These are the first nine kings of Portugal, known as the Afonsines.
The whole of the Iberian Peninsula had been ruled by Christian Visigothic Kings until Count Justin had invited Arabs in from Morocco1to aid him in his prospective conquest, in the eighth century. Gradually these had conquered more and more territory, almost to the Pyrenees, bringing most of the peninsula under Islam. The early kings of Leon, Castile, Aragon, Portugal and other small kingdoms therefore were much occupied with the 're-conquest', regaining the old Christian lands of the Visigoths.
King Afonso Henriques (1139 - 1185)
The Founder of the Country
The first King of Portugal was Afonso Henriques. He was the son of Henry of Burgundy, the Count of Portugal, and Teresa, the illegitimate daughter of Afonso VI of Leon and Castile. Henry had been appointed the Count of Portugal2 on the occasion of his marriage.
Born in 1109 at Guimarães, his father died when he was only three. His mother acted as Regent for the County of Portugal, although she styled herself Queen.
Following the Battle of São Mamede, 27th July, 1128, the Earldom of Portugal severed its ties with Galicia, Leon and Castile. Afonso Henriques commenced to rule in his own right.
In 1131 Count Afonso founded the monastery of Santa Cruz3 in Coimbra.
On 25th July, 1139, Afonso Henriques gained a victory at Campo d'Ourique over five Moorish Kings. He was acclaimed King of Portugal on the battlefield. He continued to expand the Portuguese territory southward.
The King of Castile eventually acknowledged Afonso as King of Portugal in 1143.
Following the successful sieges of Santarem and Lisbon in 1147, he fulfilled a vow to build the Monastery of Alcobaça.
He married Mafalda of Savoy around 1145. Their children were Henrique (died young), Sancho, Urraca, Mafalda and Teresa. There were four or five illegitimate children.
He died on the 6th December 1185 in Coimbra and was buried in the monastery of Santa Cruz.
King Sancho I (1185 - 1211)
The Father of the Country
Sancho, the surviving son of Afonso Henriques and Mafalda of Savoy, was born on the 11th November 1154. At the age of 16 he was knighted and his father brought him in to help with the government of the realm.
In 1178 he led a profound incursion against the Moors to the outskirts of Seville.
In 1189, a year after successfully besieging Silves in the Algarve, he was declared King of Portugal and the Algarve. The following year, however, the Moors regained Silves and a good portion of the territories that his father had won.
Sancho I was fully occupied restoring, repopulating and improving the towns and frontier castles. He created a scholarship for French studies at the monastery of Santa Cruz, in Coimbra, to assist students to travel to the French Universities.
He married Dulce of Barcelona, a princess of Aragon in 1174.
The children of his marriage were Afonso, Pedro, Ferdinand, Henrique, Raimundo, Teresa4, Mafalda, Sancha5 and Branca. He had six illegitimate children.
He died in March 1211 in Coimbra. He lies alongside his father in the monastery of Santa Cruz.
King Afonso II (1211 - 1223)
The Fat
Born in 1185, Afonso II was married to Urraca of Castile, a granddaughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Their children were Sancho, Afonso, Leonor and Fernando. Just one illegitimate child is recorded.
His reign was dogged by 'The War of the Infantas' as he refused to hand over property that his sisters had been bequeathed in his father's will.
He dedicated himself to establishing laws for the kingdom and consolidating the power of the throne.
At an unknown time during his reign he sent a fleet to the Holy Land for the relief of Jerusalem.
In 1217, with the aid of crusaders, he besieged Alcácer do Sal, and successfully kept this conquest.
He died on 25th March 1223 in Coimbra and was buried in the Monastery of Alcobaça.
King Sancho II (1223 - 1245)
The Pious
Born in Coimbra in 1209, Sancho married Marcia (or Mécia) Lopes of Haro, a grand-daughter of Afonso IX of Leon. There were no children.
Portuguese merchants were granted safe conducts to trade with England.
He did much to regain some of the territories from the Moors, reaching the Algarve coast at Tavira.
