Petrus wasn't his medical abnormality. It was that beneath it, he had been raised up in the court of Henry II to read Latin literature, to wear noble clothing, to have a noble bearing and manners, and to receive military training. You would have no doubt if you looked at his face at the time of his daughter's birth that he was a wild man. Yes, but you would also not have any doubt if you looked at his clothing and manners and listened to his voice, that he was a nobleman. But how did the man covered in hair, the wild men of Tenerife, the family legally considered somewhere between human and beast, and the only family depicted in a 16th century Natural history of beasts, become a favorite of nobility. And how did they spend their lives in the French noble court? That's the sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes fairy tale like story of Petrus Gonsalves. I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. Petrus Gonsalves was born in 1538 on Tenerife, the largest of the Spanish controlled Canary Islands, just off the northwest coast of Africa. That island is known as the Isle of the Blessed. The weather is beautiful all year long and the oceans sparkle. But Petrus was not among the islands blessed, at least not as a young boy. He was born with an unusual condition that meant he was entirely covered in hair. It was not an abnormality he could hide. Inches of silky hair extended from every part of his face except for his mouth. From the time he was a child, Petrus expected everyone he met to stop and stare, no doubt wondering, is this a boy or some sort of animal? By the time Petrus was born, the Canary Islands had been conquered by the Kingdom of Castile, now a part of Spain. The indigenous people of the island, called Guanches, were subject to a controversial enslavement. Controversial because many were Christians, after all. Whether or not Petrus, probably born with the name Pedro, was actually a Guancha himself is a matter of historical speculation. He may have been, or he may have been Descended from Portuguese or Spanish colonists. Because of his strange appearance, many Europeans from whom we get our history, assumed that he must have been a native. Some even speculated that he must have been a member of some other race of hairy people who lived somewhere on the island. They were wrong. We don't know how Petrus inherited his condition and whether others in his family had it before him, but there are no known records of anyone else on the island with the look of this wildman. Little Petras stood alone. The way he stood out and was quite literally dehumanized put him at very high risk of winding up enslaved. But history has a funny way of doing the unexpected. And Petrus happened to be born during a very particular period, during a very particular cultural trend. At this time, there was a courtly interest in human specimens and marvels. It was considered fashionable, a mark of high social status, to have dwarves at court, along with all manner of people with mental and or physical conditions that they at court found fascinating. There was at this time both a fear and fascination with a medieval mythical figure known as the so called Wildman of the Woods, A man covered in hair like an unknowable mythological satyr of the forest. Renaissance artists like Albrecht Durer were known to paint these wild men into German coats of arms. Medical science and popular belief offered many explanations for abnormal births, ranging from God's wrath to an errant mixture of the male and female seed that was believed to constitute human beings. One particularly popular theory at this time, for both physicians and common folk alike, centered on the idea that a mother's imagination, her thoughts, beliefs and fantasies during pregnancy, could shape the body of her unborn child, often to disastrous effect. In his 1573 book on surgery, Ambrose Perret concluded that at least one hirsute child came to be because the mother had looked too intently at the figure of St. John wearing a fur skin, an image that was tied at the bottom of her bed while she was conceiving the child. Of course, today we would consider these individuals neither monsters nor marvels, but merely humans with genetic differences. But for Petrus, the courtly interest in human marvels saved him from a possible life of enslavement. He was a hirsute, which made him too unique, too unusual, too valuable to be a common slave. Of course, this would eventually lead to a different sort of loss of autonomy, but one, I imagine, was far, far more comfortable physically. And so Petrus found himself on a ship bound for the European mainland. He did not speak any language that the Venetian ambassador to Spain, who's Our source here could understand Petrus was considered something between human and magnificent zoo specimen. Traveling alongside several parrots, Petrus was brought first to Venice, then to France. He was presented as a diplomatic gift for the new king, Henry II, who became king of France on his 28th birthday in 1547. At this point, Petrus was just 10 years old. He must have been both intrigued and terrified. Looking around the French court, he had never before left the gentle sea breeze of his island. Back home, he didn't know what this foreign king intended to do with him. Indeed, the new king did not at first know himself. He had never seen someone like little Petrus, presented to him like a gift as valuable as foreign jewels. No one at court had ever seen anyone like Petrus. Legend has it that court doctors inspected the little boy, wondering if he would open his mouth and make the growling sounds of an animal. But he was only a little boy. And a little boy who did not speak the language of the people around him. Maybe King Henry was curious. Maybe he was running an experiment to see whether this little wild boy could grow up to be a nobleman. Maybe he saw something of himself in this little boy. After all, when Henry was around Petrus age, he had been held hostage in Spain in exchange for the release of his father. Maybe in this little wild boy, Henry saw an image of himself caught between Spain and France. But for whatever reason, or maybe just because he thought he was interesting, Henry II made an incredible decision about the little hirsute boy's future. He decided to educate him. Pedro Gonzalez learned Latin and adopted the Latin name Petrus Gonsalves. He proved able to read Latin even better than most of the courtiers in Henry's court. Petrus was given military training. He wore gold lined