Part 5

This feat of arms was surpassed in the same year by a still greater event, the capture of Lisbon, the important city at the mouth of the Tagus, the future capital of Portugal, and the port from which the Portuguese ships were to sail forth on their voyages of discovery both to the east and the west. Affonso Henriques had long wished to capture this great city, for if he possessed it as well as Santarem, he would be able to defend the Tagus as his southern boundary, and have a much better base of operations. This ancient city was, from its position on the Tagus, the natural capital of the western coast of the Iberian peninsula, and had been an ancient Greek colony. The legend that it was founded by Ulysses, who gave its name, Ulyssipo, afterwards corrupted into Olisipo and Lisbon, is an ancient one; and it certainly held that name up to the time of Augustus, when a Roman colony was fixed there, and its name was changed to Felicitas Julia. Its capture by the Moors in 714 had marked one of their greatest stages of advance, and it remained the capital of their province of the Belatha for more than four hundred years. It had three times been captured by the Christians--in 792 by Alfonso the Chaste, of Castile; in 851 by Ordonho I., of Leon; and in 1093 by Alfonso VI., the father-in-law of Count Henry, but had only remained in their possession twenty years after the first recapture, and only a few months upon the second and third occasions. On this occasion Affonso hoped to be permanently successful, and to make it the capital of his kingdom.

It is very doubtful if the Portuguese king would have entered upon this hazardous feat of arms so soon after his capture of Santarem, had not the news reached him from Oporto that a great fleet of crusaders had put in there, and that the Bishop of Oporto had persuaded the soldiers of the cross to commence their holy war against the infidels by assisting to take Lisbon before they proceeded on their way to Palestine. The bulk of these crusaders were Englishmen, and as a letter describing the expedition and siege by one of their number has lately been discovered and published,[4] it is possible to trace the whole history of this most important event in the history of Portugal. The fleet which had sailed from Dartmouth consisted of 164 ships, under several captains, of whom the most important were Arnold of Aerschot and Christian Ghistell, commanding the Germans, Flemings, and men of the county of Boulogne; Hervey Glanvill, constable of the men of Norfolk and Suffolk; Simon of Dover, “constable of all the ships of Kent;” Andrew of London, and Saher de Arcellis. The English crusader tells in his letter that the proposition of the Bishop of Oporto was not universally well received, and that two “pirates,” named William Vitulus and Ralph his brother, succeeded in leading away for a time the men of Hampshire, Bristol, and Hastings, whose cooperation was, however, soon secured by the eloquence of Hervey Glanvill. The northern crusaders thus re-united set sail for the Tagus, and having disembarked at the mouth of the river, marched up to join Affonso and his Portuguese knights. Even with this large reinforcement, the King of Portugal had not sufficient soldiers to blockade the great city, and he concentrated all his efforts on one particular spot, where at last he forced an entrance on October 24th. The resistance does not seem to have been very obstinate; the Moors of the Belatha had been dispirited by the capture of Santarem; those of the provinces to the south were either distracted by internecine war or paralyzed into inaction by fear of the Almohades; and Affonso was allowed to achieve and consolidate his conquest.

In addition to its intrinsic importance, the capture of Lisbon is worth noticing because of the assistance rendered to the Portuguese by the English; it is the first instance of the close connection between the two nations, which has lasted down to the present century, a connection which makes the history of Portugal of especial interest to Englishmen. After the conquest, most of the crusaders sailed on their way to the Holy Land, but the Portuguese king, by liberal offers, managed to persuade a few to settle down in his dominions, some of whom founded great families. It was no wonder that Affonso was almost astounded at his own success. Cintra, Palmella, Mafra, and Almada surrendered to him without a blow in 1147; Alemquer, Obidos, Torres Novas, and Porto de Moz in 1148; and he found himself master of the whole of the southern Beira and of Estremadura. His great difficulty was how at the same time to occupy and settle his new possessions, and to prepare for a further advance, and it was only sheer lack of men that checked his conquering career. Gilbert of Hastings, an Englishman, whom he had made Bishop of Lisbon, went to England to preach the crusade in Portugal with the full consent of King Henry II., but he did not bring many men back with him, and Affonso had to wait ten years before he made his next decisive step in advance. He spent these years in strengthening the fortifications of his new cities, and attracting inhabitants to them from his older cities; nor did he forget to show his gratitude to the Church, which had allowed its sworn soldiers to help him; for he founded, in 1153, the magnificent monastery of Alçobaça, the future resting-place of the kings of Portugal, and the finest specimen of mediæval architecture in the whole country. All this time he was impatiently longing to take a step further in advance and to capture the wealthy city of Alcacer do Sal. In 1152 he was beaten back in his first attack on that city; in 1157 he was again repulsed, although he had the assistance of Thierry of Alsace and a body of crusaders; but at last, on June 28, 1158, he was successful, and reached the height of his greatness and prosperity.

