Afonso V of Portugal
Afonso V | |
---|---|
King of Portugal | |
Reign | 13 September 1438 – 11 November 1477 |
Acclamation | 15 January 1446 |
Predecessor | Edward |
Successor | John II |
Reign | 15 November 1477 – 28 August 1481 |
Predecessor | John II |
Successor | John II |
Regents | See list
|
Born | 15 January 1432 Sintra Palace, Portugal |
Died | 28 August 1481 Lisbon, Portugal | (aged 49)
Burial | |
Spouses | |
John, Prince of Portugal | |
House | Aviz |
Father | Edward, King of Portugal |
Mother | Eleanor of Aragon |
Signature |
Afonso V
Early life
Afonso was born in
During his minority, Afonso was placed under the regency of his mother, Eleanor, in accordance with the will left by his late father. As both a foreigner and a woman, the queen was not a popular choice for regent. When the cortes met in late 1438, a law was passed requiring a joint regency consisting of Eleanor and
Pedro's main policies were concerned with restricting the political power of the great noble houses and expanding the powers of the crown. The country prospered under his rule, but not peacefully, as his laws interfered with the ambition of powerful nobles. The count of Barcelos, a personal enemy of the Duke of Coimbra (despite being half-brothers) eventually became the king's favourite uncle and began a constant struggle for power. In 1442, the king made the count his uncle Afonso the first
But on 9 June 1448, when the king came of age, Pedro had to surrender his power to Afonso V. The years of conspiracy by the Duke of Braganza finally came to a head. On 15 September of the same year, Afonso V nullified all the laws and edicts approved under the regency. In the following year, led by what were later discovered to be false accusations, Afonso declared Pedro a rebel and defeated his army in the Battle of Alfarrobeira, in which his uncle (and father-in-law) was killed.[2]
Invasion of Morocco
Afonso V then turned his attentions to North Africa. In the reign of his grandfather
After the capture of Alcácer Ceguer in 1458, Afonso gave himself the title "king of Portugal and the Algarves", where the plural form of Algarve was meant to refer to both the original Kingdom of the Algarve in southern Portuguese as well as the new territories in Africa.[5]
The king also supported the exploration of the
In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which granted Afonso V the right to reduce "Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers" to hereditary slavery. This was reaffirmed and extended in the Romanus Pontifex bull of 1455 (also by Nicholas V). These papal bulls came to be seen by some as a justification for the subsequent era of slave trade and European colonialism.[7]
Castile
On 12 May 1475 Afonso entered Castile with an army of 5,600 cavalry and 14,000 foot soldiers. In March 1476, after several skirmishes and much maneuvering, the 8, 000 men of Afonso and Prince João, faced a Castilian force of similar size in the battle of Toro. The Castilians were led by Isabella's husband, Prince Ferdinand II of Aragon, Cardinal Mendoza and the Duke of Alba. The fight was fierce and confusing but the result was a stalemate:[9] While the forces of Cardinal Mendoza and the Duke of Alba won over their opponents led by the Portuguese King – who left the battlefield to take refuge in Castronuño, the troops commanded by Prince Joao defeated and persecuted the troops of the Castilian right wing, recovered the Portuguese royal standard, remaining ordered in the battlefield where they collected the fugitives of Afonso.[9] Both sides claimed victory but Afonso's prospects for obtaining the Castilian crown were severely damaged.[8]
“It was 1 March 1476. Eight thousand men for each side, the chronicles tell. With Afonso of Portugal were his son João and the bishops of Evora and Toledo. With Fernando of Aragón, Cardinal Mendoza and the Duke of Alba, as well as the militias of Zamora, Ciudad Rodrigo and Valladolid. The battle was long, but not especially bloody: it is estimated that the casualties of each side did not reach a thousand. Who won? In reality, no one: Alfonso's wing of Portugal fell under the thrust of Fernando, but Prince Juan's troops crushed their Castilian rivals. However, victory in this battle was not going to be military, but ... political. In fact, Ferdinand of Aragon, seeing that the clash concluded without winners or losers, hastened to give his own version of the facts. He sent letters to all the cities of Castile and Aragon and to several European courts.” [10]
— In ¡Santiago y cierra, España! , José Esparza
After the battle, Afonso sailed to France hoping to obtain the assistance of King
Marriages and descendants
Afonso married firstly, in 1447,
- John, Prince of Portugal(29 January 1451).
