PORTUGAL (HISTORY.) 



t>51 



of Burgundy, whose grandfather Robert I., duke of 

 Burgundy, was grandson of the French king, Hugh 

 Capet, came into Spain, about 1090, to seek his for- 

 tune with his sword, in the wars against the Moors. 

 Alphonso VI., king of Castile and Leon, gave 

 to tlie chivalric stranger the hand of his daughter 

 in reward for his services, and appointed him (1094) 

 count and governor of the conquered districts, which 

 comprised the provinces Entre Minho e Duero, 

 Tras os Montes, and a part of Beira, and the har- 

 bours of Oporto, from which Portugal is said to 

 have derived its name. (See Oporto.) The count 

 resided at Guimaraens, owed feudal services to the 

 Castilian kings, but was permitted to hold, in his 

 own right, whatever conquests he should make 

 from the Moors beyond the Tagus. On his death 

 (1109), Alphonso rendered the dignity of count 

 hereditary in Henry's family, and fortune favoured 

 their arms. Henry, and still more his son Alphonso 

 I., were successful in their wars. The latter, 

 threatened by the Moors in 1139, advanced to 

 meet them, and gained the brilliant victory of 

 Ourique. He was saluted on the field, king of 

 Portugal. 



II. With this event begins the Middle Age in the 

 History of Portugal (1139 1495), which extends 

 to the reign of Emanuel the Great, or the establish- 

 ment of the Portuguese colonial dominion. The 

 elevation of Portugal to naval and commercial 

 power was the result of its internal organization. 

 The cortes of Lamego confirmed Alphonso in the 

 royal title which he had received from the soldiers 

 in 1143, or, according to some, 1145, and, in 1181, 

 gave to the new kingdom, which was acknowledged 

 by the pope, Alexander III., a code of laws and a 

 constitution. The crown was made hereditary in 

 the royal family, according to the rules of primo- 

 geniture, but could pass to the collateral lines only 

 with the consent of the estates. In the failure of 

 male heirs, the daughters were to inherit the crown. 

 The code of laws, which Alphonso had caused to 

 be drawn up, was accepted, and the independence 

 of the newly established throne solemnly declared. 

 The king himself renounced for any of his succes- 

 sors, who should consent to become tributary to a 

 foreign power, the right to inherit the crown. The 

 form of government, however, prepared by the 

 cortes of Lamego, was by no means very definite, 

 and the fundamental laws there promulgated were 

 far from being kept inviolate. Alphonso himself 

 made his kingdom tributary to the pope, but main- 

 tained his regal dignity against the kings of Castile 

 and Leon, with whom he was frequently at war. He 

 extended his dominions to the borders of Algarve, 

 and took Santarem in 1 143. The capture of Lisbon 

 (1147), which was effected by the aid of some Eng- 

 lish crusaders and Hanseatics, who ascended the 

 Tagus, was one of the most brilliant events of his 

 warlike life. In 1162, he founded two military 

 orders, the order of Avis (a village near Alentejo), 

 and the order of S. Miguel del Ala. Alphonso I. 

 died 1185. One of his successors, Sancho II., lost 

 the throne (1245) in his disputes with the clergy, 

 by the decision of Innocent IV. Alphonso III. 

 (reigned 124579) completed the conquest of Al- 

 garve, which had been undertaken by Sancho I., 

 and received the surname of the Restorer (0 Restau- 

 rador). He defended the rights of the crown 

 against the church. Among the Portuguese mon- 

 archs, Dionysius (1279 1325) is eminently conspi- 

 cuous ; he deserved the glorious epithets, which a 

 grateful posterity conferred on him, of the "just," 

 the " husbandman " (labrador), the "father of his 

 country." He opposed with prudence and firmness 

 the encroachments of the clergy, who, under his 



predecessors, had disturbed the public peace, and 

 claimed an exemption from taxes. He remained 

 on terms of peace with Nicholas IV., the most ar- 

 rogant of pontiffs, although his measures for pre- 

 venting the accumulation of landed property in the 

 hands of the clergy, would not allow him to conci- 

 liate the good will of the papal court. Himself a 

 scholar and a poet, he was the most generous patron 

 of learning among the princes of the age ; he left a 

 monument of his zeal for science, in the college 

 founded by him at Lisbon, which, in 1308, was 

 transferred to Coimbra. He was the first to turn 

 the favourable position of the country for commerce 

 to account, and, by awakening the enterprise of his 

 subjects, he laid the foundation of the greatness of 

 Portugal in the succeeding century, although he 

 was involved in wars with Castile (1295 97), and, 

 in 1299 and 1320, in civil feuds with some of his 

 own family. The policy of this king had the most 

 happy influence on manufactures, commerce, agri- 

 culture, and navigation, and the prosperity of the 

 towns placed the citizens in Portugal, as well as in 

 Spain, by the side of the feudal nobility and the 

 clergy, as a third estate of the realm. He instituted 

 the order of Christ, which, in 1319, obtained the 

 estates of the Templars, on the abolition of that 

 order. He was succeeded by Alphonso IV., and 

 the latter by Pedro I., husband of Ines de Castro 

 (q. v.), 1357. With the death of Ferdinand the 

 Gentle, son of Pedro the Cruel, the male line of the 

 Burgundian princes became extinct in 1383. His 

 daughter Beatrice, wife of the king of Castile, 

 should regularly have succeeded him ; but the Por- 

 tuguese were so averse to a connexion with Castile, 

 that the brave John I., natural son of Pedro, was 

 saluted king by the estates. He maintained pos- 

 session of the throne, having, with the assistance of 

 his general, Alvaro Nunes Pereira, defeated the 

 Castilians at Aljubarotta, in 1385. With him be- 

 gins the native line of Portuguese kings. After 

 having concluded a peace with Castile in 1411, 

 this excellent prince turned his attention to the im- 

 provement of the country. He ruled with a wise 

 moderation, a turbulent people and a haughty 

 nobility, whose power had been increased by the 

 concessions which he had been obliged to make, to 

 secure their concurrence in his accession to the 

 throne. He transferred the royal residence from 

 Coimbra to Lisbon. In his reign began those 

 foreign conquests, which made the greatness of 

 Portugal. His able sons completed what had been 

 commenced by the father, who died of the plague, 

 in 1433. After the conquest of Ceuta, on the north- 

 ern coast of Africa, in 1415, where the brave princes 

 Edward, Henry, Pedro, received the honour of 

 knighthood from the hand of their father, Henry 

 the Navigator first set on foot those enterprises of 

 discovery and commerce, which raised Portugal 

 above all her contemporaries. He founded the first 

 Portuguese colonies, Porto Santo (1418), Madeira 

 (1420), the Azores (1433), and those on the GolJ 

 Coast of Guinea. The reigns of his son Edward 

 (till 1438), and his grandson Alphonso V., were less 

 brilliant than that of John I.; but the latter was 

 surpassed by that of John II., the ablest king that 

 has occupied the throne of Portugal. In his reign 

 began the violent struggle with the nobility, whose 

 power had gained great accessions under his indul- 

 gent predecessors. The grants of the crown lands 

 were revoked, and the judicial privileges of the 

 nobility were restricted by the appointment or 

 judges, who were learned in the profession, and not 

 nobles. The king caused the powerful duke of 

 Braganza, the chief of the turbulent nobles, to be 

 beheaded, and the new leader of the malcontents, 