During these years, in which he had been fighting the Moors, Affonso Henriques had observed the terms of the Treaty of Zamora, and had prudently avoided all interference in the affairs of Spain; but the death of his cousin, the Emperor Alfonso, in 1157, which left him the oldest and most famous warrior in the peninsula, seems to have tempted him to abandon this prudent policy. The Emperor had divided his kingdoms, leaving Castile to his son Sancho, and Leon and Gallicia to his son Ferdinand, a division which also seems to have tempted Affonso to believe he could play a part in Spanish affairs. His alliance was sought on all sides, and in January, 1160, he betrothed his eldest daughter, Donna Matilda, to Raymond Berenger, heir to the throne of Aragon; and a little later in the same year he promised his second daughter, Donna Urraca, to King Ferdinand; and concluded the Treaty of Cella Nova, by which it was agreed that each monarch should prosecute his wars against the Moors independently, and that the course of the Guadiana should be the limit between their respective lines of conquest. This treaty was, undoubtedly, caused by the fact that the Moors in Africa had again become united under the rule of the Almohade caliph, Abd-el-Mumin, and that a great invasion of Spain by the Mohammedans was to be expected.

This invasion occurred in the very next year, 1161. Abd-el-Mumin crossed the straits of Gibraltar with eighteen thousand tried Almohade soldiers, and after subduing the independent Mohammedan emīrs, inflicted upon Affonso Henriques his first real defeat, and drove him back to Lisbon and Santarem. The death of Abd-el-Mumin in 1163 again changed the aspect of affairs. A disputed succession kept the Almohade warriors busy in Africa, and independent bands of “salteadors,” who were little better than brigands and free lances, began to establish themselves as petty feudal princes in the various cities and districts of the Alemtejo, the province south of the Tagus, which now became the battle-ground between the Christians and the Moors. Affonso Henriques let them do as they liked; he had a greater ambition, and as he had formerly schemed and planned to take Santarem, Lisbon, and Alcacer do Sal, he now cast his eyes upon the great city of Badajoz, although it lay upon the eastern side of the Guadiana which he had agreed to leave to the King of Leon. With this object in view he took Beja in 1162, Truxillo and Evora in 1165, and Caceres in 1166, thus gradually working up to the city which he coveted. King Ferdinand was not the man to allow these breaches of treaty to pass unnoticed, and founded the city of Ciudad Rodrigo, to command and threaten the north-eastern districts of Portugal.

But Ferdinand was at this time engaged in fighting his nephew, Alfonso IX. of Castile, and Affonso thought that he could take advantage of him. In 1167 he once more occupied Tuy and Limia, the two Gallician frontier cities, which he had formally surrendered by the Treaty of Zamora; and in 1169 he laid siege to Badajoz. This breach of treaty naturally incensed King Ferdinand, who collected a vast army, and besieged his father-in-law in his camp. The Spaniards were in every way successful; the Portuguese were everywhere defeated; their warrior monarch, now in advanced years, had his leg broken, and was forced to capitulate.

Ferdinand used his victory with moderation; he remembered what great things Affonso had done for Christendom; and after two months’ captivity, he allowed the Portuguese king to return to his country on his surrendering the cities in Gallicia, and on the left bank of the Guadiana, which he had taken in violation of treaties. But the spirit of the old warrior was broken; he was never again able to mount a horse, and about the year 1172, he associated his son Sancho with him in the government of Portugal, to whom he gave the title of King, and assigned all the duties of war and the leadership of the Portuguese armies.

Sancho was however a mere boy at this time, though he afterwards proved himself a worthy son of his father, and it was necessary for Affonso to take other measures against the Moors, who were now united under the Almohade caliph Yūsuf. He first promised the Knights Templars one-third of whatever they might conquer in the future, if they defended the Alemtejo. But the Templars were too weak in numbers to do much, and Yūsuf speedily reconquered the whole of the Alemtejo, and then laid siege to Santarem. Here however he was foiled; the defences had been strengthened with all the military skill known in the Middle Ages, and the city was well provisioned. Yūsuf was obliged to retire, and when he did so, Affonso, for the first time in his long career, made a truce with the infidels for seven years.

