Portugal

VII

History of Portugal

Portugal developed as a separate state in the 12th century. Until that time, the history of Portugal is inseparable from that of the Iberian Peninsula. Present-day Portugal became a part of the Roman province of Lusitania in the 2nd century bc. The prefix Luso is still used to mean Portuguese and derives its name from the Lusitani, a fierce tribe of the western Iberian Peninsula that resisted Roman rule. The chieftain Viriatus, leader of the Lusitani, is one of the country’s earliest national heroes. Christianity was established in the peninsula by the middle of the 4th century ad. Roman occupation ended in the 5th century with the invasions of Germanic tribes. One of these tribes, the Visigoths (see Goths), came to dominate the peninsula for more than 200 years.

A

Muslim Domination and the Christian Reconquest

In 711 Muslims invaded the Iberian Peninsula from Africa and deposed the Visigothic monarchy. Several small Christian kingdoms in the north of the peninsula, however, resisted Muslim expansion. In 997 the territory between the Douro and Miño rivers (now northern Portugal) was captured from the Muslims by Bermudo II, king of León. By 1064 the Christian struggle to reclaim lands from the Muslims, known as the Christian reconquest, was completed as far south as present-day Coimbra under Ferdinand I, king of Castile and León. The reconquered districts were then organized into a feudal county, composed of fiefs loyal to Spanish kings.

In 1093 Alfonso I, the Christian king of Castile (who also ruled León as Alfonso VI), called on the assistance of a French nobleman, Henry of Burgundy, to help defeat a siege of Muslims at Toledo in what is now central Spain. In gratitude Alfonso named Henry count of Portugal and awarded Henry land on the Atlantic seaboard between the Douro and Miño rivers. This land, named Portus Cale (later called Portucale) after a former Roman settlement on the Douro, became the basis of modern Portugal.

On the death of Alfonso in 1109, Count Henry, and later his widow, Teresa, refused to continue feudal allegiance to Castile and León. Henry invaded the Spanish kingdom and began a series of peninsular wars, but with little success. In 1128 Henry’s son, Afonso Henriques, rebelled against Teresa and defeated her in battle. Afonso Henriques declared Portugal independent from Castile and León in 1139 and proclaimed himself Afonso I, the first king of Portugal. Eight years later Afonso, assisted by Christian Crusaders bound for the Holy Land, seized Lisbon from the Muslims (see Crusades). In 1179 Afonso obtained papal recognition of the title of king, placing the Portuguese kingdom under the protection of the Holy See. Afonso, as founder of the Portuguese monarchy, remains a Portuguese national hero.

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B

Kingdom of Portugal

Afonso I, aided by military religious orders—crusading organizations of knights sworn to fight the Muslims—extended the border of the new kingdom as far south as the Tajo. These orders, including the Knights Templar and the orders of Calatrava and of Avis, were granted large feudal estates for assisting the monarchy during the reconquest. Afonso’s son, Sancho I, who reigned from 1185 to 1211, encouraged Christians to settle in conquered areas by establishing self-governing municipalities there. The Cistercians, a Roman Catholic monastic order, occupied the largely deserted lands along the southern frontier and promoted efficient farming practices. Muslim influence remained, however, in implements, textiles, architecture, and some local customs, and many Arabic words entered the Portuguese language.

In the late 12th century the Almohads, an Islamic dynasty from North Africa, temporarily halted the Christians’ southward movement. However, the Almohads suffered a crushing defeat in 1212 at the hands of Christian forces in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, and the Christian reconquest continued. King Afonso III, who reigned from 1248 to 1279, completed the expulsion of the Muslims from the southernmost region of Algarve.

B

1

National Consolidation

A period of national consolidation followed, during which Afonso III moved the capital of Portugal from Coimbra to Lisbon. Formerly a provincial outpost, Lisbon began its transformation into the political and economic center of the new nation. Afonso began the practice of governing with the aid of a cortes (a representative assembly), which included members of the nobility, clergy, and citizenry, and he asserted the power of the monarchy to regulate property owned by the Catholic Church. His son Diniz extended the kingdom’s power by nationalizing the wealthy military religious orders and seizing their assets. In 1290 Diniz founded what later became the University of Coimbra, Portugal’s first university, and Portuguese replaced Latin for official use. Diniz encouraged agriculture and founded the Portuguese navy, planting the royal pine forest at Leiria to promote shipbuilding. Portugal’s land borders were formalized in the 1297 Treaty of Alcanices with Castile, and they have remained largely intact up to the present day.

Diniz’s successor, Afonso IV, joined with Alfonso XI of Castile to defeat the last major Muslim invasion in 1340, at the Battle of the Salado River. In this period the royal houses of Castile and Portugal frequently intermarried, repeatedly raising the possibility that one of the kingdoms might be absorbed by the other. Internally, Portugal endured great hardship in the mid-14th century. A series of devastating earthquakes struck Lisbon, and the Black Death, an outbreak of bubonic plague, ravaged the Portuguese population in 1347 and 1348. As a result of the deaths, much of the country’s farmland lay fallow, and many people starved. Ferdinand I, who inherited the throne in 1367, took measures to encourage food production, including the promulgation of a decree that required landowners to cultivate unused lands and those without occupations to work in the fields. He also promoted maritime trade and the construction of larger ships.

The death of Ferdinand I in 1383, the last legitimate descendant of Henry of Burgundy, precipitated a civil war in Portugal. Ferdinand’s Castilian widow, Leonor Teles, assumed the regency. However, many Portuguese opposed the move, fearing Leonor would claim the crown for Castile and León. Her main rival was Ferdinand’s illegitimate half brother, John I, who was backed by Lisbon’s wealthy merchants. Leonor, supported by most of the landed nobility, called on the king of Castile and León for help. John raised an army and successfully defended the kingdom against attack. In 1385 John defeated Castile and León decisively in the Battle of Aljubarrota and secured the Portuguese throne. The battle was won with the assistance of English archers and helped establish the independence of Portugal. In 1386 England and Portugal allied themselves permanently by the Treaty of Windsor, initiating a friendship pact that would last for centuries.

B

2

The Reign of John I

The reign of John I, the first king of the Burgundian line known as the house of Avis, was one of the most notable in Portuguese history. John distrusted the old landed nobility, which had opposed his regency, and he seized many properties and titles for distribution to his urban supporters. In doing so John promoted the growth of a new noble class based on service to the Portuguese crown. John’s administrative reforms, including the creation of a class of skilled bureaucrats, enhanced the reach of royal power and further weakened the old aristocracy.

John’s reign is best known for the work done under the direction of his son Henry the Navigator, prince of Portugal, in exploring the African coast for an eastward route to the Indies. Henry was patron and director of a school of navigation at Sagres, where maritime expeditions were scientifically planned. John’s reign initiated a century of exploration during which Portugal emerged as the greatest colonial power in the world.

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