[1] Ferdinand and his brothers Edward of Portugal, Peter of Coimbra, Henry the Navigator and John of Reguengos, plus sister Isabella of Burgundy and half-brother Afonso of Barcelos, constitute what Portuguese historians have traditionally labelled the 'illustrious generation' (Ínclita Geração).

[3] Relatively sheltered because of his illnesses, Ferdinand had a quiet and very pious upbringing, a favorite of his English mother, from whom he acquired a preference for the Sarum Rite of Salisbury in the religious liturgy of masses he attended.

[9] Ferdinand's request prompted the reluctant Edward to endorse a plan, long promoted by his brother Henry the Navigator, to launch a new Portuguese campaign of conquest against Marinid Morocco.

Henry impetuously launched a series of assaults on the walls of Tangier with no success, while allowing his siege camp to be encircled by a Moroccan army rushed north by the Wattasid strongman Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Wattasi, governor of the Marinid palace of Fez (called Lazeraque by the Portuguese chroniclers).

Peter of Coimbra, who had been adamantly opposed to the whole Tangier expedition to begin with, urged their eldest brother, King Edward of Portugal, to fulfill the treaty immediately, order the evacuation of Ceuta and secure Ferdinand's release.

Frei Fernão Gil, the confessor, had died in the winter of 1437–38, whereas Rodrigo Esteves, the head of household, fell ill, and Ibn Salah gave him permission to return to Portugal.

Nonetheless, the two Portuguese prisoners taught the new arrivals how to get better food smuggled in from the city markets and put them in contact with a Majorcan merchant in Fez willing to supply the prince on credit.

[44] Fellow-prisoner Álvares reports that although the jailers occasionally threatened beatings and whippings, they never physically harmed Ferdinand or his companions, as they feared that any injury done to their prisoners would diminish their ransom value.

[48] Shortly before his death, Edward changed his mind about the abandonment of Ceuta and dispatched an emissary, Fernão de Silva, to inform the Moroccans that the Portuguese would be fulfilling the treaty after all, and to make preparations for the Ferdinand's release.

Things got more confusing when Gonçalo de Sintra, an agent of Henry the Navigator, arrived in Salé and told the Marinid authorities there that the Portuguese intended only to provide cash, not Ceuta, for Ferdinand.

[59] A letter finally arrived from the dowager-queen Eleanor, but it only pertained to some minor matter relating to the transfer of some lands back in Portugal and made no mention of the Ceuta swap.

[60] Each of these incidents infuriated the Marinids, who felt the Portuguese were being false and toying with them, and their anger fell harshly on Ferdinand, who was threatened and subjected to tighter conditions of confinement.

Even the sympathy of the Marinid sultan Abd al-Haqq II and his wives – who had previously mitigated Abu Zakariya's harshness, and gently treated the prince, occasionally inviting him to eat with them in the palace gardens – was now alienated.

[61] Despite the undermining missteps of his relatives, the regent Peter of Coimbra was determined to undertake the swap, and he dispatched two emissaries, Martim Tavora and Gomes Eanes, to Asilah to negotiate the logistics.

[63] In early April 1440, Peter of Coimbra dispatched Fernando de Castro, a notable diplomat, to take over the government of Ceuta from Noronha and undertake the evacuation of the Portuguese garrison.

Abu Bakr immediately dispatched Master Joseph to Fez to request and arrange the transfer of Ferdinand and his entourage back to Asilah to be handed over to the Portuguese emissaries.

[66] Master Joseph arrived in Fez in May 1440 and presented Abu Zakariya with sealed letters from Peter of Coimbra that contained copies of the order for Noronha's dismissal and the evacuation instructions given to Fernando de Castro.

[69] It is uncertain what else Joseph reported about Abu Zakariya's intentions, but the Portuguese ambassadors rejected the change of plan, arguing that they were not prepared to "hock Ceuta for paper promises"[70] and that they needed to have some sort of hold on Ferdinand's person before the city was delivered.

[71] Only now hearing of Castro's death and receiving the vigorous reply from the ambassadors in Asilah, they paused, and after some deliberation, Abu Zakariya called off the march and returned to Fez in October.

According to Álvares,[77] the Moroccan noble Faquy Amar (tutor of a Marinid prince) was arrested that month by Abu Zakariya's men, and on his person were found several Portuguese letters originating from Queen Eleanor's council that outlined a hare-brained scheme to break Ferdinand out of prison.

The rest of the entourage remained in the palace dungeon and were assigned to hard labor, principally in the stables and roadwork, but occasionally also in the castle, where they might exchange words with Ferdinand through a crevice in the wall.

Ferdinand's heart, organs and intestines were taken out in the process (and promptly acquired by his fellow prisoners, who hid them in clay pots buried underground in a corner of their dungeon).

Some modern authors believe the celebrated Saint Vincent Panels by Nuno Gonçalves were commissioned by Peter of Coimbra as a funerary homage to Ferdinand the Holy Prince.

[103] The religious iconography of Ferdinand the Holy Prince usually portrays him as a miserable prisoner, hungry, bearded, disheveled in a black cloak and hood,[104] his feet in leg irons and chains held in his hands.

[107] The promotion of the saintly cult, in particular the narrative twist that Ferdinand had "volunteered" for martyrdom rather than allow Ceuta to be surrendered, was principally due to Henry the Navigator and may have been motivated by an attempt to deflect responsibility for his death away from himself.

[109] Although originally intended as a piece of Christian hagiography to supplement the cult of the "Holy Prince" and the Henrican interpretation, the Álvares chronicle did not flatter Henry's leadership nor absolve him of responsibility for Ferdinand's fate.

To this end, Isabella dispatched Frei João Álvares to Rome to petition the pope for religious honors for her brother, possibly even beatification, the first step to formal sainthood.

[114] Although a contract was signed between Álvares and Lisbon municipal authorities in November 1471 to begin the chapel, the death of both Paul II and Isabella around this time probably prevented the campaign from going forward, with the result that Ferdinand remained unbeatified and uncanonized.

King Manuel I of Portugal had the sculptor Nicolau Chanterene sculpt a statue of Ferdinand on the left side of the magnificent western door of the Jerónimos Monastery c.

[125] The 1634 papal encyclical Coelestis Hierusalem issued by Pope Urban VIII prohibited popular cults of unbeatified and uncanonized persons "unless they proved to be of time immemorial".