Portugal: A Lusitanian Story
1453 -
1453 -
In 1383, King Fernando I of Portugal was dying. From his marriage with Leonor Telles de Menezes only a girl, princess Beatrice of Portugal, survived. Her marriage was the major political issue of the day, since it would determine the future of the kingdom.
Several political factions lobbied for possible husbands, which included English and French princes. Finally, the king settled for his wife's first choice, King John I of Castile. The marriage was celebrated in May 1383, but was not a widely accepted solution. This dynastic union meant that Portugal would lose independence to Castile; many nobles were fiercely opposed to this possibility, but they were not united under a common pretender to the crown. The two candidates, both illegitimate half-brothers of Fernando, were:
• João, son of Peter I of Portugal and Inês de Castro, at the time living in Castile
• John, Great Master of Aviz, another bastard of Peter I, very popular among the Portuguese middle class and traditional aristocracy
On October 22, King Fernando died. According to the marriage contract, dowager queen Leonor assumed regency in the name of her daughter Beatrice and son-in-law, John I of Castile. Since diplomatic opposition was no longer possible, the party for independence took more drastic measures, starting the 1383–1385 crisis.
The first act of hostility was taken by the faction of John of Aviz in December, 1383. John, the count of Andeiro and lover of the dowager queen, was murdered by a group of conspirators led by John of Aviz. Following this act of war, John was now the leader of the opposition. With the help of Nuno Álvares Pereira, a talented general, he took the cities of Lisbon, Beja, Portalegre, Estremoz and Évora. In retaliation, King John I of Castile entered Portugal and occupied the city of Santarém. In an effort to normalize the situation and secure his wife's crown, he forced Queen Leonor to abdicate from the regency and took control of the country.
The armed resistance met the Castilian army on April 6, 1384, in the battle of Atoleiros. General Álvares Pereira won the battle for the Aviz party, but victory was not decisive. John I then retreated to Lisbon in May and besieged the capital, with an auxiliary fleet blocking the city's port in the river Tagus, in a severe drawback to the independence cause. Without the capital and its riches and commerce, little could be done to free the country from the Castilian king. On his side, John I of Castile needed Lisbon, not only for financial reasons, but also for political ones—neither he nor Beatrice had been crowned, and without a coronation in the capital he was only a designated king.
Meanwhile, John of Aviz had surrendered the military command of the resistance to Álvares Pereira. The general continued to attack cities loyal to the Castilians and to harass the invading army. John of Aviz was now focused on diplomatic offensives. International politics played an important role in deciding Portuguese affairs. In 1384, the Hundred Years' War was at its peak, with English and French forces in a struggle for the crown of France. The conflict spilled beyond the French borders, and influenced, for instance, the Western Schism in a papacy only recently returned to Rome from Avignon. Castile was a traditional ally of France, so, looking for assistance in England was the natural option for John of Aviz. In May, with Lisbon under siege, an embassy was sent to Richard II of England to make a case for Portuguese independence. In 1384, Richard was seventeen years old, but the power lay with his uncle John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, and regent of England. Despite initial reluctance to concede men, John of Gaunt finally agreed to levy troops to reinforce the Portuguese army. These proved to be decisive.
Lisbon was struggling with famine and feared defeat by the Castilian siege. Blocked by land and by the river, the city had no hope of relief by the Aviz army, which was too small to risk an intervention and was occupied subduing other cities. An attempt was made by a Portuguese fleet to relieve the Castilian blockade. On July 18 a group of ships led by captain Rui Pereira managed to break the blockade and deliver precious supplies of food to Lisbon. The cost was high, since all the boats were lost and Rui Pereira himself died in the naval combat. Despite this minor success, the siege held on; the city of Almada on the south bank of the Tagus surrendered to Castile. But the siege was hard not only on the inhabitants of Lisbon: the army of Castile was also dealing with a shortage of food supplies, due to the harassment of Nuno Álvares Pereira, and the bubonic plague. It was the outbreak of an epidemic in his ranks that forced John I to raise the siege on September 3 and retreat to Castile. Weeks later, the Castilian fleet also abandoned the Tagus, and Lisbon breathed a sigh of relief.
In late 1384 and the early months of 1385, Nuno Álvares Pereira managed to subdue the majority of those Portuguese cities then in favour of the Castilian cause. Answering the call for help, English troops landed in Portugal on Easter Day. They were not a big contingent, around 600 men, but they were mainly veterans of the Hundred Years' War battles, enlightened in successful English military tactics. Among them were a division of longbowmen who had already demonstrated their value against cavalry charges, as at Crécy,
With everything apparently on his side, John of Aviz organized a meeting in Coimbra of the Cortes, the assembly of the Portuguese kingdom. There, on April 6, he was proclaimed the tenth king of Portugal, a clear act of defiance against the Castilian pretensions. John I of Portugal nominated Álvares Pereira protector of the kingdom and went to subdue the resistance still surviving in the north.
John I of Castile was not pleased. His first move was to send a punitive expedition, but the forces were heavily defeated in the battle of Trancoso in May. Realizing that he had to use force to solve the problem definitively, the king himself led an enormous Castilian army that invaded Portugal in the second week of June through the central north. An allied contingent of French heavy cavalry travelled with them. The power of numbers was on their side—about 30,000 men on the Castilian side versus 6,000 rebellious Portuguese. They immediately headed to the region of Lisbon and Santarém, the country's major cities.
Meanwhile, the armies of John I and Álvares Pereira joined together in the city of Tomar. After some debate, a decision was made: the Castilians could not be allowed to besiege Lisbon once again, since the city would undoubtedly fall, so the Portuguese would intercept the enemy in the vicinity of Leiria, near the village of Aljubarrota. On August 14, the Castilian army, very slow due to its huge numbers, finally met the Portuguese troops, reinforced with the English detachment. The ensuing fight, the battle of Aljubarrota, was fought in the style of the battles of Crécy and Poitiers. These tactics allowed a reduced infantry army to defeat cavalrymen with the use of longbowmen in the flanks and defensive structures (like caltrops) in the front. The Castilian army was not only defeated, but decimated. Their losses were so great that John I of Castile was prevented from attempting another invasion in the following years.
With this victory, John I of Aviz was recognized as the undisputed king of Portugal, putting an end to the interregnum and anarchy of the 1383–1385 crisis. Recognition from Castile would not arrive until 1411, with the signing of the Treaty of Ayton-Segovia. The English–Portuguese alliance would be renewed in 1386 with the Treaty of Windsor and the marriage of John I to Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt.
In 1418 two of the captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven by a storm to an island which they called Porto Santo ("Holy Port") in gratitude for their rescue from the shipwreck. In 1419, João Gonçalves Zarco disembarked on Madeira Island. Between 1427 and 1431, most of the Azorean islands were discovered.
King Afonso V
Afonso V, King of Portugal, the African (Port. o Africano), 12th king of Portugal and Algarves was born in Sintra in January 15, 1432 and died in the same city in August 28, 1481. He was the oldest son of king Duarte of Portugal by his wife, Princess Eleanor of Aragon. Afonso V was only six years old when he succeeded his father in 1438.
During his minority, Afonso V was placed under the regency of his mother, according to a late will of his father. As both a foreigner and a woman, the queen was not a popular choice for regent. Opposition rose and the queen's only ally was Afonso, the illegitimate half brother of Duarte I and count of Barcelos. In the following year, the Cortes (assembly of the kingdom) decided to replace the queen with Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, the young king's oldest uncle. His main policies were concerned with avoiding the development of great noble houses, kingdoms inside the kingdom, and concentrating power in the person of the king. The country prospered under his rule, but not peacefully, as his laws interfered with the ambition of powerful nobles. The count of Barcelos, a personal enemy of the duke of Coimbra (despite being half-brothers) eventually became the king's favourite uncle and began a constant struggle for power. In 1442, the king made Afonso the first Duke of Braganza. With this title and its lands, he became the most powerful man in Portugal and one of the richest men in Europe. To secure his position as regent, in 1445 Pedro married his daughter, Isabel of Coimbra, princess of Portugal, to Afonso V.
But in June 9, 1448, when the king came of age, Pedro had to surrender his power to Afonso V. The years of conspiracy by the duke of Braganza finally came to a head. In September 15 of the same year, Afonso V nullified all the laws and edicts approved under the regency. The situation became unstable and, in the following year, being led by what he afterwards discovered to be false representations, Afonso declared Pedro a rebel and defeated his army in the battle of Alfarrobeira, in which both his uncle and father in law was killed. After this battle and the loss of one of Portugal's most remarkable princes, the duke of Braganza became the de facto ruler of the country.
Afonso V then turned his attentions to the North of Africa. In his grandfather's (John I of Portugal) reign, Ceuta had been conquered from the king of Morocco, now the new king wanted to expand the conquests. This achievement granted the king the nickname of African. The king also supported the exploration of the Atlantic Ocean led by prince Henry the Navigator.
Afonso was a direct descendant of Edward III of England through his son John of Gaunt and therefore was a direct descendant of William the Conqueror, King of England.
Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry the Navigator was the third son of King John I of Portugal, the founder of the Aviz dynasty; and of Philippa of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt. Henry encouraged his father to conquer Ceuta (1415), the Muslim port, on the North African coast across the Straits of Gibraltar from the Iberian peninsula, with profound consequences on Henry's worldview: Henry became aware of the profit possibilities in the Saharan trade routes that terminated there and became fascinated with Africa in general, with the legend of Prester John, and with expanding Portuguese trade.
1453 Anno Domini and the future
Map of The Iberian Penninsula, 1453
Now Portugal is on the threshold of becoming one of the major European nations. Afonso V of Portugal is King and his reign has seen great leaps in the Portuguese Navy with the ever envied Henry the Navigator in his stead. Now Portugal must stick or twist in this cruel game. They must either take a chance and discover new lands or focus on Europe and look at what gains can be made closer to home.
Portugal as it stands consists of the provinces of Lisbon, Alentejo, Algarve, Beira, Porto, Branganca and the Island of Madeira. The Azores are a large colony not far off province status.
Portugal must be weary as wolf come in sheep’s clothing and she should be weary of Castille and Aragon as they have in the past been behind dark days in Portugal and may be responsible again. However the Treaty of Windsor, should prove useful, with England proving a valuable ally to any Portuguese effort at home in Europe.
