Pedro Gonzalez - wolf boy from the Canary Islands (9 photos)

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The 16th-17th centuries seem to us to be a charming and magical time. Proof of this is the tales of that era about gnomes, giants and terrible monsters. But the story of Pedro Gonzalez, the wolf boy, turned out to be absolutely real.



Pedro Gonzalez

Little is known about the parents of Pedro, who is also listed in some sources as Petrus Gonsalvus, since he was taken as an infant from his home in the Canary Islands to be presented to King Henri II in Paris. Why did the boy arouse such keen interest? Petrus's entire body, including his face, was covered with long wavy hair. And the child immediately became a sensation in medicine.

In 1557, the first official report appeared, written by Julius Caesar Scaliger.





Cute curly barbet

In his report on the famous Parisian boy, Scaliger called him a barbette. This is a rare breed of French water dog that was used for work by European sailors and farmers.



Pedro and his wife Catherine

A second report from the same year confirms Petrus's arrival in Paris and reports that King Henri ordered the shaggy boy to be educated. Not out of kindness, but rather out of curiosity. The ruler believed that Pedro was a savage and could not study. His progress was closely followed, and the boy proved the king wrong. The young man not only coped well with his basic education, but also perfectly mastered court etiquette.



Strange but happy couple

“The Man of the Woods,” as he was nicknamed, learned Latin, the language of the aristocrats, and proudly wore luxurious outfits with fur trim, which further emphasized his specific appearance.

Thus, Petrus became an important person at court, a unique figure whose support the royal courtiers and foreign ambassadors sought to enlist.



Children inherited father's genetic disease

At the age of seventeen, in 1573, Petrus married a young French woman, and by 1581 he became the father of two children.

Both of his children, a son and a daughter, inherited his unique feature, and the whole family became the most sought-after curiosity of their era. In 1581 the family went on a tour of Europe. In 1582, their portraits were painted in Munich by order of Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria. In 1583, the Gonzalez family traveled to Basel, where they were studied by the famous anatomist Felix Plater, who published a detailed account of this visit in his Observationum, and less detailed reports followed until the early 1590s.



Pedro's daughter

In the mid-1590s in Bologna, another detailed account updates much of the information about the family, as the eight-year-old daughter Petrusa became the object of Count Aldrovandi's attention. The Count also commissioned a drawing of the family, which now included Petrus, his twenty-year-old son and two young girls. His wife and eldest daughter are presumed to have died.

At this point the family appears to have broken up, with various members joining various European royal courts. A girl named Tognina Gonzalez—supposedly Petrus's youngest daughter—became public knowledge, and researcher Ulises Aldrovandi claimed that Tognina eventually married at the court of Parma and gave birth to children.



Over the next 40 years, members of the Gonzalez family came and went, appearing in various royal courts.

Given their unique position, it is unusual that more evidence and records do not survive of them. It is unknown what exactly happened to Petrus or his descendants. The last historical mention of Gonzalez is on a plaque attributed to Horatio Gonzalez (he was a possible descendant of Petrus) and given to one Mercurio Ferrari in 1635.



A still from the 2013 film "Beauty and the Beast." It is believed that the story of Petrus Gonsalvus and his wife formed the basis of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast"