Aftonso Henriques, first King of Portugal
In 1093 the Moors of the Almoravide dynasty, under
the Caliph Yusuf, swept irresistibly upwards into
the Iberian Peninsula, recapturing Lisbon and Santarem
in the west, and pushing their conquest as far as
the river Mondego.
To meet this revival of Mohammedan power, Alfonso
VI. Of Castile summoned the chivalry of Christendom
to his aid. Among the knights who answered the
call was Count Henry of Burgundy (grandson of Robert,
first Duke of Burgundy) to whom Alfonso gave his natural
daughter Theresa in marriage, together with the Counties
of Oporto and Coimbra, with the title of Count of
Portugal.
That is the first chapter of the history of Portugal.
Count Henry fought hard to defend his southern frontiers
from the incursion of the Moors until his death in
1114. Thereafter his widow Theresa became Regent
of Portugal during the minority of their son, Affonso
Henriques. A woman of great energy, resource
and ambition, she successfully waged war against the
Moors, and in other ways laid the foundations upon
which her son was to build the Kingdom of Portugal.
But her passionate infatuation for one of her knights—Don
Fernando Peres de Trava—and the excessive
honours she bestowed upon him, made enemies for her
in the new state, and estranged her from her son.
In 1127 Alfonso VII. of Castile invaded Portugal,
compelling Theresa to recognize him as her suzerain.
But Affonso Henriques, now aged seventeen—and
declared by the citizens of the capital to be of age
and competent to reign—incontinently refused
to recognize the submission made by his mother, and
in the following year assembled an army for the purpose
of expelling her and her lover from the country.
The warlike Theresa resisted until defeated in the
battle of San Mamede and taken prisoner.
* * * *
* *
He was little more than a boy, although four years
were sped already since, as a mere lad of fourteen,
he had kept vigil throughout the night over his arms
in the Cathedral of Zamora, preparatory to receiving
the honour of knighthood at the hands of his cousin,
Alfonso VII. of Castile. Yet already he was looked
upon as the very pattern of what a Christian knight
should be, worthy son of the father who had devoted
his life to doing battle against the Infidel, wheresoever
he might be found. He was well-grown and tall,
and of a bodily strength that is almost a byword to
this day in that Portugal of which he was the real
founder and first king. He was skilled beyond
the common wont in all knightly exercises of arms
and horsemanship, and equipped with far more learning—though
much of it was ill-digested, as this story will serve
to show—than the twelfth century considered
useful or even proper in a knight. And he was
at least true to his time in that he combined a fervid
piety with a weakness of the flesh and an impetuous
arrogance that was to bring him under the ban of greater
excommunication at the very outset of his reign.