Sancho's brother, Afonso 'the Nephew', born in 1210, had been sent to the French court to complete his upbringing, where his aunt, Blanche of Castile, was regent. Whilst in France he married Maud6 of Boulogne.
In July 1245 Pope Innocent IV excommunicated King Sancho, due to complaints from both Church and secular Lords of Portugal, and in September he declared Sancho to be deposed and appointed Afonso 'the Nephew' as King. Sancho fought against this loss of power. He had the misfortune to lose his queen through treason or kidnap.
In 1248, Dom Sancho II died in exile at Toledo, Castile. In his will he declared the heir to the kingdom to be his sister, Leonora. Although wishing to be buried at the monastery of Alcobaça, he was entombed in the cathedral of Toledo, alongside his great-great-grandfather Afonso VI of Leon and Castile.
King Afonso III (1248 - 1279)
The Liberator or King Afonso III of Boulogne - The Restorer
Firstly declared 'Defender of the Kingdom' Afonso was not appointed king until his brother died. Civil war and unrest took about a year to settle down. Mostly people were happy with the change of rulers.
By 1252, the borders of Portugal were established, and remain more or less identical today.
With the country stabilised Afonso decided to repudiate Maud and get himself some heirs. He promptly married the Princess Brites (Beatriz) of Castile, at Chaves. She was an illegitimate daughter of Afonso X of Castile.
Maud turned up in Lisbon, expecting to be welcomed as Queen.
The Pope excommunicated Afonso for bigamy.
Afonso and Brites had a son, Dinis, born illegitimate. When Afonso, the second son was born, on the 8th October, 1261, the marriage was declared legal (as Maud had died in 1258) and backdated, however, to 1253. Their children were Branca, Fernando (died young), Dinis, Afonso, Sancha, Maria and Vicente. He had five illegitimate children.
Afonso died on the 16th February, 1279.
King Dinis (1279 - 1325)
The Husbandman
There were many problems with his brother Afonso, who considered Dinis illegitimate despite the backdating of their parents' marriage.
Dom Dinis' proxy marriage to Isabel of Aragon, the daughter of Pedro III of Aragon, took place in Trancoso, in June of 1282. By 1285, Isabel of Aragon was 14 and then considered old enough to finalise the marriage vows with Dinis.
In 1290 their only son, Afonso, was born. They also had a daughter, Constança, who married Fernando IV of Castile.
A University for General Studies was set up in Lisbon.
Trade treaties were made with Edward III of England and in 1293, a Merchant's Exchange was set up.
From 1307 onwards the king concentrated on expanding the navy and in 1317 appointed a Genoese, Manuel Pessanha, as Admiral. Together with Isabel, forests were established around Leiria, to provide timber for the expanding fleet.
The University was moved to Coimbra.
1318 and King Dinis dissolved the Order of the Knights Templar under instruction from the Pope. The next year he instigated a new military order 'The Order of Christ' appointing former Knights Templar as members and handing over the former Templar lands and possessions.
Dinis had quite a string of illegitimate children, the oldest of whom was Afonso Sanchez. Another civil war started, this time led by his legitimate son, Afonso, who thought he was being passed over in favour of his older half-brother.
The problem was eventually solved by the Queen, Isabel the Peacemaker, and Afonso, the crown prince, given more responsibility in the running of the kingdom.
The queen was also instrumental in creating hospitals, including a hospital for children in Santarém.
Dom Dinis died on the 7th of January, 1325 and was buried in the Convent of Odivelas.
Afonso IV (1325 - 1357)
The Brave
By the 1330s Portuguese sailors were already making trips out into the Atlantic and to the Canary Isles.
In 1309 Afonso married Beatrice, daughter of Sancho IV of Castile, and their children were Maria, Afonso (died young), Dinis (died young), Pedro, Isabel (died young), João (died young) and Leonor.
On 14th July 1336, the Queen Mother died. She was canonized7 for her charity and peacemaking and is known as 'A Rainha Santa Isabel' - the Queen Saint Isabel.
'The Hundred Years War' between England and France started in 1337.
