Letters of a Portuguese Nun
In the year 1669, a publication appeared in Paris that caused an absolute sensation at the time and continues to enjoy significant popularity today. This small and controversial book was titled Letters of a Portuguese Nun and consisted of five epistles supposedly written by a young Portuguese nun to her beloved, who had abandoned her after a brief and passionate relationship.
Letters of a Portuguese Nun, the book
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In her five letters, the young religious woman mourned her distant freedom and her vanished lover who, after briefly entering her cloister to court her, abandoned her once again to her solitude.
Although the authorship of these letters has been heavily debated in recent decades—with many believing it to be a work of fiction by the writer Gabriel Joseph de la Vergne—their creation was linked very early on to a real nun: Mariana Alcoforado.
This nun actually existed and lived between the years 1640 and 1723. If she were indeed the author of these letters, she would have been twenty-nine years old at the time of their publication.
Who was Mariana Alcoforado?
Mariana Alcoforado was a cloistered nun in the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Beja, Portugal. She entered that convent at a very young age and never left it; her existence there as a religious sister is fully documented.
Although, as previously mentioned, there is no absolute certainty that she is the author of the letters, her biography is intimately linked to the story told within them. Mariana Alcoforado was the daughter of a wealthy landowner and later military officer, who had three sons and four other daughters during his two marriages, in addition to Mariana.
As frequently occurred in powerful families with multiple daughters, one or more of them were destined for convent life without necessarily having any real calling. This practice provided them with a secure livelihood without the dowry—required for a marriage suitable to their social standing—depleting the family estate. In this case, this fate was reserved for Mariana Alcoforado, who entered the convent as a novice when she was barely a teenager, knowing nothing beyond the town of Beja where she was born and without having any known religious vocation.
The convent was the solution for the future that her family had dictated for her.
Her life followed the daily routine of the Franciscan order, although it is highly probable that her elite social status allowed her to lead a much more comfortable existence in the cloister than nuns from humbler backgrounds.
Noble Nuns and Their Privileges
Nuns from the nobility and the upper bourgeoisie were generally—depending on the strictness of the order they professed in—allowed to have their own private quarters in the convent, enjoy the assistance of one or more servants, and possess items such as jewelry, luxurious toiletries, accessories like ribbons and gloves, and wear habits made of fine fabrics, among other special considerations.
This was likely the case for Mariana Alcoforado, who also had the privilege of receiving visits from the outside world and maintaining significant contact, especially through letters, with the society beyond the walls of her convent.
However, her life remained strictly subject to her condition as a nun, and her freedom was severely curtailed as a consequence of her vows.
Mariana Alcoforado Meets Noël Bouton
In any case, her existence changed around the year 1645 when, after the outbreak of the Portuguese Restoration War against the Spanish Monarchy (1640-1668), the French nobleman Noël Bouton, Marquis de Chamilly and Marshal of France, arrived in Beja.
He had arrived in Portugal to assist the rebels with troops in order to damage the Monarchy, which had been at war with France for many years.
Mariana Alcoforado, the story of the enamored nun
The Marquis spent a great deal of time in Beja during the years 1665-1667, becoming friends with Mariana Alcoforado’s family, and it is probable that one of her brothers introduced him to Mariana during that period.
Subsequently, it is also highly likely that, as an acquaintance of the family, he was able to visit Mariana frequently and write to her, initiating a romantic relationship at some point during that timeframe which, of course, was kept strictly secret.
However, whatever promises he made to Mariana, he did not keep them, as the Marquis embarked for France in 1667 never to return. It appears he also stopped writing to Mariana Alcoforado, which prompted her to write the heartbreaking letters that were later published, in which she reproaches her lover for having abandoned her without fulfilling his vows.
We do not know exactly if the news of the publication of these letters in Paris ever reached the ears of Mariana’s family in Beja, or if the connections to her name were considered truthful; the only certainty after this episode is that the nun Mariana Alcoforado died at the age of 83 in the monastery of Beja, where she had been interned since before she turned sixteen.
During almost the entirety of the Modern Age, the story told in the letters was considered authentic because it was very easy for contemporaries to believe that something like this could happen. Romances similar to that of Mariana Alcoforado occurred with relative frequency in the large cities of Catholic nations.
In a culture where confining the daughters of the nobility and the bourgeoisie in powerful convents was a common practice, it was also true that the majority of these women lacked a true religious vocation. They viewed the life they were destined for as an unwanted obligation, although it could ironically grant them more individual freedom than certain arranged marriages.
Aware of this dynamic, many convents allowed great liberties to their inmates, permitting them to receive a large number of visitors, correspond with whomever they wished, and even leave the convent grounds accompanied, blatantly contravening the rigid rules that prevailed on paper.
“Gallants” or “Seducers” of Nuns
These liberties fostered the emergence of figures who were known as “gallants” or “seducers” of nuns. These were men who dedicated themselves to visiting nuns in their cloisters and initiating relationships with them (initially platonic), enchanting them with words of love and small gifts, and promising absolute devotion, which the women often reciprocated.
These relationships, in any case, did not usually last; the general surveillance to which the nuns were subjected and the vigorous social censure that both parties risked if their affair escalated ensured this.
However, on certain occasions, it is known that the relationships were indeed consummated. In these cases, either the gallant escaped—leaving his beloved alone to face the devastating judgment of society and the breaking of her vows—or they eloped together, provoking a public manhunt for the fugitives.
Other Stories of Nun Seducers
There are famous historical accounts of nun seducers who fled with the women they conquered, never to be heard from again, as well as romantic relationships between powerful nuns and noblemen that were exposed to the public, forcing the participants to face severe consequences. One of the most famous cases in this regard was that of King Philip II’s niece, the illegitimate daughter of Don John of Austria, Ana of Austria, who was destined for a life as a nun from her earliest childhood.
As a nun in the convent of Madrigal de las Altas Torres, in Ávila, she carried out a romantic relationship spanning several years with Gabriel de Espinosa, the so-called “pastry chef of Madrigal,” who posed as the missing King Dom Sebastian of Portugal in an attempt to recover his lost throne.
They were together for several years while she was in the convent, and some historians have even argued that they had a daughter together.
Once Gabriel de Espinosa’s conspiracy to usurp the throne of Portugal from Philip II and his illicit relationship with Ana were discovered, he was executed. Ana was locked away in another convent, practically isolated from the rest of the community and subjected to heavy surveillance as punishment for her actions. She was eventually pardoned by her cousin Philip III and became prioress of the convent of Las Huelgas in Burgos.
Nevertheless, her desperate desires to leave convent life were ignored, and she was forced to remain a nun for the rest of her days.
The affairs between gallants and nuns during the Modern Age were more common than one might initially think. Although they rarely went beyond the platonic or chivalric realm, on some occasions their passions went much further, bringing scandal and severe social condemnation.
And, in almost all instances, these stories ended tragically, especially for the nun, who usually remained locked in her convent, yearning for her lovers and dreaming of a life they could never lead beyond the walls that surrounded her.
An article by Rocío Martínez 
