Henry the Navigator

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Henry the Navigator

1394-1460

Prince of portugal

Henry, the Duke of Viseu, is best known for the somewhat inaccurate name Henry the Navigator.The title Navigator was added to Prince Henry of Portugal's name in the nineteenth century by an admiring English scholar. This title has stuck despite the fact that Henry himself was not a famous navigator. He is credited with gathering navigators, scholars, and cartographers around him at Sagres, on the peninsula of St. Vincent overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. He used his wealth and influence to sponsor Portuguese voyages to the West Coast of Africa between 1419 and 1460. On these voyages the Portuguese made significant advances in navigation, and they began to sail a type of ship called the caravel. Caravels were perfected during Henry's lifetime in order to combat head winds and contrary currents on the return voyage of Portuguese ships from Guinea. Sailors learned to sail the caravels west-northwest into the open sea until they spotted the Azores and then turned east to Portugual. Henry did not invent the caravels, but his sponsorship moved them into the forefront of open-sea sailing on the eve of the famous voyages of Bartholomeu Dias, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan.

Motives. Prince Henry was the third son of King John I, a successful and long-ruling monarch. As a young man, Henry participated in the 1415 Portuguese defeat of the Moors at Ceuta (on the African Coast to the south of Gibraltar). The mixture of commercial and religious motives are evident in most of Henry's undertakings. Con-temporaries of Prince Henry emphasized his personal piety and fascination with the idea of crusading, while also acknowledging his quest for financial gain. Gomes Eanes de Zurara, the best-known contemporary chronicler of Prince Henry, offers a long list of motives behind the exploration of the Western coast of Africa. Zurara starts with basic curiosity but emphasizes that commercial factors were evident. He suggests a basic medieval formula of serving God and growing rich, but he also claims that the strongest motive was Henry's aspiration of fulfilling the predictions of his horoscope.

Commercial Gain. Modern historians debate the degree to which Henry the Navigator was motivated by attempts to combat Muslims and convert heathens to Christianity, but virtually all concede that Henry had monetary aspirations. Henry maintained commercial control over all terri-tories claimed by early Portuguese voyages. He used the Atlantic islands along the coast of Africa to establish monopolies on fishing, soap making, and dye making. Unlike royal patrons of later voyages, Henry was not interested in claiming vast amounts of ungovernable territory. He focused instead on the strategic and pragmatic monopolization of trade at key ports and islands. Portuguese cartography from his era provided functional records of Henry's trade network that stand in sharp contrast to the grandiose and distorted maps created for the sixteenth-century royal patrons of exploration and cartography.

Impact. Henry has been credited with establishing Portugal's maritime empire and transforming Portugal into a world power. Contemporary chroniclers certainly contributed to this reputation, as did Portuguese nationalists. More recent assessments suggest a complex man who has been given more credit than he deserves. Henry did not establish a “school of navigation,” and there is no evidence that he read the main Arabic and classical works on geography. He certainly did not lead any expeditions, something that a man of his status would never have done in the fifteenth century. His support of expeditions along the African coast were more likely motivated by the value of slaves than in idealistic pursuit of navigation. Henry frequently led Portugal into nearly ruinous wars in his many attempts to claim the Canary Islands. Yet, he was also a man of sincere religious faith and deep loyalty to those who supported him. After his death, the Crown was willing to encourage exploration but was unwilling to invest in it. Henry had been eager to take financial risks, as well as to motivate others to take personal risks sailing on Portuguese caravels.