Henry the Navigator (1394–1460)

Henry the Navigator (b. 4 March 1394; d. 13 November 1460), Portuguese prince noted for promoting the voyages of discovery that led to Portugal's creation of an overseas empire. Third son of King John I and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt of England, Prince Henry (Infante Dom Henrique) was duke of Viseu, governor of the city of Ceuta (captured in 1415 by the Portuguese from the Moroccans in an expedition in which Henry played a key role), the governor of the Algarve, Portugal's southernmost province, where Henry established his own court at Sagres in 1419.

Prince Henry is one of the most controversial figures in Portuguese historiography, for historians differ widely in their assessments of the extent and motives of his leadership role in Portugal's voyages of discovery. In the Crónica da Guiné, Gomes Eanes de Azurara, a contemporary chronicler of the discoveries, portrays Prince Henry as a model crusader: a tireless fighter, a pious man, and a chaste saint who never married. Azurara's portrait does not, however, match other evidence concerning Henry's character, which suggests that he was a skilled politician with an acute sense of raison d'état, that he was a crafty courtier who knew how to employ court intrigue for his own advantage; or that he was a practical man of affairs whose preoccupation with overseas expansion reflected his purpose of serving both God and Mammon.

On several occasions Henry's actions put the lives of his own brothers or half brothers in peril. For example, his unsuccessful expedition to Tangiers in 1437 resulted in the capture of his younger brother, Dom Fernando, by the Moors. The Moors demanded the return of Ceuta as the price of Fernando's release. Hardliners in the Portuguese court, including Henry, opposed giving up Ceuta, and as a result Fernando died in captivity in Fez in 1443. Henry also supported the war against Dom Afonso, duke of Bragança, and his half brother, who was involved in a power struggle with Dom Pedro, his older brother. At the battle of Alfarrobeira in 1449 Dom Pedro was killed. Many Portuguese historians blame Dom Pedro's death on Henry's intrigues.

Concerning his role in overseas expansion, Azurar notes that Joâo de Alenquer, the vedor da fazenda, had convinced Prince Henry of the economic advantages of capturing Ceuta, then believed to be a bridgehead to the gold-producing lands south of the Sahara. Similarly, Diogo Gomes, one of the sea captains Henry supported, confided to Martin Behaim of Nürnburg that Prince Henry had been told about Saharan gold by the Moors of Ceuta and that he had vowed to find it by land or sea. This view of Henry's thirst for gold has been developed by a school of Portuguese historians led by Alexandre Herculano and presently is reflected in the writings of Vitorino Magalhães Godinho and others, who contend that the economic motive and maintaining the security of Portugal were the main reasons for the overseas expansion.

Nevertheless, in 1960 the Portuguese marked the five-hundred-year anniversary of Prince Henry's death by honoring him as the "saint of the Promontory of Sagres," a heroic visionary who initiated Portugal's overseas discoveries and was the fountainhead of its empire.

See alsoExplorers and Exploration: Brazil; Portuguese Empire.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C. R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire (1969).

Gervase Clarence-Smith, The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825–1975 (1985).

A. H. De Carvalho E Araujo Herculano, "Cogitações soltas de um homem obscuro," in Opusculos, vol. 6 (1897).

A. H. De Oliveira Marques, História de Portugal, 3 vols. (1981–1983).

Joaquim Pedro De Oliveira Martins, Os filhos de D. João I (1936).

Bailey W. Diffie and George D. Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire: Europe and the World in the Age of Expansion (1972).

Duarte Leite, História dos descobrimentos, edited by Vitorino Magalhães Godinho (1960).

Vitorino Magalhães Godinho, Os descobrimentos e a economia mundial, 2 vols. (1965–1968).

Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão, História de Portugal, 12 vols. (1978–1990).

Additional Bibliography

Russell, P. E. Prince Henry the Navigator: A Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.

                                  TomÉ N. Mbuia JoÃo