King Don Afonso Henriques, first King of Portugal

It is an authentic document in which King Don Afonso himself swears on the Holy Gospels how he saw with his own eyes the Savior of the world in His great beauty, as we record in the account below. 

This document was found in the year 1506 in the archives of the Royal Monastery of Alcobaça by Dr. Fray Bernard of Brito, the principle chronicler of Portugal, to whom the Kingdom owes not only the glory it gained through his writings but also this valuable document he found. It is a parchment with ancient writing, already worn, with the seal of El Rey Don Afonso and another four of red wax, hanging from silk threads of the same color, verified and confirmed by persons of the greatest authority, the greatest experts on the value of historical documents. 

Dr. Fray Lawrence of the Holy Spirit, then Abbot of that general house of the Cistercian Order in this Kingdom, a person of great learning and much prudence, deemed it to be the will of God that this testimony be divulged to all. Thus he brought the parchment to Lisbon and showed it to the lords of the government, and afterward he journeyed to the court of Madrid and presented it to the Catholic King Phillip II. Many grandees at his court also saw it, and it was venerated and esteemed by all as a document of great worth. 

The content of the document is the following: 

I, Afonso, King of Portugal, son of Count Henrique [of Burgundy] and nephew of the great King Alfonso [of Castile and Leon], in the presence of you, Bishop of Braga and Bishop of Coimbra and Teotônio, and of all the many vassals of my Kingdom, swear on this metal Cross and this book of the Holy Gospels, upon which I place my hands, that I, a miserable sinner, saw with these unworthy eyes Our Lord Jesus Christ extended on the Cross in the following way:

The old hermit visits Don Afonso after his prophetic dream

I was with my army in the lands of Alentejo in the field of Ourique preparing to enter into battle with Ismael and four other Moorish kings who had put together thousands of men. And my people, fearful of their multitude, were excessively troubled and sad, so much so that some were saying publically that it was imprudent to continue this journey.

And I, concerned at what I heard, began to consider what I should do. As I was in my tent, I had with me a book in which the Old Testament and that of Jesus Christ were written. I opened it and I read in it the victory of Gideon. And I said to myself: “Thou dost know very well, Lord Jesus Christ, that it is for love of Thee that I took upon myself this war against Thy adversaries. Now, it is in Thy hands to give to me and to my men the strength to destroy in Thy Name these blasphemers.” 

Having said these words, I fell asleep over the book, and I began to dream that I saw an old man coming to my tent. He told me, “Afonso, have confidence, because you will conquer and destroy those infidel kings, you will smash their power and the Lord will appear to you.”

The miracle before the Battle of Orique by Domingos Sequeira (1793)

I was still having this vision when my chamberlain João Fernandes de Souza arrived, saying to me: “Wake up, my lord, because an old man is here who wants to speak to you.” 

I responded, “Let him enter if he is Catholic.” 

And as soon as he entered, I recognized him as the same one I had seen in my dream. 

He said to me: “Lord, have courage. You will conquer and not be conquered. You are beloved by Our Lord, because He has looked with mercy upon you and upon your progeny after your days will finish until the 16th generation. Then your succession will diminish, but even thus diminished, He will again turn His eyes on it and take care of it. He commands me to tell you that when on this night you will hear the bell of my hermitage, in which I have lived amid the infidels for 66 years guarded by the favor of the Most High, you should leave your camp alone – without any attendant – because He wants to show you His great paternal love. 

“Prostrating myself on the ground with great reverence, I venerated the ambassador sent to me and the One Who sent him. And remaining in prayer, I awaited the bell. At the hour of the second swatch of the night I heard the bell. Then, armed with my sword and shield, I went forth out of the camp. Suddenly I saw on the right side of the sky in the East a resplendent light, which became more and more defined and grew larger as each hour passed. 

And keeping my eyes fixed on it, I suddenly saw in that ray the sign of the Cross, more resplendent than the Sun, and a great group of resplendent young men, whom I believed to be the Holy Angels. Seeing this vision, I set aside my sword and shield and fell to my knees; in tears I began to beg strength for my vassals. Without any fear, I said:

Don Afonso destroyed the Moors at the Battle of Orique as Our Lord had promised

“Why dost Thou appear to me, o Lord? Dost Thou perchance desire to increase the faith of one who has so much? It would be better most certainly for the enemies to see Thee so that they might believe in Thee rather than I who, since baptism, have known Thee as the true God, Son of the Virgin and the Eternal Father, as I know Thee now.” 

