Radice, Betty, trans. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Har-
mondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
Ulrike Wiethaus
HENRIQUE, PRINCE OF PORTUGAL
(1394-1460)
Conventionally known as “the Navigator,” Henrique
was born in Oporto (Portuguese: Porto) on 4 March
- His father, João I, was a bastard who had fought
his way to the throne. The chivalric culture of the court
in which Henrique grew up cloaked the imperfections
of the new dynasty’s credentials.
As the fourth of the king’s sons, Henrique had no
prospect of the crown. He had, however, the example
of his grandfather, John of Gaunt, who maintained an
affi nity of kingly proportions and sought a crown of
his own in Spain through wars, conducted to resemble
knightly cavalcades. Though little direct evidence
survives of Henrique’s life up to 1415, the priorities
of an upbringing dominated by knightly exercises are
conveyed in the treatise on chivalry attributed to his
eldest brother. The chivalric ideal informed his whole
career. Though he was later obliged to become involved
in commerce and industry in an effort to maintain his
estate, he always projected the self-perception of a per-
fect knight, espousing celibacy, practicing asceticism,
and professing religious motives for slave raids and
attempted conquests.
After contemplating a tournament of unprecedented
magnifi cence to celebrate the knighting of his sons, the
king decided in 1415 to launch instead a real chevau-
chée (chivalric attack) against a traditional enemy, the
Muslims of Ceuta. The princes themselves were said to
have urged this change of plan. The chronicle tradition
assigns Henrique a prominent part in the conquest and
in the next few years he earned offi ces of honor and
profi t comparable to those of his brothers. By 1423 he
was the duke of Viseu, the governor of Ceuta and the
Algarve, and the administrator of the Order of Christ.
He remained, however, a cadet prince with an ill-defi ned
role who chose to reside away from court, chiefl y in
the Algarve, and to surround himself with a retinue of
“knights” and “squires” whom he maintained at great
cost and no small trouble: documents concerning crimes
by members of his household cover murder, rape, and
piracy. This entourage was not only evidence of Hen-
rique’s pretensions; it also committed him to a quest for
patronage with which to reward his followers.
His ambitions are suggested in a memorandum
addressed to his father in April 1432: the Count of
Arraiolos, who knew Henrique well, observed that
he might acquire a kingdom in Morocco, Granada,
Castile, or the Canary Islands, “and have the affairs of
this kingdom [Portugal] in the palm of his hand.” Little
survives of any writing of Henriques’s own, but the two
probably authentic memoranda from his pen recommend
crusades against Tangier and Málaga. His attempt to
conquer Tangier in 1437, however, was a costly failure,
and thereafter he concentrated on alternative fi elds of
endeavor in which he had already dabbled: maritime
deeds and, in particular, his effort to acquire a realm in
the Canary Islands.
Many chivalric romances of the period had a seaborne
setting, and a common denouement placed the hero in
an island-kingdom. Portuguese ports had played a part
in the exploration of the eastern Atlantic since the 1340s
and there is evidence in chronicles and maps that Portu-
guese navigation intensifi ed in that arena in the 1420s.
That Henrique was already involved is an assertion of
a chronicle he later commissioned. In the following
decade, however, independent documents confi rmed
his interest. In 1432 his claims to the Canaries led the
pope to solicit opinions from jurists on the question of
the legitimacy of war against the pagan inhabitants. It
is evident from friars’ protests that Henrique’s career
as a slaver, to be continued in the next decade on the
African coast, began in the Canaries by 1434. His efforts
to secure a base in the archipelago continued with few
interruptions almost until his death but were rewarded
with no permanent success: some islands remained in
the natives’ hands, others in those of Castilian adven-
tures or settlers.
After his father’s death in 1433, the sense of voca-
tion attributed to him by contemporaries seems to
have deepened. He felt destined for great deeds by his
horoscope—his chronicler tells us—and endowed, by
inheritance from King João, with a “talent” that had
to “shine forth.” Portuguese ambassadors in 1437 told
the pope that Henrique’s aim was “expressly to fulfi l
the image and likeness of King João.” Between 1438
and 1449, all his surviving brothers died. The death of
the Infante Fernando, in captivity in Fez in 1443, was
a heavy charge on his conscience, for Fernando was
a victim of the debacle at Tangier and Henrique had
opposed the possible surrender of Ceuta in ransom. In
adopting a homonymous nephew as his heir, he shoul-
dered a fatherly responsibility. In 1449 he became the
senior surviving prince of his line when his elder brother,
Pedro, fell in rebellion against the crown.
Meanwhile, he had accumulated resources to invest
in his offshore activities. As well as the income from
the Order of Christ and the revenues of his many fi efs,
he controlled extensive fi shing rights, including the
monopoly of the tuna-curing industry of the Algarve; the
monopoly of soap manufacture throughout the kingdomHENRIQUE, PRINCE OF PORTUGAL