Agnes de Castro; or, The Force of Generous Love (also known as The History of Agnes de Castro) (French: Agnes de Castro, Nouvelle Portugaise), is a tragic novel written by Jean-Baptiste de Brilhac. [1] An English translation by Aphra Behn was published in 1688. [2] It dramatizes the life and murder of Inês de Castro, the lover and posthumously recognized wife of King Peter I of Portugal.
The novel focuses on Constantina, Princess of Portugal; Dom Pedro, Prince of Portugal and Constantina's husband; and Agnes de Castro, who is Constantina's loving and loyal friend.
Pedro secretly adores Agnes, but Elvira (who is in love with Pedro herself) reveals this to Constantina. Meanwhile, Don Alvaro (the brother of Elvira) tries to secure Agnes's affections. Agnes tries to leave Coimbra, but Constantina and Pedro convince her to stay. Constantina, Pedro and Agnes try to preserve their friendship and love for each other, but struggle with their divided affections. Constantina dies of grief.
Alvaro, following King Afonso's advice, kidnaps Agnes. After her death, Pedro takes his revenge by embarking on a war against his father.
Behn's translation was an inspiration for Catharine Trotter's tragedy of the same name, performed at the Theatre Royal in 1695 with great success. [3]

Astraea, Astrea, Astria or Austräa, in ancient Greek religion, is a daughter of Astraeus and Eos. She is the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision. She is closely associated with the Greek goddess of justice, Dike. She is not to be confused with Asteria, the goddess of the stars and the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe. The main belt asteroid 5 Astraea is named after her, and her name was also suggested for the planet Uranus.
Aphra Behn was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp. Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. Behn wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line, Behn declined an invitation from Bishop Burnet to write a welcoming poem to the new king William III. She died shortly after.
Inês de Castro was a Galician noblewoman and courtier, best known as lover and posthumously recognized wife of King Pedro I of Portugal. The dramatic circumstances of her relationship with Pedro, which was forbidden by his father King Afonso IV, her murder at the orders of Afonso, Pedro's bloody revenge on her killers, and the legend of the coronation of her exhumed corpse by Pedro, have made Inês de Castro a frequent subject of art, music, and drama through the ages.
Thomas Southerne was an Irish dramatist.
The Rover or The Banish'd Cavaliers is a play in two parts that is written by the English author Aphra Behn. It is a revision of Thomas Killigrew's play Thomaso, or The Wanderer (1664), and features multiple plot lines, dealing with the amorous adventures of a group of Englishmen and women in Naples at Carnival time. According to Restoration poet John Dryden, it "lacks the manly vitality of Killigrew's play, but shows greater refinement of expression." The play stood for three centuries as "Behn's most popular and most respected play."

Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn (1640–1689), published in 1688 by William Canning and reissued with two other fictions later that year. It was also adapted into a play. The eponymous hero is an African prince from Coramantien who is tricked into slavery and sold to European colonists in Surinam where he meets the narrator. Behn's text is a first-person account of Oroonoko's life, love, rebellion, and execution.
Álvaro de Luna y Fernández de Jarava, was a Castilian statesman, favourite of John II of Castile. He served as Constable of Castile and as Grand Master of the Order of Santiago. He earned great influence in the Crown's affairs in the wake of his support to John II against the so-called Infantes of Aragon. Once he lost the protection of the monarch, he was executed in Valladolid in 1453.
Restoration literature is the English literature written during the historical period commonly referred to as the English Restoration (1660-1688), which corresponds to the last years of Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly homogenous styles of literature that centre on a celebration of or reaction to the restored court of Charles II. It is a literature that includes extremes, for it encompasses both Paradise Lost and the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high-spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of The Pilgrim's Progress. It saw Locke's Treatises of Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments and holy meditations of Robert Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier, and the pioneering of literary criticism from John Dryden and John Dennis. The period witnessed news becoming a commodity, the essay developing into a periodical art form, and the beginnings of textual criticism.
The History of the Nun, or The Fair Vow Breaker, is a novella by Aphra Behn published in 1689. It is a piece of amatory fiction.

Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister is a three-volume roman à clef by Aphra Behn playing with events of the Monmouth Rebellion and exploring the genre of the epistolary novel. The first volume, published in 1684, lays some claim to be the first English novel. Some scholars claim that the attribution to Behn remains in dispute. The novel is "based loosely on an affair between Ford, Lord Grey of Werke, and his wife's sister, Lady Henrietta Berkeley, a scandal that broke in London in 1682". It was originally published as three separate volumes: Love-Letters Between a Noble-Man and his Sister (1684), Love-Letters from a Noble Man to his Sister: Mixt with the History of Their Adventures. The Second Part by the Same Hand (1685), and The Amours of Philander and Silvia (1687). The copyright holder was Joseph Hindmarsh, later joined by Jacob Tonson.
Abdelazer; or, The Moor's Revenge is a 1676 play by Aphra Behn, an adaptation of the c. 1600 tragedy Lust's Dominion. It is Behn's only tragic play.
Álvaro Pires de Castro was a powerful Galician-Portuguese nobleman, stem of the Portuguese branch of the House of Castro. He was the first Count of Viana, the first Count of Arraiolos and the first Constable of Portugal.
The Feign'd Curtizans, or, A Nights Intrigue is a 1679 comedic stage play by the English author Aphra Behn. Behn dedicated the play, originally performed at the Duke's Company in London, to the well-known actress and mistress of King Charles II, Nell Gwyn.
Rodrigo Muñoz de Guzmán or Rodrigo Núñez de Guzmán, considered the common ancestor of the noble house of Guzmán, was a Castilian magnate and tenente of Roa and of the village of Guzmán in Burgos, from which this lineage took its name.

The Fair Jilt: or, the Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda is a short novella by Aphra Behn published by Will Canning in 1688, a year before Behn's death. The plot is loosely based around rumors Behn had heard regarding a story of Prince Francisco de Tarquini. Though Behn did insist that the story was true, it is sensationalized. The story follows a woman named Miranda who, slighted by the rejection of a priest, accuses him of rape. After Miranda marries Prince Tarquin, the story observes their series of deceptive acts and multiple murder attempts instigated by the passions of love and desire. The Fair Jilt occupies itself with themes of deceit, infatuation, and impassioned acts of love, common ideas within the amatory fiction genre. Behn herself introduces the story as a study of the destructive power of love.
John Hoyle was a bisexual lawyer in London and a lover of the writer Aphra Behn. Behn's relationship with Hoyle was the "dominating one" in her life.
The Widdow Ranter, or, the History of Bacon in Virginia is a tragicomic play written by Aphra Behn and first performed posthumously in 1689. It is a highly fictionalized version of Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, and is one of the first plays to be set in British colonial America. It is also the first travel play known to have been written not only by a woman, but by a playwright who had actually traveled to the Americas.

The Young King, or, The Mistake is a tragicomedy written by Aphra Behn. It was probably written during the 1660s, but was not staged until 1679. It explores notions of kingship and divine right, and gender and heroism.
Agnes de Castro is a 1695 tragedy by the English writer Catharine Trotter. Based on the novel of the same title by Aphra Behn, it was first staged by John Rich's company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.