Afonso I of Portugal
Afonso I of Portugal (
English Alphonzo or
Alphonse), more commonly known as
Afonso Henriques (
pron. IPA //), or also
Affonso (Archaic Portuguese),
Alfonso or
Alphonso (
Portuguese-Galician) or
Alphonsus (
Latin version), (
Guimar茫es,
1109?, traditionally
July 25 鈥"
Coimbra,
1185,
December 6), also known as
the Conqueror (
Port. o Conquistador), was the first
King of Portugal, declaring his independence from
Le贸n.
Afonso I was the son of
Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal and
Teresa of Le贸n, the illegitimate daughter of King
Alfonso VI of Castile and Le贸n. He was proclaimed King on
July 26 1139, immediately after the
Battle of Ourique, and died on
December 6 1185 in
Coimbra.
At the end of the
11th century, the
Iberian Peninsula political agenda was mostly concerned with the
Reconquista, the driving out of the
Muslim successor-states to the
Caliphate of Cordoba after its collapse. With European
military aristocracies focused on the
Crusades, Alfonso VI called for the help of the
French nobility to deal with the
Moors. In exchange, he was to give the hands of his daughters in wedlock to the leaders of the expedition and bestow royal privileges to the others. Thus, the royal heiress
Urraca of Castile wedded
Raymond of Burgundy, younger son of the
Count of Burgundy, and her half-sister, princess
Teresa of Le贸n, wedded his cousin, another French crusader,
Henry of Burgundy, younger brother of the
Duke of Burgundy, whose mother was daughter of the
Count of Barcelona. Henry was made Count of Portugal, a burdensome
earldom south of
Galicia, where Moorish incursions and attacks were to be expected. With his wife Teresa as co-ruler of Portugal, Henry withstood the ordeal and held the lands for his father-in-law.
From this wedlock several sons were born, but only one,
Afonso Henriques (meaning "Afonso son of Henry") thrived. The boy, probably born around 1109, followed his father as
Count of Portugal in
1112, under the tutelage of his mother. The relations between Teresa and her son Afonso proved difficult. Only eleven years old, Afonso already had his own political ideas, greatly different from his mother's. In
1120, the young
prince took the side of the
archbishop of
Braga, a political foe of Teresa, and both were exiled by her orders. Afonso spent the next years away from his own
county, under the watch of the bishop. In
1122 Afonso became fourteen, the adult age in the
12th century. He made himself a
knight on his own account in the
Cathedral of
Zamora, raised an
army, and proceeded to take control of his lands. Near
Guimar茫es, at the
Battle of S茫o Mamede (
1128) he overcame the troops under his mother's lover and ally Count
Fernando Peres de Trava of
Galicia, making her his
prisoner and exiling her forever to a
monastery in
Le贸n. Thus the possibility of incorporating Portugal into a Kingdom of Galicia was eliminated and Afonso become sole ruler (
Dux of Portugal) after demands for independence from the county's people, church and nobles. He also vanquished
Alfonso VII of Castile and Le贸n, another of his mother's allies, and thus freed the county from political dependence on the crown of
Le贸n and
Castile. On
April 6,
1129, Afonso Henriques dictated the writ in which he proclaimed himself
Prince of Portugal.
Afonso then turned his arms against the everlasting problem of the
Moors in the south. His campaigns were successful and, on
July 26 1139, he obtained an overwhelming victory in the
Battle of Ourique, and straight after was unanimously proclaimed
King of Portugal by his
soldiers. This meant that Portugal was no longer a vassal county of Le贸n-Castile, but an independent kingdom in its own right. Next, he assembled the first assembly of the estates-general at
Lamego, where he was given the
crown from the archbishop of
Braga, to confirm the independence.
Independence, however, was not a thing a land could choose on its own. Portugal still had to be acknowledged by the neighbouring lands and, most importantly, by the
Roman Catholic Church and the
Pope. Afonso wedded
Mafalda of Savoy, daughter of Count
Amadeo III of Savoy, and sent
Ambassadors to
Rome to negotiate with the
Pope. In Portugal, he built several monasteries and
convents and bestowed important privileges to
religious orders. In
1143, he wrote to
Pope Innocent II to declare himself and the kingdom servants of the Church, swearing to pursue driving the Moors out of the
Iberian peninsula. Bypassing any king of Castile or Le贸n, Afonso declared himself the direct
liegeman of the
Papacy. Thus, Afonso continued to distinguish himself by his exploits against the Moors, from whom he wrested
Santar茅m and
Lisbon in
1147 (see
Siege of Lisbon). He also conquered an important part of the land south of the
Tagus River, although this was lost again to the Moors in the following years.
Meanwhile, King Alfonso VII of Castile (Afonso's cousin) regarded the independent ruler of Portugal as nothing but a rebel. Conflict between the two was constant and bitter in the following years. Afonso became involved in a
war, taking the side of the
Aragonese king, an enemy of Castile. To ensure the alliance, his son
Sancho was engaged to
Dulce Berenguer, sister of the
Count of Barcelona, and princess of Aragon. Finally, in
1143, the
Treaty of Zamora established peace between the cousins and the recognition by the Kingdom of Castile and Le贸n that Portugal was an independent kingdom.
In
1169, Afonso was disabled in an engagement near
Badajoz by a fall from his
horse, and made prisoner by the soldiers of the king of Le贸n. Portugal was obliged to surrender as his
ransom almost all the conquests Afonso had made in Galicia in the previous years.
In
1179 the privileges and favours given to the Roman Catholic Church were compensated. In the
papal bull Manifestis Probatum,
Pope Alexander III acknowledged Afonso as King and Portugal as an independent land with the right to conquer lands from the Moors. With this papal blessing, Portugal was at last secured as a country and safe from any Castilian attempts of annexation.
In
1184, in spite of his great age, he had still sufficient energy to relieve his son Sancho, who was besieged in
Santar茅m by the Moors. He died shortly after, in
1185.
The Portuguese revere him as a hero, both on account of his personal character and as the founder of their
nation.
In July 2006, the opening of the tomb of the King, with scientific proposes, provoked widespread preoccupation among some sectors of the Portuguese society, with the government halting the opening due to the importance of the king in the nation's formation by requesting more protocols from the scientific team.
Afonso married in 1146 Mafalda or
Maud of Savoy (
1125-
1158), daughter of Amadeo III, Count of Savoy, and
Mafalda of Albon.
*
Portugal*
History of Portugal*
Timeline of Portuguese history**
Second County of Portugal (11th to 12th Century)**
First Dynasty: Burgundy (12th to 14th Century)
>Diogo Freitas do Amaral, D. Afonso Henriques. Lisboa: Bertrand, 2002. ISBN 972251157.
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