1109 Alphonso VI. died, bequeathing all his territories to his
legitimate daughter Urraca, and Count Henry at once invaded
Leon, hoping to add to his own dominions at the expense of his
suzerain. After three years of war against Urraca and other
rival claimants to the throne of Leon, Count Henry himself died
in 1112. He left Theresa to govern Portugal north of the
Mondego during the minority of her infant son Affonso Henriques
(Alphonso I.): south of the Mondego the Moors were still
supreme.
Theresa renewed the struggle against her half-sister and
suzerain Urraca in 1116–1117, and again in 1120; in 1121 she
was besieged in Lanhoso and captured. But a
peace was negotiated by the archbishops Diogo
Gelmires of Santiago de Compostela and Burdino of
Braga, rival churchmen whose wealth and military resources
Theresa,
1112–1128.
enabled them to dictate terms. Bitter jealousy existed between
the two prelates, each claiming to be primate of “all the Spains,”
and their antagonism had some historical importance in so far
as it fostered the growth of separatist tendencies among the
Portuguese. But the quarrel was temporarily suspended
because both Gelmires and Burdino had reason to dread the
extension of Urraca’s authority. It was arranged that Theresa
should be liberated and should continue to hold the county of
Portugal as a fief (honor) of Leon. During the next five years
she lavished wealth and titles upon her lover Fernando Peres,
count of Trava, thus estranging her son, the archbishop of Braga
and the nobles, most of whom were foreign crusaders. In 1128,
after her power had been crushed in another unsuccessful conflict
with Leon and Castile, she was deposed by her own rebellious
subjects and exiled in company with Peres. She died in 1130.
Alphonso, who became count of Portugal in 1128, was one of
the warrior heroes of medieval romance; his exploits were sung
by troubadours throughout south-western Europe, and even in
Africa “ibn Errik”—the son of Henry—was known and
feared. The annals of his reign have been encumbered
with a mass of legends, among which must be
Alphonso I.,
1128–1185.
included the account of a cortes held at Lamego in
1143; probably also the description of the Valdevez tournament,
in which the Portuguese knights are said to have vanquished the
champions of Leon and Castile. Alphonso was occupied in
almost incessant border fighting against his Christian or Moorish
neighbours. Twelve years of campaigning on the Galician
frontier were concluded in 1143 by the peace of Zamora, in which
Alphonso was recognized as independent of any Spanish sovereign,
although he promised to be a faithful vassal of the pope
and to pay him a yearly tribute of four ounces of gold. In 1167,
however, the war was renewed. Alphonso succeeded in conquering
part of Galicia, but in attempting to capture the frontier
fortress of Badajoz he was wounded and forced to surrender to
Ferdinand II. of Leon (1169). Ferdinand was his son-in-law,
and was probably disposed to leniency by the imminence of a
Moorish invasion in which Portugal could render useful assistance.
Alphonso was therefore released under promise to abandon all
his conquests in Galicia.
