Henri the navigator

Youth

In 1414, whereas it was only 20 years old, one announces that it convainquit his/her father to assemble a campaign to take the port of Ceuta to the Moslems. pirate Moors indeed badgered the southern parts with Portugal since this port, selling the inhabitants on the markets to the slaves. It was done in August of the following year and Henri then saw the goods brought by trade route of the the Sahara whose Ceuta was a stage. These exchanges did not pass then any more by this city, but that caused at Henri the desire to have his share of this richness. It was in addition also inspired by the legend of Prêtre Jean.

According to João de Barros, it started to repopulate in 1416 a village, Terçanabal, on the peninsula of Sagres in the extreme South-west of Portugal. This village, which will be soon called Vila C Infante (the city of the prince), quickly became a base of high technology (for the time) with a naval arsenal, an observatory, like then a school for the study of the geography and navigation. Jehuda Cresques, a cartographer known there was invited and compiled the connaissances ; he obtained a permanent station there. The port close to Lagos provides a shelter practices and became a center of naval construction. In 1419, it was named governor of the Algarve, the province where Sagres is.

The first fruit of this effort was the redécouverte archipelago of Madeira by João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, which was colonized by the Portuguese.

Incomes and resources

The May 25th 1420, Henri was named the governor of very rich the Ordre of Christ, the Portuguese successor of the Chevaliers of the Temple whose seat was with Tomar. It will keep this post office all its life. This place was important for the incomes which it conferred, and was necessary to the explorations and campaigns carried out by the prince. It is also advisable to add that, time passing, he became increasingly devout.

Moreover, when his/her father Jean 1st died, the oldest son of this one, Edouard, became king and poured in Henri a fifth of all the profits of the trade in the zones discovered as well as the exclusive right authorize forwardings beyond the course Bojador. He held also various monopolies in Algarve.

Discovered its explorers

In 1427, one of its navigators discovered the the Azores, perhaps Gonçalo Velho Cabral or Diogo De Silves. They were quickly colonized, but their recognition supplements proceeded until 1452.

To Henri, the Cape Bojador was the southernmost point of the coast of the known Africa of Europeans. Gil Eanes, the commander of the one of forwardings of Henri, was the first European indexed to have passed it in 1434.

When Edouard died five years later, Henri supported his Pedro brother for regency, during the minority of Alphonse {{Romain|V}}, and it accepted the confirmation of its privileges. It made develop a new type of ship, the caravel, which made it possible to go further. The Cape Blanc was reached in 1441 by Nuno Tristão and Antao Gonçalves. The Baie of Arguin was in sight in 1443, and one built an important fort in there 1448.

Dinis Dias met soon the river Senegal and passed the Cape Verde in 1444. Then the southern border of the desert had been crossed and then Henri of his wishes had exaucé one: the commercial lines controlled by the Moslems were circumvented and gold and the slaves quickly became available. Starting from 1452, the arrival of gold was sufficient so that the first cruzados could be struck. In 1460, the range operating extended until current the Sierra Leone.

Henri was also the principal organizer of an attack on Tangier in 1437. It was a disastrous failure and his/her younger Ferdinand brother was captured and died in captivity eleven years later. The military reputation of Henri suffered from it and it concentrated on its explorations and in the policy of the court of Portugal.

The impact of Henri on the History is large, having started the interest of Europeans for the colonization (interest reinforced by the loss of Constantinople, in 1453) which would transform the world during the four following centuries. The school of Sagres allowed progress in several fields of the art of navigation.

Less than thirty years after its death, the Cape of Good Hope had passed and Vasco de Gama reached the India the following decade. Christophe Colomb spent some time there and, although it is not filed, it sailed at the end of the Années 1470 around the Portuguese possessions of Madeira and along the Western coast of Africa.

Anecdote

In 1994 it was represented on the Banknotes Portuguese of 10000 escudos (approximately 50 Euros)

See too

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