The tragic but true story is behind the favorite title of the Disney classic - "Beauty and the Beast".
Few have not watched the animated version of "Beauty and the Beast." In 2017, a feature film was shown, starring Emma Watson and Luke Evans. The romantic fairy tale about the struggle between good and evil, and the love between beauty and the beast as we know it from the screen, is in reality far from the truth.
The Disney classic has its roots in the dark past. For hundreds of years, folk tales have been circulating around the world describing the human bride and the animal groom. In 1740, the French writer Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve published the first written version of the popular story "Beauty and the Beast". Her story was based on a sad but true story.
The real "beast" from her story was actually a man with a very rare condition. Petrus Gonsalvus was born back in 1537 in the Canary Islands. He is the first person to be officially diagnosed with hypertrichosis, or excessive hair growth. Hypertrichosis is better known in slang as "werewolf syndrome". The cause of excessive hair in humans was discovered only in 2011, when scientists found that it occurs equally in men and women. There are less than 100 reported cases worldwide.
Gonsalvus was unfortunately born at the wrong time. When he was only ten years old, he was locked in a cage and sent by boat to France, as a gift for the coronation of King Henry II. Although he was originally locked up in a dungeon and medically treated as if he were really a “beast,” doctors eventually concluded that he was a child after all.
King Henry gave the boy the opportunity of education. He felt that the boy would not be able to learn. But Petrus soon became a fluent speaker of various languages, including Latin.
The mission of Queen Catherine:
Petrus became so successful that it became part of the castle. He lived a normal life until Catherine de ’Medici, who took the throne after the death of King Henry, became involved in the story. Her cruelty was widely known and recorded in historical documents. It is therefore not surprising that her mission became to find a suitable wife for Petrus. She wasn't sure if the idea of marrying the "beast" to the "beauty" was funny or if she just wanted to see if his children would suffer from the same, excessive hairiness.
Catherine de ’Medici eventually found a suitable bride. The girl's name was also Katarina and soon she and Gonsalvus were married. Despite Queen Catherine's original intentions, the two lovers had a harmonious marriage for the next 40 years, and seven children.
At the same time a comfortable and indescribably difficult life!
Unfortunately, not everything was a complete fairy tale. According to various reports, four or five of their children have been affected by the same disorder.
The whole family was forced to parade to European courts, as a form of entertainment. Although in various portraits the whole family wears elegant clothes, in reality they were used for entertainment and exploration across the continent. To make the story sadder, the children were sent to other members of the royal and noble families as gifts. ”The situation was very unusual. They were neither imprisoned nor free - but they were paid, ”concluded the author of Gonzalvus' biography, Zapperi, for Curiosity. Gonsalvus and his family enjoyed a certain degree of comfortable living, but at what cost actually?
As a child I read the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, I did not know that the work was written to people from the ancient past