involved in Portuguese internal affairs, where his older
brother was under attack by clergy and nobles. Pope In-
nocent IV, in a bull of 24 July 1245, effectively deposed
Sancho II by reducing him to king in name only and
by turning over the government to his younger brother,
Afonso, Count of Boulogne. Innocent IV instructed the
Portuguese to receive and obey Afonso as soon as he
arrived in Portugal and to ignore the orders of Sancho
II. After the pope issued his bull, a delegation of Portu-
guese—a number of whom had testifi ed against Sancho
II at the Council of Lyons—visited Paris, where they
swore obedience to Afonso. They also exacted a series of
promises from the future monarch to respect the Church,
to honor the privileges and customs of Portugal, and to
promote justice.
Arriving in Portugal in early 1246, Afonso took part
in the civil war against supporters of the king. After
Sancho II died in Toledo in January 1248, Afonso III
was crowned king. The new monarch renewed the
policies of Portugal’s earlier monarchs by asserting
authority wherever possible and by taking a hard line
with the privileged classes when their immunities and
prerogatives interfered with the royal treasury or admin-
istration. Early in his reign, Afonso III took up the task
of driving the Muslims from their isolated strongholds
in southwestern Portugal. The time was propitious for
such a move. Fernando III of Castile, with the aid of the
Portuguese military orders and some Portuguese nobles,
had been campaigning successfully against the Muslim
kingdoms in Andalucía. Seville would fall to Christian
forces in November 1248. Afonso II personally led the
drive to oust the Muslims from the Algarve. In March
1249 he captured Faro. Soon, Albufeira and Silves,
along with a number of lesser towns and fortresses,
fell to the Portuguese. This completed the ouster of
Muslim military forces from what was to be the limits
of modern Portugal. In 1251 Afonso II continued his
campaign—this time to the east of the Guadiana River
in territory that the Castilians regarded as their preserve.
Castile, in the mean time, claimed parts of the Algarve.
Armed confl ict soon broke out between Portugal and
Castile over these disputed territories.
In 1252 Alfonso X “el Sabio” (the Wise) ascended
the Castilian throne. A year later, a truce was arranged
between the two kings. It was resolved that Afonso III
would marry Beatriz of Castile, the illegitimate daughter
of Alfonso X. The marriage took place in 1253. In addi-
tion, it was decided that the administration of the newly
conquered kingdom of the Algarve and the lands east
of the Guadiana would be Portugal’s but the usufruct of
these territories would remain in the hands of Alfonso X
until the fi rstborn son of the marriage between Afonso
III and Beatriz reached the age of seven.
Unfortunately, there were a number of diffi culties in
implementing this marriage arrangement. Beatriz wasvery young and was related to Afonso III within the
fourth degree of consanguinity. But most importantly,
Afonso III was already married to Matilda, Countess of
Boulogne, who was living in France. Soon Matilda was
complaining to the pope about her husband’s bigamous
marriage. Although Pope Alexander IV placed under
interdict those parts of Portugal where the king was
residing, he was unable to persuade Afonso III to leave
his young bride.
Matilda’s death in 1258 helped resolve some of the
Portuguese monarch’s diffi culties. But papal opposi-
tion to the marriage continued, as did the interdict. The
bishops and cathedral chapters of Portugal came to the
king’s defense. In 1260—by which time Beatriz had
already borne two children to Afonso—they pleaded
with Pope Urban IV to lift the interdict and legitimize
the children. They argued that the abandonment of
Beatriz by Afonso would lead to war with Castile, and
they claimed that ecclesiastical penalties were causing
spiritual harm and scandal in Portugal. Finally, in 1263,
after a visit to Rome by a delegation of Portuguese
bishops, and after much lobbying by European leaders
such as Louis IX of France and the Duke of Anjou, the
request for the necessary dispensations and legitimiza-
tions was granted.
The birth in 1261 of Dinis, Afonso III’s third child
by Beatriz (the fi rst was a girl, the second a boy who
died in infancy), provided the necessary ingredient for
the resolution of the controversy between Castile and
Portugal. By the Treaty of Badajoz in 1267 Alfonso X
of Castile renounced his rights to the kingdom of the
Algarve, while Afonso III gave up Portuguese claims to
the territories between the Guadiana and Guadalquivir
Rivers. Portugal, however, would have authority over
the territory to the west of the mouth of the Guadiana
and its confl uence with the Caia River.
In addition to the reconquest of the Algarve and
the resolution of Portugal’s boundaries with Castile,
several other major accomplishments marked Afonso
III’s reign. Afonso promoted greater participation by
towns and their offi cials in Portuguese national life. At
Leiria in 1254, for the fi rst time in the nation’s history,
representatives of the cities participated in the cortes
(parliament) along with the nobility and the higher cler-
gy. Laws were also enacted to protect commoners from
abuse at the hands of the privileged classes. Furthermore,
Afonso III restructured the country’s monetary system.
Charters issued during his reign show that a moneyed
economy was replacing barter. Fixed monetary taxes
replaced the custom of paying in kind. At the cortes of
Coimbra in 1261, Afonso III agreed to devalue the cur-
rency only once during a reign instead of every seven
years, as was becoming the practice. The monarch
favored Lisbon over Coimbra as the kingdom’s chief
commercial and administrative center, and he increasedAFONSO III, KING OF PORTUGAL