Dom João II of Portugal
On Sunday the King sent to Lagos for the holy oils, took Communion again, and received Extreme Unction. His mind was running on the past; in writing he begged the forgiveness of the Queen for all in which he had offended her….By word of mouth he craved his people to forgive all he had done amiss in the sacred duty he owed them….
But to the last he remained King. He held his own against the cadgers who gathered round, whining for benefits before it was too late. Perfectly lucid and with memory unimpaired, he distributed gifts in reason to those he deemed deserving, but all excessive demands he turned down…. But when a poor fidalgo begged him by the five wounds of Christ to help him with some gift, the King granted him a pension and told him to take what silver there was in the house. “Now I can disclose this,” said D. João to those around, “in all my life I never have been asked for anything in the name of the Five Wounds without granting it.”
By then it was too late for anyone to profit by the revelation. The weary hand could sign no more. The King was sinking as the day grew long. At the foot of the hill he heard the sea surging on the narrow beach of crushed shells. How is the tide? He asked and they told him. “I shall die in two hours time,” he said….
D. João died at the hour he had said he would, as the sun sank behind the purple hills. His mind and speech were lucid to the end; he begged those around not to distress him by weeping yet, and “Jesus!” was the last word that they heard him say.
Elaine Sanceau, The Perfect Prince: A Biography of the King Dom João II (Porto: Livraria Civilização-Editora, 1959), 404-405.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 498
