Azulejo panel by Jorge Colaço at Buçaco Palace, depicting the tournament at Smithfield
"This, from his charger not dismounting flies;
that groaneth falling with his falling steed;
this hath his snow-white mail with vermeil dyed;
that, with his helm-plume flogs his courser's side."
(The Lusiads, Canto VI, verse 64)
The Twelve of England (Os Doze de Inglaterra) is a Portuguese chivalric legend of 15th-century origin, famously related by the poet Luís de Camões in his 1572 Os Lusíadas (Canto VI).
The palace is surrounded by a forest that started to be tended by monks around the year 600. A monastery, now unused, remains on the grounds. It was considered a sacred forest for centuries and there’s an old plaque declaring that women were forbidden from walking there! In the woodlands there are small old buildings and stations of the cross. Mosses and ferns and birds abound. This huge stairway waterfall is one of the attractions. I wish I’d had more time to get to know these woods. (I have so many more pictures of these places than I’m showing you.)