The prefatory notice explains that Fuenteovejuna is a play based on actual historic events that took place in Spain in 1476, in a village called Fuenteovejuna. Alphonse V suffered a decisive defeat in the battle of Toro in 1474, two years before the incident in Fuenteovejuna. Isabella and Ferdinand ascended to the throne, each of them in turn, with rights recognised as equal. They granted their pardon to the village of Fuenteovejuna, acknowledging the value of its resistance when it refused to be divided, to break its bond of solidarity in the face of the judicial investigation attempting to identify the murderer. The two-tier stage allows for asides, “words under one’s breath”, mumbled by Celestina between her teeth—though she no longer had them. At the lower level, two fourteen-year-old maidens sent by the Duchess, Altisidora, and her pal Emerencia, are determined to give the knight a hell of a time.