vestments fit for a noble. He sat for portraits for artists far and wide. It was never quite clear, or at least it's not quite clear now, legally speaking, whether he was even considered fully human. But he was certainly educated in the manners not just of a human, but of a nobleman. And so Petrus Gonsalvis, the Canary island boy covered in hair, grew up in the way of an educated nobleman. In King Henry II's French court, in 1559, when Petrus was 22, he was hairy as ever, but now fully outfitted as a nobleman. And the first serious risk to his position took place in the form of a calamity. King Henry ii, who had ensured Petrus protection and education, died. He was mortally injured in a jousting tournament when he was just 40 years old. Petrus future was thrown into doubt. Yes, King Henry had treated him as a nobleman rather than a wildman, whether due to human empathy or as a proto science experiment. But Henry's young son, Francis II, the new king, just 15, could easily make a different choice when it came to Petrus fate. Petrus life at court, his life itself could be over with a single decree. But fortunately for Petrus, King Henry's widow and the new king's mother, Catherine de Medici, decided that Petrus courtly life should be maintained. Catherine would be an incredibly stable patroness over the next 30 years. As King Francis died and gave way to his brother, King Charles ix, who died and gave way to their brother, King Henry iii, Catherine de Medici remained in power and Petrus remained at court. In 1573, when Petrus was 36 years old, Catherine de Medici made a decision. She determined that if Petrus was to remain essentially a nobleman at court, he had to do what nobleman did, which was get married. Why did Catherine make that decision? Here we have a little bit more evidence. Catherine had a specific interest in the human marvels at court. She had already arranged for two dwarves to marry to see if they would create a new breed of humans. In other words, it was sport, not kindness. That said, given the alternatives available, living as a pseudo mascot figure at court for the amusement of the royal family wasn't the worst life available to someone who fit outside of the mainstream. It's also possible that Catherine had just taken a liking to Petrus. And for whatever reason, she. She decided that she wanted his bride to be one with a typical amount of hair. Although we can only speculate whether that was out of kindness or curiosity or just the fact that hirsuits were incredibly rare. But Catherine's determination that he would have a typically haired bride created a new problem for Petrus. The court wanted to find him a wife, but who would want to marry a man who was thought of as a beast? The answer was a young woman, also named Catherine. A quick aside about vocabulary that I'm going to use in the story of Petrus Gonsalves. We wind up using words like hirsute and glabrous. Glabrous meaning smooth. So Catherine would be Petrus glabrous bride. We can't know for certain what Catherine and Petrus might have been thinking when they first met one another. Maybe Catherine saw some kindness in his eyes from the start. Maybe she was quietly afraid. Maybe he was apologetic about his condition. Or maybe he stood proud. What we do know is that to the surprise of the court, the couple settled into a married life that was shockingly normal. The two seemed to genuinely love each other, and soon enough, Catherine was pregnant. Of course, then there was no understanding of the science of genetics. Nobody in the 1500s was learning about Mendel and fruit flies in high school biology class because Mendel wouldn't be born for another few hundred years. So Petrus and Catherine didn't know what to expect from the union of a hirsute man and a glabrous woman. Would their baby follow its mother or its father? Would it somehow be a combination of both? Or would it be born with some other unknowable supernatural condition entirely? The moment of birth arrived. Catherine went into labor and Petrus waited with bated breath to discover the fate of his child. And as they discovered, the baby was a girl and like her father, she was covered in hair. We don't know a lot about Petrus in his own words. Most of what we know comes from the paintings that curious artists made of him and his family and from the records that curious medical scientists made of their visits to him. We can imagine him stoically accepting his fate, or we can imagine that he was quietly bitter about it. We can imagine that he was proud of his own successes and grateful for the life he got at French court. Or we can imagine he was resentful of the impossibility that he would be treated like an ordinary person, resentful that his life was as a curiosity. We do have one speech attributed to him by Joris Hofnagel, who included the Gonsalves family as the only humans in his four volume collection of Natural History. In this speech, Petrus calls himself, quote, the foster child of the King of France. Tenerife brought me forth hair all over my body, a marvelous work of nature. God was moved to give me a wife of excellent figure as well as our marriage bed's dearest token. It pleases nature to distinguish. Whereas some children repeat in figure and color their mother, others follow their father in their hairy vestments. Indeed, Patras and Catherine had seven children together. Three girls, all hirsute, and four boys, two each her suit and glabrous. If the above speech really was delivered by Petrus, it seems he saw his life and family as a blessing of God and nature. But of course, no matter how blessed, no situation lasts forever. The Gonsalves family had long held a place at the French court, but it was always a place that was contingent on the good graces of those in power. And in 1589, Petras longtime protector, Catherine De Medici died. That same year her son King Henry III was assassinated. For the Gonsalves family that meant that they no longer had anyone really protecting their position in France. And so for the second time in his life, Petrus Gonsalves was forced to say goodbye and to the place that had been his home. The family left France. They moved between courts in Austria and Rome and ultimately wound up in Parma, present day Italy. Initially under the protection of the Duke of Parma, they received another courtly type of life. There they were given a servant and a government grant. One of their hirsute sons got married to a glabrous woman in a ceremony at the time church. They all seemed to be having a relatively happy life. Much of what we know about the Gonsalves family today comes from art history. As I mentioned. In fact the family's congenital condition hypertrichosis is sometimes known as Ambris syndrome. After the many Gonsalvus family portraits held in Austria's Ambrus castle. A number of the portraits and paintings depict Petrus and his daughters, all with their faces covered in hair and all wearing their noble finery. The portraits of his daughter Antoinette arouse particular interest among art historians. Looking sweet, she was painted by Lavinia Fontana, one of the first professional female painters of the Renaissance. In the paintings we still have today, Petrus wife Catherine is sometimes depicted hair only on her head, her arms serenely around the shoulders of the family she seems to truly love. In 1617 it's believed Petrus attended his grandson's christening. He likely died the next year aged 81. We know that at least one one of his married children had hirsute children of their own. But after that we don't have further records. The family lived, died and faded from history. Maybe the genetic odds meant that the condition disappeared. Maybe the family line at some point came to an end. In either case, the family's fate has dissolved away from the history book books. They leave us a legacy of portraits and of an unlikely even fairy tale like story of rising through the noble ranks. But this is also a story of gaps and speculation. Petrus Gonsalves was treated as an oddity and curiosity in his time which made him famous. That is the only reason we still know of him today. And so it's unfortunate that so little of his story is left to us. Because now, trying to understand him and trying to write about him in a nuanced way, we're left with little more than the simple notion that he existed. That a wild man was brought to French court. And isn't that interesting? That's the story of Petrus Gonsalves, the noble wild man. But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear more about the future famous fairy tale that the Goncalves family may have inspired. Temperatures have started rising and I feel that familiar urge to refresh my closet. But I don't want to waste money on pieces that I'll only wear once or just for one season. And that's why I love Quince. Their clothes are timeless, lightweight and far more elevated than anything else. At their price, it finally feels like my wardrobe matches my standards. They have such great stuff like 100% European linen shorts and dresses from $30 Luxe Swimwear, Italian leather platform sandals and so much more. Everything from Quint's is half the cost of similar brands because they work directly with top artisans and cut out the middlemen. They give you luxury without the markup, and they only work with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes. 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Yeah, sitting in front of a screen is probably not good for you for a lot of reasons, but one of those reasons is it gives you the symptoms of dry eyes. Refresh Digital Lubricant Eye drops act fast to relieve, soothe and provide comfort to dry eyes. The drops also feature hydrocell technology, which enables hydration and maintains the volume of cells on the eye's surface safe to use as often as needed. You can add refresh digital eye drops to your morning or night routine to prevent further irritation. Find your refresh online or in the eye drop aisle at your local favorite drugstore grocery store, Walmart or Target. If the story of Petrus Gonsalves the Beast, like man and his lovely wife Catherine, reminded you of a fairy tale you've heard before, you wouldn't be the first. Many have suggested that the unlikely love between Petras and Catherine Gonsalves was the real life origin of Beauty and the Beast. That fairy tale was first written by French author Gabrielle Suzanne Barbeau de Villeneuve and published In France in 1740, a little over a century after Petrus's death. A real life origin for the famous fairy tale does seem plausible and even kind of romantic. It's the fun fact that people love to repeat, particularly on the Internet. But did Villeneuve know about the Goncalves family? We can't be sure, but unfortunately it's probably unlikely. There's no evidence for it and in fact fact, her written version describes the Beast as having scales and a trunk like an elephant, which doesn't align with the look of Petra's. But if you are one of the many who wish the Gonsalves had inspired Beauty and the Beast, no need to give up. In the famous Jean Cocteau movie adaptation from 1946, the Beast looks strikingly similar to a famous full length portrait of Petrus in noble robes. What else looks a lot like that portrait? The image of the Beast you probably have in your head from the 1991 Disney cartoon. So Petrus Gonsalves may have not directly inspired the literary version of the story, but he and his wife Catherine, who built a loving family together despite the expectations of others, may live on in the fairy tale memories of children everywhere having inspired the Beast's physical representation. Thank you for listening. One quick note of housekeeping before we go if you're interested in reading and writing. Nobleblood staff writer Courtney Sender has a podcast newsletter and writers group called the Craft Lab, which features weekly craft readings and discussions of the great. Courtney has been a professor of creative writing for 15 years, and now she's giving what you can't get in school the inspiration, motivation and passion you need to energize your writing and help bring your projects to life. So if that's something that sounds interesting to you, we're linking to her podcast in this episode. Description Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Erin Manke. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hite and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk with supervising producer Rima Il Kayali and executive producers Aaron Menke, Trevor Young and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. You've heard about royal bloodlines, but what about the kingdom within your body? Trillions of gut bacteria wage battles that shape your health, vitality and even weight. Introducing Bioma, a novel supplement with everything your gut needs. Prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics. All science backed and third party tested. Enjoy better digestion, sustained energy and improved well being, plus smoother weight management. 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