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- Afonso I of Portugal
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Full article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_I_of_Portugal
Afonso I Image:AfonsoI-P.jpg
Reign July 26, 1139 - December 6, 1185
Queen Maud of Savoy (1125-1157)
Royal House House of Burgundy
Father Henry, Count of Portugal (1066-1093)
Mother Teresa of Leon (1080-1130)
Issue Urraca of Portugal (1151-1188)
Sancho I of Portugal (1154-1212)
Teresa of Portugal (1157-1218)
Mafalda of Portugal (d. young)
Henrique (d. young)
João (d. young)
Sancha (d. young)
Urraca Afonso (natural daughter)
Fernando Afonso (natural son)
Pedro Afonso (natural son)
Afonso of Portugal (natural son)
Teresa Afonso (natural daughter)
Date of Birth July 25, 1109
Place of Birth Guimarães
Date of Death December 6, 1185
Place of Death Coimbra
Place of Burial Santa Cruz Monastery (Coimbra)
Afonso I, King of Portugal (English Alphonzo or Alphonse), more commonly known as Afonso Henriques (pron. IPA /?'fõsu e~'?ik??/), or also Affonso (Archaic Portuguese), Alfonso or Alphonso (Portuguese-Galician) or Alphonsus (Latin version), (Guimarães, 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.
Contents
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* 1 Life
* 2 Ancestors
* 3 Descendants
* 4 See also
* 5 Bibliography
* 6 References
[edit] 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 (Dux 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.
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, d. 26 Mar 1212, Coimbra