| Afonso I |
| King of Portugal |
 |
| 17th century painting of Afonso Henriques. |
| Reign |
April 24, 1112 (succeeds his father)
June 24, 1128 (defeats his mother)
July 26, 1139 (proclaims himself king)
October 5, 1143 (recognized by León)
—
6 December, 1185 |
| Coronation |
July 26, 1139 |
| Full name |
Afonso Henriques of Burgundy |
| Titles |
Count of Portugal, Dux of Portugal, Prince of Portugal |
| Born |
July 25, 1109 |
|
Castle of Guimarães, Guimarães, County of Portugal, Kingdom of León |
| Died |
December 6 1185 (aged 76) |
|
Coimbra, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Buried |
Santa Cruz Monastery, Coimbra,
District of Coimbra, Portugal |
| Predecessor |
Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal (de jure)
Teresa of León, Countess of Portugal (de facto) |
Heirs
sister
son
sister
daughter
son |
Urraca Henriques (1139–1147)
Infante Henrique (1147)
Urraca Henriques (1147–1148)
Infanta Mafalda (1148–1154)
Infante Sancho (future Sancho I) (1154–1185) |
| Successor |
Sancho I of Portugal |
| Consort |
Maud of Savoy |
| Consort |
Queen |
| Issue |
Infante Henrique (1147)
Infanta Mafalda (1148–c. 1160)
Infanta Urraca, Queen of León (c. 1151–1188)
Infante Sancho (future Sancho I) (1154–1212)
Infanta Teresa, Countess of Flanders (1157–1218)
Infante João (1160)
Infanta Sancha (1160) |
| Royal House |
Capetian House of Burgundy |
| Dynasty |
Affonsine Dynasty |
| Father |
Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal |
| Mother |
Teresa of León, Countess of Portugal |
Afonso I, King of Portugal (English Alphonzo or Alphonse), more
commonly known as Afonso Henriques (pron. IPA /ɐ'fõsu ẽ'ʁikɨʃ/), or also
Affonso (Archaic Portuguese), Alfonso or Alphonso (Portuguese-Galician) or Alphonsus (Latin version),
(Viseu, 1109, traditionally July 25
– Coimbra, 1185, December 6),
also known as the Conqueror (Port. o Conquistador), was the first
King of Portugal, declaring his independence from León.
Life
Afonso I was the son of Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal and
Teresa of León, the illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso VI of Castile and León. 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 León, 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 Guimarães, at the Battle of São
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 León. Thus the possibility of incorporating Portugal into a Kingdom of Galicia was
eliminated and Afonso become sole ruler (Duke of Portugal) after demands for independence from the county's people, church
and nobles. He also vanquished Alfonso VII of Castile and León, another of his
mother's allies, and thus freed the county from political dependence on the crown of León and Castile. On April
6, 1129, Afonso Henriques dictated the writ in which he proclaimed himself Prince of
Portugal.
Portuguese Royalty
House of Burgundy
|
|
| Afonso Henriques (Afonso I) |
- Children include
|
| Sancho I |
- Children include
|
| Afonso II |
- Children include
|
| Sancho II |
| Afonso III |
- Children include
|
| Denis |
- Children include
|
| Afonso IV |
- Children include
|
| Peter I |
- Children include
|
| Ferdinand I |
- Children include
|
| Beatrice (disputed queen) |
- Children include
- Infante Miguel of Castile and Portugal
|
Afonso then turned his arms against the persistent 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 León-Castile, but an independent kingdom in its own right. That he then convened the first assembly of the
estates-general at Lamego (wherein he would have been given the crown from the Archbishop of Braga, to confirm the
independence) is likely to be a 17th century embellishment of Portuguese history.
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 wed 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 León, 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 Santarém 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 León 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 León. 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 at annexation.
In 1184, in spite of his great age, he still had sufficient energy to relieve his son Sancho,
who was besieged in Santarém by the Moors. He died shortly after, on December 6, 1185.
The Portuguese revere him as a hero, both on account of his personal character and as the founder of their nation. There are stories that it would take 10 men to carry his sword, and that Afonso would want to engage
other monarchs in personal combat, but no one would dare accept his challenge.
Scientific research
In July 2006, the tomb of the King (which is located in the Santa Cruz Monastery
in Coimbra) was opened for scientific purposes by researchers from the University of Coimbra (Portugal), and the University of
Granada (Spain). The opening of the tomb provoked considerable concern among some sectors of Portuguese society and
IPPAR- Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico (Portuguese State Agency for
Architectural Patrimony). The government halted the opening requesting more protocols from the scientific team because of the
importance of the king in the nation's formation.[1][2]
Ancestors
Descendants
Afonso married in 1146 Mafalda or Maud of Savoy (1125-1158), daughter of Amadeo III, Count of Savoy, and Mafalda of Albon.
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Bibliography
Diogo Freitas do Amaral, D. Afonso Henriques. Lisboa: Bertrand, 2000.
ISBN 972-25-1157-2.
References
- ^ IPPAR: direcção
nacional diz que não foi consultada sobre abertura do túmulo de D. Afonso Henriques, Público, 6th July 2006, accessed December 2006 (in Portuguese)
- ^ [1]
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