When his son Sancho, who had in 1174 married Donna Dulce, daughter of Raymond Berenger, Count of Barcelona, and Petronilla, Queen of Aragon, came to years of discretion, he broke this truce; and in 1176 he made an incursion into Moorish Spain as far as the city of Seville, and brought back much booty with him. This incursion revived perpetual fighting with the Mohammedans, and for the next few years the Alemtejo once more became a great battle-ground. In 1179, in which year Pope Alexander III. affirmed the independence of Portugal by a special papal bull, the Moors were beaten back from Abrantes; in 1180, they destroyed Corruche, and in 1181 they were defeated at Evora. The greatest struggle was yet to come. In May, 1184, Yūsuf crossed the straits with the finest and best-equipped Moslem army the Almohades ever brought into Spain; and in June he laid siege for the second time to Santarem. Pestilence defended the Portuguese city, and on 4th of July, 1184, Sancho utterly defeated the fever-stricken army of the Moors in a great battle, in which Yūsuf himself was mortally wounded. A legend runs that Affonso Henriques was carried in his litter at the head of the reinforcements, that enabled Sancho to win this signal victory, which, whether he himself were present or not, formed a worthy close to the reign of the great crusader-king.

During these last years of the Moorish wars, Affonso preserved all the quickness of intellect, if none of the bodily activity of his early years, and as his son Sancho was always at war, he devoted himself entirely to his last remaining daughter, Donna Theresa. The beauty of this princess was sung by the troubadours in all the courts of Europe, and her hand in marriage was eagerly sought by many suitors. In 1183, the old king at last accepted an offer for her, and she left her father and her country to marry Philip, the wealthy Count of Flanders. Poets and chroniclers agree in saying that the departure of this dear daughter broke the old king’s heart; he lived however to hear of, even if the legend be unfounded that he was not present at, the last great victory at Santarem, and he died on 6th of December of the following year, 1185, at Coimbra. He was buried in the church of the priory of Santa Cruz, in that city of which his friend S. Theotonio had been prior, and his tomb has been rightly reverenced as that of the true founder of Portuguese independence.

It is seldom the case that in one man’s reign a small inconsiderable county has grown into a powerful compact little kingdom, even during the Middle Ages, and that the new kingdom should be perpetuated to modern times is quite unparalleled in the history of Europe. This is what gives the history of the reign of Affonso Henriques such unusual interest and importance in general, as distinct from Portuguese, history. There is no geographical or ethnological reason why the part of the Iberian peninsula called Portugal should have formed an independent kingdom, more than Leon or Castile. It was the greatness of one man which made it an independent country. This is the first lesson taught by the Story of Portugal, that nations are not always marked out by natural geographical limits, or race divisions. The second lesson is, that a nation, which has thus become independent, may under certain circumstances develop a distinct individuality, which gives it a different character in every way to its neighbours. It has been shown that chance, the foresight of Donna Theresa and the greatness of Affonso Henriques made Portugal independent; the course of the history to be narrated will show how, while the other kingdoms of the peninsula coalesced into Spain, Portugal remained independent and developed separately. Spain and Portugal are now two separate countries with different languages, literatures, and national characteristics; how they began to separate has been shown; how they became finally distinct is now to be related.

IV.

PORTUGAL ATTAINS ITS EUROPEAN LIMITS.

