Henry the Navigator (1394–1460)

Prince of the ruling Aviz dynasty of Portugal, the third son of King John I, and leader of Portuguese exploration of the African coasts. In the early fifteenth century, Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula were the scene of frequent attacks by pirates based in North African ports. To thwart these attacks, in 1415, Henry planned and took part in the conquest of Ceuta, on the North African coast. There the Portuguese encountered the lucrative trade in gold and slaves across the Sahara Desert. Inspired by the possibilities of joining this trade, and by the legend of a Christian king known as Prester John, said to rule somewhere in Africa, Henry sponsored voyages of exploration down the Atlantic coast of Africa.

In 1419, Henry was named as the governor of Algarve, the southernmost province of Portugal. From his headquarters on the Sagres Peninsula, at the southwestern limit of Europe, Henry planned explorations into unknown reaches of the Atlantic Ocean and helped develop a new kind of ship, known as the caravel, that was lighter and nimbler than the heavy ships used as freighters by the Portuguese in the Mediterranean. Henry paid for the explorations he sponsored through his appointment as governor of the Order of Christ, a religious order holding estates and benefices throughout the kingdom, and through his right to one-fifth of all the trading profits from lands he discovered.

Leaving from the port of Lagos, the Portuguese fleets set out to rescue and ransom Portuguese prisoners of the Barbary Coast pirates. The small caravels sailed down the coast of Mauretania and returned with slaves, thus beginning the era of European slave trading. Henry's fleets discovered Madeira and, in 1427, the Azores Islands, which were soon colonized by Portugal. In 1434 Gil Eannes rounded Cape Bojador, up to that time the southernmost limit of European exploration. An expedition led in 1437 by Henry to Tangier, however, ended in failure when the Portuguese were defeated by the Moors and Henry's brother Fernando was made a prisoner.

Portuguese ships later reached Cape Blanco, the mouth of the Senegal River, and Cape Vert, eventually reaching the sub-Saharan coasts that lay beyond the limits of Muslim-held Africa. The trade in African gold greatly enriched the kingdom of Portugal, which began minting the famous gold coins known as cruzeiros in 1457. In addition, the establishment of bases closer to the prevailing westerly trade winds greatly eased the task of navigating across the Atlantic to the Americas. Eventually Portuguese navigators would push well beyond Africa—to Brazil in South America as well as the Indian Ocean and the Spice Islands.

See Also: Aviz, House of; Camoes, Luis Vaz de; exploration