In 1340 the Moorish threat to Portugal was finally crushed at the Battle of Salado.
In 1348 the Black Death entered Portugal.
A commercial accord was signed with England in 1353.
In 1355 Inez de Castro was murdered by order of Afonso IV which led to civil war with his son Pedro.
In 1357, Dom Afonso IV died.
King Pedro I (1357 - 1367)
The Severe, the Cruel or The Inflexible.
Pedro was born on 8th April 1320 and at the tender age of eight was promised in marriage to Branca, daughter of the King of Castile.
Despite this betrothal, Prince Pedro married Constança of Aragon, although declaring that he had already married a further lady, the love of his life, Inez de Castro.
On 31st October, 1345, the Infante Dom Fernando was born to Pedro and Constança in Lisbon. He already had four children, João, Dinis, Afonso (died young) and Beatrice, by Inez.
After the death of Inez, on the 14th August 1356, Pedro's mistress, Teresa Lourenço, a Galician lady, presented him with another João.
The Coronation of Pedro did not take place until 1361. It was a special occasion as he insisted that Inez be exhumed and also crowned, as his queen. At the Coronation banquet he arranged that her murderers be tortured and killed outside, within hearing distance.
Dom Pedro died in 1367 in Estremoz. Pedro and Inez are buried in Alcobaça, 'Until the End of Time'.
King Fernando (1367 - 1383)
The Handsome
1369 saw the start of what was to be a long struggle against the usurper of the throne of Castile, Henry II. Dom Fernando allied himself with the Kings of Aragon, Navarre and Granada and invaded Galicia. He was after the throne of Castile by right of being a great-grandson of Sancho IV of Castile.
A couple of years later John of Gaunt married Constança of Castile, the eldest daughter of the deposed King Pedro, with a similar idea in mind.
A revolt against Fernando took place in Lisbon, as the population objected to his plans to marry Leonor Teles de Meneses. The marriage took place anyway in 1372. They had three children of whom only the daughter, Beatriz, survived.
During the year of 1374 the first Treaty of Westminster, with England, was signed.
In October, 1380, England sent forces preparatory for the proposed joint invasion of Castile, under the command of Prince Edmund.
João Fernandes Andeiro of Corunna returned from exile with the English, was reinstated at court and created Count of Ourém 'Number Two'. This well-known figure, as well as being the favourite of the King, was also doing a double act with the Queen, as her lover.
The next three years were to see a series of disastrous wars with Castile.
On another occasion, like 'Round 3', peace was signed so Henry and his son, Juan, had to leave off the attack of Sintra. One of the clauses in the treaty was that the fleet of Castile be employed to repatriate the English army.
In the April of 1383, the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos led to the contract of marriage between the Infanta, Beatriz, aged 10, and Juan of Castile.
In October 1383 Fernando died in Lisbon and thus ended the direct Afonsine line of the Kings of Portugal. He was buried in the habit of a monk next to his mother in the church of S. Francisco, Santarém.
There then followed an Interregnum of three years, whilst the protagonists sorted themselves out.
The contestants were
Beatriz, daughter of Fernando and Leonor, who technically had been ruled out of the succession by her marriage to a foreign prince, namely Juan of Castile. Some doubted her legitimacy, due to the immoral behaviour of her mother.João, half brother to the late king, and who some thought legitimate by virtue of King Pedro's assumed marriage to Inez de Castro. Unfortunately, due to the fact that he had murdered his wife and was exiled, he didn't stand much chance.João, another half brother to the late king, by Pedro's mistress, Teresa.The next Ruling House of Portugal is known as the (LINK) House of Aviz.(/LINK)
1 These Arabs were termed 'Moors'.
2 There had been Counts of Portugal before, of the family 'Mendes', but King Afonso had added more territory south of the river Douro, in the creation of this wedding gift.
3 The Holy Cross.
4 Saint Teresa, entombed in the monastery of Lorvão, Penacova.
5 Saint Sancha, also entombed in the monastery of Lorvão, was the abbess of that monastery.
6 or Matilda.
7 Made a saint, in 1742.
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