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of the same color, verified and confirmed by persons of the greatest authority, the greatest experts on the value of historical documents.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. 

On the morning of the following day, the true dimension of the battle was revealed: in the field, the bodies of Castilians were enough to dam the creeks surrounding the small hill. In face of this, the Portuguese King offered the enemy survivors an amnesty and free transit home; an official mourning was decreed in Castile that would last until the Christmas of 1387. The French cavalry contingent suffered yet another defeat (after Crécy and Poitiers) by English defensive tactics, even though they finally defeated the English and unified their country after the 100 years war.

In October 1385, Nuno Álvares Pereira led a pre-emptive attack against Mérida, in Castilian territory, defeating an even larger Castilian army than at Aljubarrota in the battle of Valverde, in Valverde de Mérida. Scattered border skirmishes with Castilian troops would persist for five years more until the death of John I of Castile in 1390, but posed no real threat to the Portuguese crown; recognition from Castile would arrive only in 1411 with the signature of the Treaty of Ayllón (Segovia).

This victory assured that John of Aviz was the uncontested King of Portugal and the House of Aviz ascended to the crown of Portugal. In 1386, the closeness of relations between Portugal and England resulted in a permanent military alliance with the Treaty of Windsor, the eldest still active in existence.

His marriage to Philippa of Lancaster in 1387 initiated the Portuguese second dynasty, and their children went on to make historically significant contributions. Duarte, or Edward of Portugal, became the eleventh King of Portugal known as “The Philosopher” and “The Eloquent”, and his brother Henrique, or Henry the Navigator, sponsored expeditions to Africa.

In commemoration of the Battle of Aljubarrota the Portuguese erected the Monastery of Saint Mary of the Victory (Portuguese: “Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória”) one of the best and original examples of Late Gothic architecture in Portugal, intermingled with the Manueline style.

In 1393 a chapel in honor of St. Mary and St. George was erected in the place where had been the standard of D. Nuno Alvares Pereira during the confrontation allowing us to know the precise geographic location of the confrontation site.

In 1958 archeologist Afonso do Paço organized the first campaign of excavations, revealing the complex defensive system consisting about 800 pits and dozens of defensive ditches and revealing one of the best preserved battlefields of the Hundred Years’ War.

In March 2002, under the initiative of António Champalimaud The Foundation Batalha de Aljubarrota was created. The Foundation began its activity by recovering the battlefield of Aljubarrota. Through a Protocol established with the Ministry of Defense, in August 2003, the Foundation received authorization to transform the Military Museum into a modern Interpretation Center of the Battle of Aljubarrota. This Interpretation Center was inaugurated in October 11, 2008.

On December 28, 2010, the Portuguese Official Journal published the Decret-Law n.º 18/2010, which states the legal recognition of the battlefield of Aljubarrota with the category of “national monument”.

Forces commanded by King John I of Portugal and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira, with the support of English allies, opposed the army of King John I of Castile with its Aragonese, Italian and French allies at São Jorge place, between the towns of Leiria and Alcobaça, in central Portugal. The result was a decisive victory for the Portuguese, ruling out Castilian ambitions to the Portuguese throne, ending the 1383–85 Crisis and assuring John as King of Portugal.

Portuguese independence was confirmed and a new dynasty, the House of Aviz, was established. Scattered border confrontations with Castilian troops would persist until the death of John I of Castile in 1390, but these posed no real threat to the new dynasty. To celebrate his victory and acknowledge divine help, John I of Portugal ordered the construction of the monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória na Batalha and the founding of the town of Batalha (Portuguese for “battle”,Portuguese pronunciation: [bɐˈtaʎɐ]). The king, his wife Philippa of Lancaster, and several of his sons are buried in this monastery, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The end of the 14th century in Europe was a time of revolution and crisis, with the Hundred Years’ War between the English and the French for Western France, the Black Death decimating the continent, and famine afflicting the poor. Portugal was no exception. In October 1383, King Ferdinand I of Portugal died with no son to inherit the crown. The only child of his marriage with Leonor Telles de Meneses was a girl, Princess Beatrice of Portugal.

In April of that same year the King signed the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos with King Juan I of Castile. The treaty determined that Princess Beatrice was to marry Juan I, king of Castile, and the Crown of Portugal would belong to the descendants of this union. This situation left the majority of the Portuguese discontent, and the Portuguese nobility was unwilling to support the claim of the princess because that could mean the incorporation of Portugal to Castile^[a]; also the powerful merchants of the capital, Lisbon, were enraged from being excluded from the negotiations. Without an undisputed option, Portugal remained without king from 1383–85, in an interregnum known as the 1383–85 Crisis.

The first clear act of hostility was taken in December 1383 by the faction of John (João), the Grand Master of the Aviz Order (and a natural son of Peter I of Portugal), with the murder of Count Andeiro. This prompted the Lisbon merchants to name him “rector and defender of the realm”. However, the Castilian king would not relinquish his and his wife’s claims to the throne. In an effort to normalize the situation and secure the crown for him or Beatrice, he forced Leonor to abdicate from the regency. In April 1384, in Alentejo, a punitive expedition was promptly defeated by Nuno Álvares Pereira, leading a much smaller Portuguese army at the Battle of Atoleiros. This marked the first use of English defensive tactics on the Iberian peninsula, reportedly without any casualties to the Portuguese. A larger second expedition led by the Castilian king himself reached and besieged Lisbon for four months before being forced to retreat by a shortage of food supplies due to harassment from Nuno Álvares Pereira, and the bubonic plague.

In order to secure his claim, John of Aviz engaged in politics and intense diplomatic negotiations with both the Holy See and England. In October 1384, Richard II wrote to John (later King John I), regent of Portugal, reporting on negotiations, conducted in England, with John’s envoys – Dom Fernando, master of the order of Santiago, and Laurence Fogaça, chancellor of Portugal saying that an agreement had been reached under which an English force was to be sent to Portugal, to help defending the kingdom against its Castilian neighbor.^[2] On 6 April 1385, (the anniversary of the “miraculous” battle of Atoleiros, a fortuitous date), the council of the kingdom (cortes in Portuguese) assembled in Coimbra and declared him King John I of Portugal. After his accession to the throne, John I of Portugal proceeded to annex the cities in whose military commanders supported Princess Beatrice and her husband’s claims, namely Caminha, Braga and Guimarães among others.

Enraged by this “rebellion”, Juan I ordered a host of 31,000 men to engage in a two-pronged invasion in May. The smaller Northern force sacked and burnt populations along the border, a common practice at the time and similar to what the English were doing in Scotland, before being defeated by local Portuguese nobles in the battle of Trancoso, in the first week of June. On the news of the invasion by the Castilians, John I of Portugal’s army met with Nuno Álvares Pereira, the Constable of Portugal, in the town of Tomar. There they decided to face the Castilians before they could get close to Lisbon and lay siege to it again.

English allies arrived on Easter of 1385, consisting of a company of about 100 English longbowmen, veterans from the Hundred Years’ War, sent to honor the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 (presently the oldest active treaty in the world). The Portuguese set out to intercept the invading army near the town of Leiria. Nuno Álvares Pereira took the task of choosing the ground for the battle. Russell notes that the two Portuguese leaders [Nuno Álvares and Antão Vasques] had already shown themselves masters of the new developments in methods of warfare, i.e. the use of archers and dismounted men-at-arms. The chosen location was São Jorge near Aljubarrota, especially indicated for the chosen military tactic, a small flattened hill surrounded by creeks, with the very small settlement of Chão da Feira (Fair’s Ground) at its widest point, still present today.

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.