John II of Portugal
| John II | |
|---|---|
Monastery of Batalha | |
| Spouse | |
| Issue Detail |
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Isabella of Coimbra | |
John II (
Early life
Born in
As a prince, John II accompanied his father in the
Even at a young age, John was not popular among the peers of the kingdom since he was immune to external influence and appeared to despise intrigue. The nobles (including particularly his half second cousin Ferdinand II, the Duke of Braganza) were afraid of his future policies as king.
Consolidation of power
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After his official accession to the throne in 1481, John II took a series of measures to curtail the power of the Portuguese aristocracy and concentrate power in himself. As one example of the measures he took, he deprived the nobles of their right to administer justice on their estates.[2] Immediately, the nobles started to conspire. Letters of complaint and pleas to intervene were exchanged between the Duke of Braganza and Queen Isabella I of Castile.
King John took the precaution of renegotiating the "
In the following year, the
Economy
Facing a bankrupt kingdom, John II showed the initiative to solve the situation by creating a regime in which a council of scholars took a vital role.[4] The king conducted a search of the population and selected members for the council on the basis of their abilities, talents and credentials (meritocracy). John's exploration policies (see below) also paid great dividends. Such was the profit coming from John II's investments in the overseas explorations and expansion that the Portuguese currency had become the soundest in Europe. The kingdom could finally collect taxes for its own use rather than to pay debts, mainly thanks to its main gold source at that time, the coast of Guinea.
Exploration
John II famously restored the policies of
- 1482 – Foundation of the coastal fortress and trade post of São Jorge da Mina
- 1484 – Discovery of the Congo River by Diogo Cão.
- 1488 – Discovery and passage of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomeu Dias in Mossel Bay.[5]
- 1493 – Start of the settlement of the São Tomé and Príncipe islands by Álvaro Caminha.
- Funding of land expeditions by Afonso de Paiva and Pêro da Covilhã to India and Ethiopia in search of the kingdom of Prester John.
The true extent of Portuguese explorations has been the subject of academic debate. According to one theory, some navigations were kept secret for fear of competition by neighbouring Castile. The archives of this period were mainly destroyed in the fire after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and what was not destroyed during the earthquake was either stolen or destroyed during the Peninsular War or otherwise lost.[6][7][8]
Conflict with Castile
When Columbus returned from his first voyage early in 1493, he first stopped in Lisbon to claim his victory in front of King John II. King John II's only response to this was that under the Treaty of Alcáçovas previously signed with Spain, Columbus's discoveries lay within Portugal's sphere of influence. Before Columbus even reached Isabella I of Castile, John II had already sent a letter to them threatening to send a fleet to claim it for Portugal. Spain quickly hastened to the negotiating table, which took place in a small Spanish town named Tordesillas with a papal representative present to act as mediator. The result of this meeting would be the famous Treaty of Tordesillas, which sought to divide all newly discovered lands in the New World between Spain and Portugal.
Legacy
John II died at Alvor at age 40 without legitimate children. Despite his attempts to have his illegitimate son Jorge, Duke of Coimbra, succeed him, he was succeeded by his first cousin and brother in-law, Manuel I.
The nickname the Perfect Prince is a posthumous appellation that is intended to refer to Niccolò Machiavelli's work The Prince. John II is considered to have lived his life exactly according to the writer's idea of a perfect prince. Nevertheless, he was admired as one of the greatest European monarchs of his time. Isabella I of Castile usually referred to him as El Hombre (The Man).[9]
The Italian scholar Poliziano wrote a letter to John II that paid him a profound homage:
- to render you thanks on behalf of all who belong to this century, which now favours of your quasi-divine merits, now boldly competing with ancient centuries and all Antiquity.
Indeed, Poliziano considered his achievements to be more meritorious than those of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. He offered to write an epic work giving an account of John II accomplishments in navigation and conquests. The king replied in a positive manner in a letter of 23 October 1491, but delayed the commission.[10]
In popular culture
- In the TV series Christopher Columbus (1985) he is played by Max von Sydow.
- In the film Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) he is played by Mathieu Carrière.
- He appears in Civilization IV (as João II), leading the Portuguese.
- In the TV series Isabel played by Álvaro Monje
Marriage and descendants
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| By Leonor of Viseu (2 May 1458 – 17 November 1525; married in January 1471)
| |||
Infante Afonso |
18 May 1475 | 13 July 1491 | King of Portugal .
|
Stillborn |
1483 | 1483 | Stillborn son, born in 1483. |
| By Ana de Mendonça (c. 1460-?) | |||
Jorge[11] |
21 August 1481 | 22 July 1550 | Natural son known as Jorge de Lancastre, Duke of Coimbra. |
Ancestry
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Notes
- ^ Rendered as Joam in Archaic Portuguese
- ^ a b "Prestage, Edgar. "Portugal." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 30 Jul. 2014". Newadvent.org. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ A History of Portugal, p. 213, CUP Archives. 19 January 1947. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ a b Busk, M. M. (1833). Busk, M.M., The History of Spain and Portugal from B.C. 1000 to A.D. 1814, p. 80, Baldwin and Cradock, 1833. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ Disney, A.R. (2009) A History of Portugal and the Portugal Empire, Volume 2: The Portuguese Empire: 38–39; Cambridge University Press: New York
- JSTOR 2507557.
- JSTOR 1773506.
- ^ Ilaria Luzzana Caraci (1988). Columbus and the Portuguese Voyages in the Columbian Sources. UC Biblioteca Geral 1. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
- ISBN 9781855660694.
His cousin, Isabella of Castille, herself no weakling, admiringly dubbed him 'el Hombre', for all the world like some early spaghetti-western hero.
- ^ Manuel Bernardes Branco (1879). Portugal e os Estrangeiros. Lisboa: Livraria de A.M.Pereira. pp. 415–417. (Translation of the latin by Teófilo Braga) "render-vos graças em nome de todos quantos pertencemos a este século, o qual agora, por favor dos vossos méritos quasi-divinos, ousa já denodadamente competir com os vetustos séculos e com toda a antiguidade."
- ^ Livermore 1976, p. 132.
- ^ a b Afonso V, King of Portugal at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Pedro, 1o duque de Coimbra at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-920736-7.
- ^ ISBN 9780722224731. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ a b "Leonora of Aragon (1405–1445)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Gale Research. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
References
- Bodian, Mirian (1997). Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation.
- Boxer, Charles R. (1991). From Lisbon to Goa, 1500–1750.
- Boxer, Charles R. (1969). The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825.
- Duffy, James (1968). Portuguese Africa.
- Livermore, H.V. (1976). A New History of Portugal. Cambridge University Press.
- Mira, Manuel S. (1998). Forgotten Portuguese: The Melungeons and the Portuguese Making of America.
- Orange, G. V. (June 1968). "King John II of Portugal and the Quest for India". History Today. Vol. 18, no. 6. pp. 415–421.
- Page, Martin. The First Global Village.