He had already won many victories over the Moors. At the beginning of his reign the religious fervour which had sustained the Almoravide dynasty was rapidly subsiding; in Portugal independent Moorish chiefs ruled over cities and petty states, ignoring the central government; in Africa the Almohades were destroying the remnants of the Almoravide power. Alphonso took advantage of these dissensions to invade Alemtejo, reinforced by the Templars and Hospitallers, whose respective headquarters were at Soure and Thomar. On the 2 5th of July 1139 he defeated the combined forces of the Moors on the plains of Ourique, in Alemtejo. Legend has magnified the victory into the rout of 200,000 Moslems under five kings; but so far was the battle from being decisive that in 1140 the Moors were able to seize the fortress of Leiria, built by Alphonso in 1135 as an outpost for the defence of Coimbra, his capital. In 1144 they defeated the Templars at Soure. But on the 15th of March 1147 Alphonso stormed the fortress of Santarem, and about the same time a band of crusaders on their way to Palestine landed at Oporto and volunteered for the impending siege of Lisbon. Among them were many Englishmen, Germans and Flemings, who were afterwards induced to settle in Portugal. Aided by these powerful allies, Alphonso captured Lisbon on the 24th of October 1147. This was the greatest military achievement of his reign. The Moorish garrisons of Palmella, Cintra and Almada soon capitulated, and in 1158 Alcacer do Sal, one of the chief centres of Moorish commerce, was taken by storm. At this time, however, the Almohades had triumphed in Africa and invaded the Peninsula, where they were able to check the Portuguese reconquest, although isolated bands of crusading adventurers succeeded in establishing themselves in various cities of Alemtejo. The most famous of these free-lances was Giraldo Sempavor (“Gerald the Fearless”), who captured Evora in 1166. In 1171 Alphonso concluded a seven years truce with the Moors; weakened by his wound and by old age, he could no longer take the field, and .when the war broke out afresh he delegated the chief command to his son Sancho. Between 1179 and 1184 the Moors retrieved many of their losses in Alemtejo, but were unable to retake Santarem and Lisbon. Alphonso died on the 6th of December 1185. He had secured for Portugal the status though not the name of an independent kingdom, and had extended its frontier southwards from the Mondego to the Tagus. He had laid the foundation of its navy and had strengthened, if he did not inaugurate, that system of co-operation between the Crown and the military orders which afterwards proved of incalculable service in the maritime and colonial development of the nation.
Sancho I. continued the war against the Moors with varying
fortune. In 1189 he won Silves, then the capital of Algarve;
in 1192 he lost not only Algarve but the greater part
of Alemtejo, including Alcacer do Sal. A peace was
then arranged, and for the next eight years Sancho
was engaged in hostilities against Alphonso IX. of Leon. The
Sancho I.,
1185–1211.
motives and course of this indecisive struggle are equally
obscure. It ended in 1201, and the last decade of Sancho’s
reign was a period of peaceful reform which earned for the king
his popular name of o Povoador, the “maker of towns.” He
granted fresh charters to many cities, legalizing the system of
self-government which the Romans had bequeathed to the
Visigoths and the Moors had retained or improved. Lisbon had
already (1179) received a charter from Alphonso I. Sancho also
endeavoured to foster immigration and agriculture, by granting
estates to the military orders and municipalities on condition
that the occupiers should cultivate or colonize their lands.
Towards the close of his reign he became embroiled in a dispute
with Pope Innocent III. He had insisted that priests should
accompany their flocks in battle, had made them amenable to
secular jurisdiction, had withheld the tribute due to Rome and
had even claimed the right of disposing of ecclesiastical domains.
Finally he had quarrelled with Martinho Rodrigues, the unpopular
bishop of Oporto, who was besieged for five months in his
palace and then forced to seek redress in Rome (1209). As
Sancho was in weak health and had no means of resisting Papal
pressure, he made full submission (1210); and after bestowing
large estates on his sons and daughters, he retired into the monastery
of Alcobaça (q.v.), where he died in 1211.
The reign of Alphonso II. (“the Fat”) is noteworthy for
the first meeting of the Portuguese cortes, to which the upper
hierarchy of the Church and the nobles (fidalgos and
ricos homens) were summoned by royal writ. The
was no warrior, but in 1212 a Portuguese contingent
aided the Castilians to defeat the Moors at Las NavasAlphonso II.
1211–1223.
de Tolosa, and in 1217 the ministers, bishops and captains of
the realm, reinforced by foreign Crusaders, retook Alcacer do Sal.
Alfonso II. repudiated the will of his father, refused to surrender
the estates left to his brothers, who went into exile, and only
gave up the property bequeathed to his sisters after a prolonged
civil war in which Alphonso IX. of Leon took part against them.
Even then he compelled the heiresses to take the veil. His
attempts to strengthen the monarchy and fill the treasury at
the expense of the Church resulted in his excommunication by
