was his, as was that of coral gathering off Ceuta. His
maritime activities were exempt from the royal tax on
booty and he had the sole right to license voyages to
Madeira, the Azores, and the Atlantic coast of Africa.
These arenas occupied an increasing amount of his
attention as his prospects in Morocco and the Canaries
waned. He expressed interest in settling a colony on
Madeira as early as 1433; in June and July 1439, seed
and sheep were shipped to Madeira and at least one of
the Azores; thereafter, colonization was farmed out to
enterprising intermediate lords, who were normally
Henrique’s dependents (though his brother and nephew
were the superior lords in some cases). Henrique was a
partner in the building of the fi rst recorded sugar-mill in
Madeira in 1452: this made him a founding patron of an
important new industry of the late Middle Ages.
Meanwhile, navigation under Henrique’s patronage,
or with his license, extended along the African coast.
The chronicle he commissioned established the belief,
which historians continued to uphold until very recently,
that African exploration was the primary focus of the
prince’s endeavours. The much-vaunted rounding of
Cape Bojador in 1434 was a minor byproduct of the
effort to seize the Canaries; to judge from surviving
maps and sailing directions, “Cape Bojador” probably
signifi ed nothing more remote than the modern Cape
Juby. The great series of African voyages began in ear-
nest only in 1441. From the mid-1440s, this enterprise
began to yield appreciable amounts of gold and slaves.
Around the middle of the next decade, when Henrique
employed Genoese technicians to supplement his house-
hold personnel, signifi cant progress in navigation was
made when the Senegal and Gambia Rivers were inves-
tigated and the Cape Verde Islands discovered. The big
advances, however, both in the reach of exploration and
the yield of exploitable resources, came in the generation
after Henrique’s death, as Portuguese navigators worked
their way around Africa’s bulge. Meanwhile, in 1458,
Portugal’s crusading vocation in the Maghrib was briefl y
revived and Henrique accompanied the royal expedition
that seized Al-Qasr Kebir, near Ceuta.
Henrique died in Sagres on 13 November 1460. The
Canaries still eluded him; no crown adorned his head;
of the gold of Africa only a few threads had come within
his grasp; and he was heavily in debt. He had, however,
invested wisely in posthumous fame and has enjoyed an
enduring reputation as Portugal’s culture hero, credited
anachronistically with the foundation of the Portuguese
Empire and with the inauguration of a tradition of sci-
entifi c exploration. Modern scholarship disavows these
claims, but as a patron of the colonization of Madeira
and the Azores he can genuinely be counted among the
creators of Atlantic colonial societies.
See also João I, King of Portugal
Further Reading
Dias Dinis, A.J. Estudos henriquinos. Coimbra, 1960.
Monumenta Henricina. 15 vols. Coimbra, 1960–75.
Russell, P. E. Henry the Navigator. New Haven, Conn. 2001.
——. Prince Henry the Navigator: The Rise and Fall of a Cul-
ture-Hero. Oxford, 1984.
Zurara, G.E. de. Cronica dos feitos notáveis que se passaram na
conquista da Guiné. Ed. T. de Sousa Soares. Lisbon, 1978.
Felipe Fernández–ArmestoHENRY I (1067/68–1135; r. 1100–35)
Youngest son of William the Conqueror and Matilda of
Flan ders, he was left rich but landless on William’s death
in 1087. He used part of his inheritance to purchase the
Cotentin and Avranchin from his eldest brother, the per-
petually penniless Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy.
In 1091 he lost these provinces to the combined military
forces of his brothers Robert and William Rufus, king of
England, but he later came to terms with Rufus. In 1096
Robert pawned Normandy to William and set off upon
crusade. As Robert was returning in 1100, William was
killed in a hunting accident and Henry seized the throne.
Because of the timing of the death Henry has been
suspected of being in a murder plot, but the evidence
supports the view that Rufus was accidentally shot.
Upon his accession Henry issued a coronation char-
ter, denouncing the abuses of his brother’s reign and
agreeing to rule England by the laws of Edward the
Confessor. He set about fi lling some of the vacant bish-
oprics and recalled Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury,
from continental exile. He then married the Scottish
princess Matilda, who carried the blood of the line of
Alfred the Great. The marriage produced two children,
Matilda (b. 1102) and William (b. 1103). Matilda was
betrothed to the German emperor Henry V and left
England in 1110.
The fi rst years of Henry’s reign were spent consoli-
dating his rule and fi ghting against Robert Curthose,
who invaded in 1101 to claim the throne. In the Treaty
of Alton Robert renounced his claim to the throne in
return for an annual pension. However, he continued to
be troublesome, and be cause he could not keep peace in
the duchy of Normandy Henry was asked to intervene.
In July 1106 Henry launched an invasion that culminated
in the pitched battle at Tinchebrai on 28 September.
Robert was captured and remained in cap tivity until
he died in 1134. Even then Henry could not be secure
in his possession of Normandy, because Robert’s son,
William Clito, also had a claim to the duchy, and Henry
had to put down several revolts.
A major challenge to Henry came in 1111, when
Louis VI of France joined with the counts of Anjou
and Flanders. Henry emerged the victor by negotiating
a separate peace with the count of Anjou; Louis wasHENRIQUE, PRINCE OF PORTUGAL