Breve noticia de Eugenia Martínez Vallejo, "la Monstrua", una burgalesa en la corte de los Austrias

Abstract

A requerimiento de los monarcas, durante los siglos XVI y XVII la corte española estaba poblada de bufones y seres con todo tipo de rarezas: inválidos, deficientes mentales, mujeres gordas y barbudas, enanos, locos y deformes. Eran llamados «sabandijas del palacio», y su fealdad se contraponía a la belleza de sus señores, que de este modo quedaba realzada. La favorita de Carlos II el Hechizado fue la burgalesa Eugenia Martínez Vallejo, apodada la monstrua por su deformidad y gordura, que derivaban de un padecimiento entonces desconocido, el síndrome de Prader-Willi.

At the request of the Spanish monarchs, during the 16th and 17th centuries the Spanish Court was full of jesters and beings with every tipe of oddities: disabled people, challenged people, fat and bearded women, dwarves, insane and deformed people. They were called “the vermins of the Palace”, and their ugliness contrasted with the beauty of their lords, which was highlighted that way. The favourite of Charles II, the Bewitched was the burgalese Eugenia Martínez Vallejo, nicknamed the Monster because of her deformity and fatness, which derived from a then unknown illness, the Prader-Willi syndrome.