- Joan, Princess of Portugal(6 February 1452 – 12 May 1490): Known as Saint Joan of Portugal or Saint Joan Princess.
- John II of Portugal (3 March 1455 – 25 October 1495): Succeeded his father as 13th King of Portugal.
After the death of his wife in 1455, he had at least one child out of wedlock with Maria Soares da Cunha, daughter of Afonso's major valet, Fernao de Sa Alcoforado:
- Alvaro Soares da Cunha(1466-1557), Noble of the Royal House, Lord of the House of Quintas in Sao Vicente de Pinheiro, Porto and Chief Guard of Pestilence in Porto.
Ancestry
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Notes
- ^ Rendered as Affonso in Archaic Portuguese
- ^ ISBN 9780415939188
- ^ Sousa 1998, p. 639
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Sousa 1998, p. 641.
- ISBN 978-1-84162-925-4.
- ^ "Nicholas V | Vatican Library & Dum Diversas | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
- ^ a b Rubin, Nancy (1991). Isabella of Castile: The First Renaissance Queen. St. Martin's Press.
- ^ a b “The two sides finally and climactically clashed, in the major confrontation known as the Battle of Toro, on 1 March 1476. he Portuguese army, led by King Afonso, his twenty-one-year-old son Prince João, and the rebellious Archbishop Carrillo of Toledo opposed Ferdinand, the Duke of Alba, Cardinal Mendoza, and other Castilian nobles leading the Isabelline forces. Foggy and rainy, it was bloody chaos on the battlefield. (...) Hundreds of people – perhaps as many as one thousand – died that day. (...). Troops led by Prince João won in their part of the battle; some troops led by King Ferdinand won in another part. But the most telling fact was that King Afonso had fled the battlefield with his troops in disarray; the Castilians seized his battle flag, the royal standard of Portugal, despite the valiant efforts of a Portuguese soldier, Duarte de Almeida, to retain it. (...). The Portuguese, however, later managed to recover the banner. The battle ended in an inconclusive outcome, but Isabella employed a masterstroke of political theater by recasting events as a stupendous victory for Castile. Each side had won some skirmishes and lost others, but Ferdinand was presented in Castile as the winner and Afonso as a craven failure. (...)..” In Downey, Kirstin. "Isabella: the Warrior Queen", Anchor Books, New York, 2014, p. 145
- ^ Esparza, José J. (Spanish). ¡Santiago y cierra, España!, La Esfera de los Libros, 2013 (electronic version without page numbering).
- ^ ISBN 9780722224731. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f de Sousa, Antonio Caetano (1735). Historia genealogica da casa real portugueza [Genealogical History of the Royal House of Portugal] (in Portuguese). Vol. 2. Lisboa Occidental. p. 497.
- ^ a b John I, King of Portugal at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ a b Armitage-Smith, Sydney (1905). John of Gaunt: King of Castile and Leon, Duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Lincoln, and Leicester, Seneschal of England. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 21. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
Bibliography
English
- Downey, Kirstin: Isabella: the Warrior Queen, Anchor Books, New York, 2014
- Livermore, H. V. (2003). "Aphonso V". In Gerli, E. Michael (ed.). Medieval Iberia : an encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. OCLC 50404104.
- Miller, Townsend: The battle of Toro, 1476, in History Today, volume 14, 1964.
- Marques, A. H. de Oliveira (1972). History of Portugal. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press. OCLC 364043.
- Sousa, Armindo de (1998). "Portugal". In Allmand, Christopher (ed.). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 7. Cambridge University Press. pp. 627–644. ISBN 978-0521382960.
Non-English
- López Poza, Sagrario (2019). "La divisa de Alfonso V el Africano, rey de Portugal: nueva lectura e interpretación". Janus. Estudios Sobre el Siglo de Oro (8): 47–74. ISSN 2254-7290.
- Saul, António: Dom Afonso V, vol. 12 of Reis de Portugal, 2009, Temas e Debates-Actividades Editoriais, ISBN 978-97-2759-975-2