Afonso (Portugal) de Portugal (1109 - 1185)

Born 1109 in Guimarães or Viseu, Portugal

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 6 Dec 1185 at about age 76 in Coimbra, Portugal

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Biography

Afonso I Portugal was a member of the aristocracy in Europe.

Afonso I (Portugal) de Portugal is Notable.

Afonso I, was the first King of Portugal. He achieved the independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia, the County of Portugal, from Galicia's overlord, the King of León, in 1139, establishing a new kingdom and doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued until his death, in 1185, after forty-six years of wars against the Moors.

Afonso I was the son of Henry of Burgundy and Theresa, the natural born daughter of King Alfonso VI of León and Castile. The pair reigned jointly as Count and Countess of Portugal until Henry's death, after which Theresa reigned alone. Afonso was about three years old when his father Count Henry, died on 12 May 1112 during the siege of Astorga. In an effort to pursue a larger share in the Leonese inheritance, his mother Theresa married Fernando Pérez, Count of Trava, the most powerful count in Galicia.

The Portuguese nobility disliked the alliance between Galicia and Portugal and rallied around the infant Afonso. The Archbishop of Braga was also concerned with the dominance of Galicia, apprehensive of the ecclesiastical pretensions of his new rival the Galician Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Diego Gelmírez, who had claimed an alleged discovery of relics of Saint James in his town, as a way to gain power and riches over the other cathedrals in the Iberian Peninsula. In 1122, Afonso turned fourteen, the adult age in the 12th century. He made himself a knight on his own account in the Cathedral of Zamora, raised an army, and proceeded to take control of his mother's lands.

In 1128, near Guimarães, at the Battle of São Mamede Afonso and his supporters overcame troops under his stepfather Count Fernando Peres de Trava of Galicia. Afonso exiled his mother to Galicia, and took over rule of the County of Portugal. Thus the possibility of re-incorporating Portugal (up to then known as Southern Galicia) into a Kingdom of Portugal and Galicia as before was eliminated and Afonso became sole ruler following demands for independence from the county's church and nobles. He also vanquished his mother's nephew, Alfonso VII of León, who came to her rescue, and thus freed the country from political dependence on the crown of his cousin of León. On 6 April 1129, Afonso Henriques dictated the writ in which he proclaimed himself Prince of Portugal.

Afonso then turned his arms against the persistent problem of the Moors in the south. His campaigns were successful and, on 25 July 1139, he obtained an overwhelming victory in the Battle of Ourique, and straight after was unanimously proclaimed King of the Portuguese by his soldiers, establishing his equality in rank to the other realms of the Peninsula. The first assembly of the estates-general convened at Lamego (wherein he would have been given the crown from the Archbishop of Braga, to confirm his independence) is a 17th-century embellishment of Portuguese history.

Independence from Alfonso VII of León's suzerainty, however, was not a thing he just could achieve militarily. The County of Portugal still had to be acknowledged diplomatically by the neighboring lands as a kingdom and, most importantly, by the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. Afonso wed Mafalda of Savoy, daughter of Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, and sent ambassadors to Rome to negotiate with the Pope. He succeeded in renouncing the suzerainty of his cousin, Alfonso VII of León, becoming instead a vassal of the papacy, as the kings of Sicily and Aragon had done before him. In 1179 the bull Manifestis Probatum accepted the new king as vassal to the pope exclusively.

In Portugal he built several monasteries and convents and bestowed important privileges to religious orders. He is notably the builder of Alcobaça Monastery, to which he called the Cistercian Order of his uncle Bernard of Clairvaux of Burgundy. In 1143, he wrote to Pope Innocent II to declare himself and the kingdom servants of the church, swearing to pursue driving the Moors out of the Iberian Peninsula. Bypassing any king of León, Afonso declared himself the direct liege man of the papacy. Afonso continued to distinguish himself by his exploits against the Moors, from whom he wrested Santarém and Lisbon in 1147. He also conquered an important part of the land south of the Tagus River, although this was lost again to the Moors in the following years.

Meanwhile, King Alfonso VII of León (Afonso's cousin) regarded the independent ruler of Portugal as nothing but a rebel. Conflict between the two was constant and bitter in the following years. Afonso became involved in a war, taking the side of the Aragonese king, an enemy of Castile. To ensure the alliance, his son Sancho was engaged to Dulce, sister of the Count of Barcelona and Infanta of Aragon. Finally after winning the Battle of Valdevez, the Treaty of Zamora (1143) established peace between the cousins and the recognition by the Kingdom of León that Portugal was a sovereign kingdom.

In 1169 the now old Dom Afonso was disabled in an engagement near Badajoz by a fall from his horse, and made prisoner by the soldiers of the king of León Ferdinand II also his son-in-law. Portugal was obliged to surrender as his ransom almost all the conquests Afonso had made in Galicia (north of the Minho River) in the previous years.

In 1179 the privileges and favours given to the Roman Catholic Church were compensated. In the papal bull Manifestis Probatum, Pope Alexander III acknowledged Afonso as king and Portugal as an independent crown with the right to conquer lands from the Moors. With this papal blessing, Portugal was at last secured as a kingdom.

In 1184, in spite of his great age, he still had sufficient energy to relieve his son Sancho, who was besieged in Santarém by the Moors. Afonso died shortly after, on 6 December 1185. The Portuguese revere him as a hero, both on account of his personal character and as the founder of their nation. There are mythical stories that it took 10 men to carry his sword, and that Afonso wanted to engage other monarchs in personal combat, but no one would dare accept his challenge.

