Brites de Almeida is thought to have been born in Faro, around 1350, into a poor family. His parents owned a small tavern. The story goes that Brites was a robust, ugly woman with a big nose and thick hair, destined to be fearless, courageous and, in a way, a troublemaker.
The story of Brites De Almeida, the Aljubarrota baker
She had the peculiarity of having 6 fingers on each hand, which pleased rather than frightened her parents, who thought they'd have a very hard-working woman at home, but it didn't quite work out that way and Brites tormented the lives of her parents, who unfortunately for her died prematurely. At the age of 26 and already an orphan, she wasn't embarrassed by the fact. She sold the few possessions she had and began a life of wandering from market to market.
Some years later, out of love, she got into a fight with a suitor and killed him in the process. To avoid arrest, she fled by boat, but the wind blew her out to sea and she was taken hostage by a Moor. Two Portuguese were already on the boatThey too were prisoners. The Muslim who owned the boat took her to the women's market in Algiers, where she was sold to a wealthy Moor, with others saying she was destined for the sultan himself.
As far as we know, she withstood a great deal of violence, defending herself with courage and bravery. The details of her escape from the imperial harem are highly imagined. Brites de Almeida managed to free herself with two other Portuguese who were in the service of the same lord, and disguised as a Moor, she boarded a launch and arrived in Ericeira after four days of tortuous travel. Afraid of being recognized and arrested for the death of her suitor, she continues to dress as a man and begins working as a courier.
Her life as a drover was also very eventful. In this new life, she was involved in numerous altercations and was accused of another death. This time, the law caught her and she was imprisoned in Lisbon, but as the crime was not proven, she was released. After so many adventures, Brites arrived in Aljubarrota, where she found work as a baker's maid.
Brites de Almeida gave news of her husband's whereabouts to the wife of the baker who employed him. Revealing that he had also been taken prisoner by Algerian pirates. Grateful for this revelation, the baker's wife became attached to the servant and, on her death, Brites de Almeida inherited the baker's oven. Even before her arrival in cityBrites de Almeida's patriotic fervor and hatred of the Castilians.
Brites was around forty when the battle of Aljubarrota took place. She didn't actually enter the battle itself, since it's after victory that tradition marks her patriotic act. The baker was not on the battlefield, which took place eleven kilometers from the village. Eduardo Marrecas Ferreira, in his 1931 monograph "Aljubarrota", reports: "During the battle of Aljubarrota, Brites de Almeida, one of the villagers, anxiously watched the battle unfold from a high point nearby, and was very happy to see the defeat of the Spaniards".
After the victory, the Castilian soldiers, in their disorderly flight, passed through the village of Aljubarrota. Seven of them hid nearby, waiting for a chance to escape alive. They found refuge in Brites' house, which was empty, as she had gone out to help with the skirmishes taking place. On her return, she found the door locked, and suspecting the presence of enemies, she frantically entered in search of the Castilians.
The story goes that she found the seven men hiding in her oven. When she ordered them to come out and surrender, and seeing that they didn't respond, pretending to be asleep or not understanding, she hit them with her shovel, killing them. She then baked them in her oven, along with bread and sausages. It is also said that after this happened, Brites gathered a group of women and formed a kind of militia that pursued the enemies, killing them without mercy.
Historians take into account that Brites de Almeida may be a legend, but there's no denying that the woman's story became famous and that Brites became a legendary Portuguese figure, a heroine celebrated by the people in their traditional songs and stories. The famous historian Herculano makes his observation:
"If the baker of Aljubarrota is a myth, a popular invention of the 15th century, let's not despise her. A people who give a woman enough hatred of foreign oppressors to have to kill seven of these enemies in cold blood; a people who have thus symbolized their way of feeling in this respect should know how to support national independence. However, we will not be the ones to banish the famous Brites de Almeida, the baker of Aljubarrota".
Reality or not, the name Brites de Almeida, symbolizes the patriotic zeal of the people of Aljubarrota, for it was not a single woman, however intrepid, and even with six fingers on each hand, who was able to face so many fugitives. According to Herculano, the oldest written memory of this woman is the one alluded to by Father Manuel dos Santos.
Francisco Brandão, in the year 1642, or two hundred and fifty years after the battle, made a summary of the witnesses in the town of Aljubarrota in which the oldest people of these places swore and whose tradition of this success has remained unaltered, keeping the shovel in the Council Chamber, which was made of iron and had a more modern wooden handle.
According to the chronicles, the shovel was hidden in one of the walls of the Paços do Concelho when the Spaniards later took control of Portugal, and although they searched hard for it, they never found it, nor was it handed over as they wished. The shovel was therefore hidden during the sixty years of Philippine rule, and only came to light again after the glorious revolution that acclaimed D. João IV as King of Portugal.
This shovel is still on display in Aljubarrota today.