The Cross was of marvelous grandeur, rising from the earth almost 10 yards. The Lord, with a most affable tone of voice which my unworthy ears heard, said to me: 

“I do not appear to you in this way to increase your faith, but to strengthen your heart for this conflict, and to establish the beginning of your Reign on a firm rock. Confide, Afonso, because not only will you win this battle, but all the others where you fight against the enemies of My Cross. You will find your people joyful and fortified for the combat, and they will ask you to enter into battle with the title of King. Raise no difficulties, but readily concede to all they ask of you. 

“I am the Founder and Destroyer of kingdoms and empires, and I desire – in you and in your descendents – to found for Myself an Empire, by which means My name will be known in far-off nations. And so that your descendents know Who gave them the Kingdom, you should place on your coat of arms the price with which I redeemed the human race [the Cross and the five wounds] as well as that by which I was sold by the Jews [the 30 coins], and it will be for Me a holy Kingdom, pure in faith and loved by Me.”

The five wounds of Christ are symbolized by the five shields on Portugal’s coat of arms

As I heard these things, I prostrated myself on the ground and adored Him, saying, “By what merit, O Lord, dost Thou show me such great mercy? Place Thy benign gaze, then, on the successors that Thou hast promised me and safeguard the Portuguese people. And if it happens that Thou hast planned to send them some chastisement, let if fall on me … and free this people whom I love like an only son. 

Consenting to this, the Lord told me: “My mercy will never leave either you or your people; for through you, I have prepared great crops, and I have chosen them for my harvesters in the most remote lands.” 

Having said these words, He disappeared and I, full of confidence and in high spirits, turned back to the camp. 

And so that this might be known as the truth, I, Don Alfonso, swear by the Holy Gospels of Jesus Christ, upon which I place my hand. And, therefore, I command my descendents who will ever succeed me, that in honor of the Cross and the five wounds of Jesus Christ, they place on their shield the five shields in the shape of the cross, and on them, the 30 coins. And that they take as their seal the serpent of Moses, which is the figure of Christ. This should be the trophy [the coat of arms] of our Kingdom. And if someone should intend the contrary, let him be cursed by the Lord and tormented in Hell with Judas, the traitor. 

This letter was written in Coimbra on the 29th of October in the year of 1152, [Signed] I, King Don Afonso. 

It was during the Battle of Valdevez against Alfonso VII of León that Muslim forces attacked and destroyed Leiria and Trancoso. Afonso Henriques’s anxiety at this incursion at his southern frontier hastened his negotiations with Alfonso VII of León after Valdevez, leading to the Treaty of Zamora and freeing Afonso Henrique’s troops to deal with the Muslim attack.

Historians are divided as to the location of this battle. At the time, the name “Ourique” designated a large area south of Beja. Since 12th century chroniclers where unfamiliar with the region where the battle took place, they might have decided to call the location “camp of Ourique” for lack of a more precise term.^[1] Nonetheless, the great distance that separated Ourique from the Christian lines farther north has led some historians to suggest various localities in central Portugal, abandoning the traditional idea that the combat occurred in Ourique in the Alentejo.^[2] It would have been difficult for the then Count of Portugal, with a realm little beyond theMondego River, to go all the way south to battle five Moorish Kings. One plausible alternative is Vila Chã de Ourique, located some ten miles from Santarém.^[3]

However, incursions by Christian armies deep in Muslim territory were not unheard-of. Alfonso VII had directed expeditions that had reached Cordoba and Seville, well beyond the limits of Castillian dominions, and in 1147 he managed to conquer the Mediterrenean port of Almería, south of Granada. This was possible because the largest Almoravid armies were positioned at the frontier, while armies stationed in small towns would rather retreat into their castles than face a strong enemy force. It is not at all unfeasible that Afonso lead a raid into the Gharb, and then, while retreating, was intercepted by sizable Almoravid troops intending to crush his army.^[4]

Despite the fact that the Christian Portuguese forces were strongly outnumbered, the Muslim armies were weakened by internal leadership problems, which led to Afonso Henrique’s victory and subsequently his proclamation as King of the Portuguese, as Afonso I, with the support from his troops, vanquishing and slaying, so legend says, five Moorish kings.