Sancho I., the Povoador or City-builder, had already won his reputation as a warrior in his father’s life-time, and his fame as king rests rather on the success of his internal administration of his country. But before he had time to gratify his inclination towards the more peaceful duties of government, he had to continue the life and death struggle with the Moors. The great victory won the year before his accession, gave him a little breathing space, and in 1188 he even proposed to take part in the Third Crusade, for which great preparations were being made all over Europe. But the Moors were not likely to forget their repulse at Santarem, and in the same year Ya’kūb, the son of Yūsuf, the new Almohade caliph landed in the peninsula, and marched without a check until he was once more driven from before Santarem by the conjoined influence of pestilence and of the courage of the Portuguese knights. In the following year King Sancho took his revenge; he stopped at Lisbon first an army of Dutch, Frisian, and Danish crusaders; then a body of French crusaders under Jacques d’Avesnes, Bishop of Beauvais, and the Count of Bar; and finally a well-equipped force of Londoners, all on their way to the Holy Land--and with their help he not only reduced the whole of the Alemtejo, but even took Silves, the capital of the distant emirate of the Alfaghar or Algarves. Ya’kūb was astounded at these successes. He collected a large Mohammedan army, and again crossed to Spain. But ill-luck followed his advance; his army was badly equipped, and not well supplied with provisions; he was foiled by one hundred young London crusaders in an attack on Silves; he was driven back from Thomar, the headquarters of the Knights Templars, by their Grand Master in Portugal, Gualdim Paes; and was finally obliged to abandon the siege of Santarem by a pestilence, which the Portuguese ascribed to a visitation from God. But the great Almohade caliph determined to be more successful the next time; he spent two years in Africa in preaching the Holy War against the Christians, and in 1192 crossed to the peninsula with the finest Mohammedan army which had appeared there since the days of the Almoravides. King Sancho and his Portuguese knights had to oppose this formidable invasion unaided, for the crusaders had gone on their way to Palestine, and were there fighting under Richard Cœur de Lion, and Philip Augustus of France. The Mohammedan soldiers advanced in a triumphal march; they easily reconquered Silves and the Algarves, and then swept across the Alemtejo, taking in rapid succession Beja, Alcacer do Sal, the hard-won conquest of Affonso Henriques, and even Palmella and Almada--the cities which guarded the approach to Lisbon from the south. Sancho, seeing that resistance was of no avail, was only too glad to be permitted to make a treaty with the Moors, which fixed the Tagus as his southern boundary, and the vast Mohammedan army turned into Andalusia and utterly defeated Alfonso VIII. of Castile at the battle of Alarcos in 1195.

King Sancho recognized the fact that the Moors, while united under their great Almohade caliph, were too powerful for him to attack, and he therefore turned his attention to the disputes among the Spanish sovereigns, and to matters of internal administration. It is fortunately not necessary to relate the history of Sancho’s wars with his Christian neighbours. The independence of Portugal was now an established fact, and the minute details of the various wars waged up to the year 1200 have no especial importance or interest, except in so far as they contribute to a knowledge of the causes of the quarrel which ensued between Sancho and the Pope. It will be remembered that the eldest daughter of Affonso Henriques, Donna Urraca, had married Ferdinand II., King of Leon, and that she was the mother of Alfonso IX. This monarch had commenced his reign on friendly terms with Affonso Henriques, and his successor Sancho, and this friendliness had culminated in 1191, in the marriage of Alfonso IX. of Leon to Sancho’s daughter, Donna Theresa. This princess, whose virtues were such that she was canonized as a saint in 1705, was thus first cousin to her husband, and as the canon law was very strict against such marriages, Pope Celestine III. by threats of excommunication and of interdict, forced her husband to repudiate her and to send her back to Portugal in 1195. This insult not only brought about the wars with Leon, which have been mentioned, but left in the mind of King Sancho a rankling animosity against the Papacy, which found its outlet later in his great quarrel with Pope Innocent III.

His truce with the Moors in 1192, and his determination to abandon all interference in Leon and Gallicia after 1200, left King Sancho time to attend to the crying wants of his people. He recognized clearly that there was no use in his pushing across the Tagus and conquering the Alemtejo and the Algarves, when the little kingdom he actually ruled was not half populated. During his father’s reign there had been nothing but fighting, and except in Oporto and Lisbon, where a flourishing trade existed, fostered by the frequent visits of the crusading fleets from the north, and in the northern provinces of the Entre Minho e Douro and the Tras-os-Montes, where agriculture survived, the scanty population subsisted chiefly on the spoils taken in the yearly invasions of Mohammedan territory. The population of the Beira and the northern part of Portuguese Estremadura lived entirely in towns, or in villages clustered round the castles of the nobility, and looked upon war as the only means for obtaining a livelihood. This habit of mind had made a nation of warriors, but it had left the land uncultivated. Tracts of wilderness extended between the towns and villages especially in the more recently conquered districts to the south of Coimbra, and now that the truce with the Moors had deprived the population of their chief means of subsistence, King Sancho saw that it was necessary to revive the pursuit of agriculture.