A Brief History of Portugal

Part 2 - Dom João I: (continued)

JUST TO RECAP, as a reminder for those of you who were with me last month and to show what you have missed for those who couldn't make it.  To get the `wheelers and dealers' off our back so the rest of us could enjoy a meander through Portugal's amazing history, at a more leisurely pace, a quick historical synopsis was produced.  Then we got stuck on the map of Portugal resembling a face in history.  This was followed by the start of a delve into Portuguese history starting from the year 1386; a particularly significant date, as you will discover.  So that we don't miss anything, we will use the `who/when/how long' formulae as section headings.  This way of progressing through Portugal's history will enable those who may wish to identify what happened in a certain reign or between specific dates to easily do so.  The House to which the particular king or queen belonged is shown as a heading in bold caps and if the person picked up a nickname, it is shown in brackets after the name.  Are you still with me?  Right, let's make a start from where we left off last time, part way through Dom João I reign.   This proved to be one of the most, if not the most, significant periods of history for Portugal and the Algarve in particular, as we will discover. My vigilant student(s) will remember that we left Prince Henrique's remarkable contribution to Portugal's history at an early stage.  Let's continue.

THE HOUSE OF AVIS

Dom João I: 1385-1433 (continued)

At this point we should remember that Prince Henrique was a son of the ruler Dom João I, which meant that any resistance to his new ideas could easily be brushed aside.  It also meant that financing these expeditions could be brought under royal patronage and properly controlled.  Trying out his newly acquired knowledge, plus his access to financial support, he supervised the building of a fleet of over 200 ships and, taking along his father Dom João I and his brother Prince Duarte, he set forth on a crusade against the North African port of Ceuta, resulting in an outstanding triumph. Using this expedition as a trial, his resounding victory gave him the added advantage of bringing into play, without interference from the old time `navigators' who were suspicious of anything new, an increasingly sophisticated `science', very much in vogue at this time, gathering together a formidable team of cartographers and astronomers, as well as professionally trained ships pilots.  Prince Henrique even found time to help develop a revolutionary design of boat, called the caravel, which with its light weight construction, gave it increased speed and manoeuvrability.  Another of this boat's advanced characteristics was that its shallow draught enabled it to operate in shallow waters and, needing less crew, it was able to carry more `bounty'.  As far as it has been possible to ascertain, he centred the building of the caravel around Lagos.

However, Prince Henrique's main hub of operation was at Sagres, where he mixed with the up and coming `thinkers' of his day busily perfecting the art of geography and astronomy.  This in turn led to much more precise map making and navigational aids, etc.  It is no accident, therefore, that the famous explorers who followed Prince Henrique after his death in 1460, owed a great deal to his foresight.  Explorers like Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama and even Christopher Columbus, would have used these developing sciences, enabling them to plot more precisely their exploration in discovering new lands and peoples to bring under Portuguese sovereignty.  Prince Henrique must have been a truly remarkable man because, as well as bringing into play all the above advantages for future explorers, he was also grand master of the Order of Christ and made Governor of the Algarve in 1419.  As he was such a larger than life figure in the history of Portugal as a whole, and played a very important role in the early days of the Algarve's development, I make no apology for spending so much time telling you his story.  For those interested in gaining even more insight into Prince Henrique's life and times, you could start by exploring the whole vicinity of Sagres and, in particular, Sagres Fortress where he spent most of his life and times and where he is buried.  Alternatively, logging on to one of the many web sites giving a fuller history of his life and times, such as www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Navigator would complete the picture.

Dom Duarte (Edward): 1433-38

Duarte succeeded his father and became known as the `Philosopher King'.

He was, in fact, the first Portuguese monarch to seriously think about broadening the country's horizons.  He took his lead from his father's capture of Ceuta and took steps to take Tangiers. Unfortunately, unlike his father's capture of Ceuta, his attempt in 1437 to overthrow the forces in Tangier ended in disaster.  In fact, they were only able to regain their ships on the condition that they relinquish their title to Ceuta.  In addition, Edward was forced to leave his youngest brother Dom Fernando as a hostage and because of the wrangling over Ceuta, the poor young prince died in captivity.  It was shortly after this that Edward himself died having only been king for five years.

He had wanted his wife Leonor to act as Regent, should his eldest son, Alfonso V, still be a minor on his own death.  While the nobility gave her their support, the people of Lisbon, as well as other important towns, showed signs of considerable unrest.  This almost led to civil war but, just at the last minute by all accounts, a solution was found.  On to centre stage steps Duarte's brother Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, to give him his full title.

Dom Pedro: 1438-41

As with most compromises, this one was almost doomed from the start.  Whether it was that the so-called gentry who were unhappy that their choice of Leonor as stand-in for Dom Afonso V had been turned down by the people or some other reason, he wasn't the most popular ruler Portugal had.  Even so, he lasted three years until the boy king Dom Afonso V came of age.

Dom Afonso V (The African): 1441-81

At that point in history, Dom Afonso V took over his rightful place as king.  One of the first actions he put in place was to immediately have his uncle Dom Pedro put on trial and he was indicted before a tribunal.  As was the custom in those days, Dom Pedro escaped before sentence could be passed and put together a small army with which to defend himself.  All to no avail, I'm afraid; Dom Pedro and his `army' were massacred by royal troops at the battle of Alfarrobeira 1449.

Dom Afonso V was lucky, in a way.  If he had been living in England and convicted of treason, then his fate would have been no less than to be hung, drawn and quartered; I think being killed in a massacre must be preferable to the English penalty, don't you?  By the way, I hope you are not having your supper whilst reading this on screen?

Meanwhile, Dom Afonso V handsomely rewarded those around him with positions of power, noble titles, grants of money and land, etc.  Despite this generosity, his armies suffered a number of defeats in battles to secure ever more land.  As a last resort, he even approached Louis XI of France to join forces, which he declined.  With a feeling of being let down on all fronts, he died in 1481.

Would you believe it? Time has caught up with us again and so we must wait until next month to follow this delve into history.  However, I can promise that we shall be really into the world of explorers next month.  The names Diego Cão, Bartholomew Dias and, yes, you've guessed it, even the great Christopher Columbus will be making appearances. See you then?

David Devereux 

dfdev@btinternet.com

Why not now have a look at the Family Tree of Kings and Queens of Portugal?

return to A brief history of Portugal index

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