Research Notes

Note that new profiles have not been created during the C-a-T; connections have been made among existing profiles only. This notice has been posted in all of the profiles mentioned below.

the Child:

• Teresa Fernández de Traba was the child of Teresa Alfonso and Fernando Pérez de Traba and she has now been connected to both (they are not linked as spouses as they did not marry). Note that her LNAB, De_Lara, is incorrect (it should probably be Traba or Trava).
• She married twice, her first husband was Nuño Pérez de Lara who died in 1177 and was the son of Pedro González de Lara and Countess Ava or Eva, the widow of García Ordoñez. His paternal grandparents were Gonzalo Núñez, Lord of Lara and Osma, and Goto Núñez. In WT, he appears as her father which is incorrect and has now been removed as her father and included as her spouse. His father, Pedro, has now been linked to him. A new profile for his mother, Ava, has not been created at this time.
• Teresa had six children with Nuño, none of whom have been located in WT and whose profiles have not been created: Fernando Nuñez de Lara, Álvaro Nuñez de Lara, Gonzalo Nuñez de Lara, Sancha Nuñez de Lara, María Nuñez de Lara and Elvira Nuñez de Lara.
• Her second husband was Fernando II de Castilla y León who appears correctly connected to her in WT (no action taken).
• In WT Sancho (De Leon) De Leon Del Campo appears as her son with Fernando II. This is incorrect as he was the son of Fernando II with his third and last wife, Urraca López de Haro who should not be confused with his first wife, Urraca de Portugal who appears as his spouse in WT and mother of his firstborn, Alfonso Fernández (Castilla) de León. De_León-193 has been unlinked from Teresa and left as Fernando's son. A new profile for Urraca López de Haro has not been created at this time.
• Fernando II and Teresa had two children, Fernando (1178-1187) and an infant, who died the day of his birth with his mother on 06 Feb 1180. They have not been located in WT and new profiles have not been created at this time.

the Mother:

• Teresa Alfonso (Castilla), whose CLN, incidentally, should be Alfónsez, is as stated above, De_Lara-22's mother and has been connected to her.
• She had six children with her husband Henry II (Portugal) de Portugal, Urraca Enríquez, Sancha Enríquez, Teresa de Portugal, Enrique Enríquez, Afonso I (Portugal) de Portugal and Pedro. New profiles have not been created at this time for Teresa, Enrique or Pedro. The other children are connected correctly to their parents.
• She had two children from her relation with Fernando Pérez de Traba, Teresa Fernández de Traba and Sancha Fernández de Traba. A new profile has not been created at this time for Sancha.

Sources:

• [1] Wikipedia: "Fernando II de León"
• [2] Wikipedia: "Nuño Pérez de Lara"
• [3] Wikipedia: "Fernando Pérez de Traba"
• [4] Real Academia de la Historia, Diccionario Biográfico electrónico (www.rah.es): Sánchez de Mora, Antonio, "Teresa Fernández de Traba"
• [5] Real Academia de la Historia, Diccionario Biográfico electrónico (www.rah.es): Sánchez de Mora, Antonio, "Nuño Pérez de Lara"
• [6] Real Academia de la Historia, Diccionario Biográfico electrónico (www.rah.es): Baquero Moreno, Huberto, "Teresa Alfónsez"

Sources

• Baquero Moreno, Humberto (2006). "Portugal e o reino das Astúrias no período de formação". Astúrias e Portugal. Relações históricas e culturais. Actas do
• Colóquio 5 a 7 de Dezembro de 2005 (in Portuguese). Lisbon: Academia Portuguesa da História. pp. 115–141. ISBN 972-624-164-2.
• Caetano de Souza, Antonio (1735). Historia Genealógica de la Real Casa Portuguesa (PDF) (in Portuguese). Vol. I. Lisbon: Lisboa Occidental, na oficina de
• Joseph Antonio da Sylva. ISBN 978-84-8109-908-9 Calderón Medina, Inés (2004). "La nobleza portuguesa al servicio del rey de León 1157-1187. Pero Pais de Maia y Vasco Fernandes de Soverosa". Actas IV Simposio
• Internacional de Jóvenes Medievalistas, Lorca 2008 (PDF) (in Spanish). Universidad de Murcia, Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales, Ayuntamiento de Lorca, et al. pp. 39–50. ISBN 978-84-8371-801-8.
• Freitas do Amaral, Diogo (2000). D. Afonso Henriques (in Portuguese). Lisbon: Bertrand. ISBN 972-25-1157-2.
• Mattoso, José (2014). D. Afonso Henriques (in Portuguese). Lisbon: Temas e Debates. ISBN 978-972-759-911-0.
• Previte-Orton, C.W. (1912). The Early History of the House of Savoy: 1000-1233. Cambridge University Press.
• Rodrigues Oliveira, Ana (2010). Rainhas medievais de Portugal. Dezassete mulheres, duas dinastias, quatro séculos de História (in Portuguese). Lisbon: A esfera dos livros. ISBN 978-989-626-261-7.
• Sánchez Candeira, Alfonso (1999). Rosa Montero Tejada (edition sponsored by Fundación BBV, Fundación Ramón Areces, Caja Madrid Fundación), eds. Castilla y León en el siglo XI, estudio del reinado de Fernando I. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia. ISBN 978-84-8951241-2.
• Sotto Mayor Pizarro, José Augusto (1997). Linhagens Medievais Portuguesas: Genealogias e Estratégias (1279-1325 (in Portuguese). Vol. I. Oporto: Doctorate thesis, author’s edition.
• Torres Sevilla-Quiñones de León, Margarita Cecilia (1999). Linajes nobiliarios de León y Castilla: Siglos IX-XIII (in Spanish). Salamanca: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de educación y cultura. ISBN 84-7846-781-5.

• Wikipedia: Afonso I of Portugal

• Wikidata: Item Q587697, pt:Wikipedia