The earliest accounts provide little detail. In one account the Moorish forces are led by five Kings (Life of St. Theotonius), while in another, the Muslim forces are under the command of one King, Ismar (Chronicles).^[3]In the more detailed Chronicle of the Goths, Ismar waited until Henriques penetrated into Moslem territory, then systematically sent his troops from Seville, Badajoz, Elvas, Évora and Beja against the Portuguese count.^[3] Further, the Portuguese forces were surrounded on the hilltop where they encamped, Ismar hosted knights, who were executed later by Henriques, and that the Moorish king escaped in defeat.^[3] Arab and Spanish accounts do not clarify the circumstances, and confuse the issue, identifying the Ismar as, alternatively, Ismar Abuzicri or Ismar and Abuzicri, with later historians identifying Abu Zakariya, the governor of Santarém, as the protagonist. It is also likely that the numbers were inflated by the chroniclers from a large-scale raid to grand assault by Muslim forces.

It was presumed that after his victory over the five Moorish kings, the nobles acclaimed Afonso Henriques as king.^[8] In reality, documents after his victory continued to refer to Henriques as Prince or Infante.^[8][9]

Immediately after the battle, Afonso Henriques is said to have called for the first assembly of the estates-general (Portuguese: Cortes Gerais) of Portugal at Lamego, where he was given theCrown from the Bishop of Braga, to confirm the Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of León. This was a patriotic falsification perpetuated by the clergy, nobility and supporters who promoted the Restoration of Portuguese sovereignty and the claims of John IV, after the Iberian Union.^[10] The documents that refer to the estates-general were “deciphered” by Cistercianmonks from the Monastery of Alcobaça to perpetuate the myth and justify the legitimacy of the Portuguese crown in the 17th century. The author of this falsification was Oliveira Marques, and even in 1632^[11] there were misgivings about the validity of the chronicler’s account or the existence of the Cortes of Lamego^[12] The account continued to support the notion that in the 12th century a meeting of the Cortes occurred in the Church of Santa Maria de Almacave, in Lamego, in 1143.^[10] During this meeting, after being acclaimed by estates-general, Afonso Henriques accepted a group of laws on royal succession and excluded the Castilian line of Kings from the Portuguese throne, made provisions for the nobility, on justice and the independence of Portugal.^[10] But, even as Spanish jurists and diplomats later demonstrated that the document was uncreditable, the Portuguese defended the authenticity of the account.^[13] Alexandre Herculano later recounted the patriotic re-imagining in his História de Portugal, which caused its own controversy, and was later perpetuated by the writings of Alfredo Pimenta (who defended the existence of the Cortes of Lamego).^[13]

In commemoration of the Battle of Ourique, the first Portuguese coat-of-arms appeared that included five small shields, to represent the five defeated Moorish kings (from one interpretation), which was later challenged by many authors.

Legend

Some years later, the idea of a miraculous intervention in the battle by Saint James in favor of the Portuguese appeared in the chronicles of the battle. Saint James was widely venerated in Iberia (with a main center of veneration in Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, where his tomb was believed to be located), being generally seen as the Matamouros (English: Moor-slayer). As a consequence of Portuguese independence this legend was embellished with time, in order to distance the Portuguese from Spanish devotional practices and beliefs. Later interpretations replaced Saint James with Saint George and, finally, with Jesus Christ.

In the legend, Afonso Henriques is visited before the battle by an old man who saw in a dream that Henriques would be victorious because God would intervene in his favour.^[8] He advised the nobleman to leave the encampment alone when he heard the bell of the local chapel. Riding off he was surprised by a ray of light that showed him (in one interpretation) the sign of the cross and Jesus Christ on a crucifix. Afonso Henriques knelt in its presence and heard the voice of Christ who told him he would defeat the Moors, which he, through courage and his faith, succeeded the following day.

The legend of the miracle of the Battle of Ourique served thus as a political instrument to defend Portuguese independence as divine will. Yet, the legend first appeared in the 15th century and was forged by the monks of the Monastery of Santa Cruz, during the battles between John and the Kingdom of Castile.^[8] It was in 1419 that the legend first appeared in the Crónica de Portugal, and was accepted as fact, until Alexandre Herculano first reexamined the event, judging it a “pious fraud”, in his investigation in the middle of the 19th century.