Sebastien Ier of Portugal

Sebastien Ier ( Dom Sebastião ) was king of Portugal of 1557 with 1578. It was born with Lisbon the January 20th 1554, day of the Saint Sebastien in the catholic calendar , and died with Ksar to el-Kébir with the Morocco the August 4th 1578. It was the last but one king of the dynasty of Aviz.

Regency

Wire of infant Jean de Bragance and of Jeanne of Spain (1537-1573), it was born two weeks after the death from his/her father. Three years, it succeeded his grandfather Jean III. Regency was carried out by his/her Spanish grandmother, then by her uncle the cardinal Henri d' Evora. The young king accepted the teaching of the Jésuites.

The time of regency corresponds with the Portuguese colonial expansion in Angola, with the Mozambique, Malacca and the annexation in 1557 of Macao.

With the capacity

As of its majority (at fourteen years), virgin king and king knight , dom Sebastien made prepare the plans of a Croisade in North Africa against Fès. It armed knight with Sagres by raising the enormous sword with Alphonse I {{er}} of Portugal. When the Turks were demolished with Lépante in 1571, he believed that its hour had come. Philippe II of Spain refused to engage in this war and pushed back the marriage of the Portuguese king with a Spanish princess. A forwarding in 1574 had little effect. At the time of that of 1578, it embarked for Tangier with 17.000 men and carried with him the crown of Christian emperor of Morocco. It unloaded to be combined with Moulay Mohammed and to fight Moulay Abd el-Malik. Against the opinion of his captains, the king engaged in the interior of the country. August 4th, dom Sebastien was beaten with the battles of Alcácer-Quibir (Ksar to el-Kébir). It certainly was killed or made captive then carried out, since only sixty Portuguese will return to Lisbon.

Its successor Henri I {{er}} died without descendant and four applicants made known themselves: Antoine, large prior of Crato, cousin of Sebastien and nephew of the cardinal, Philippe II, king of close Spain, the duke of Bragance and Catherine de Médicis referring to an act of 1254! Antoine who had the support of the people and the Church was proclaimed with Santarém. Marie de Médicis also gave her support to him. But the Spaniard Philippe II made enter an army to the orders of the pile cluster to Portugal, army which reached Lisbon. Antoine was demolishes on August 21st 1580, constrained with the exile and the kingdom is conquered.

The Sebastien forgeries

For lack of corpse, much of Portuguese estimated that the king had right missing. One referred then to the “king sleeping” who would return to the Portugal in the event of difficulty to save the kingdom.

During what the Portuguese regard as the Spanish occupation, three people claimed to be king Sebastien. The last, an Italian, was hung in 1619.

In the XIXe century even, peasants “sebastianists” of the Brésil believed that king Sebastien would come to release them from the " athée" Republic of Brazil.

Genealogy and madness of king Sebastien

King Sebastien was a fragile boy, and certain historians estimate that its ceaseless will to conquer Morocco is a sign of madness. They base their reasoning on important the Consanguinité in the family of Aviz. Indeed, Sebastien went down from four back grandparents (instead of eight normally), and the four descend themselves from the king Jean Ier of Portugal. Then, one of its grandmothers showed signs of madness, its great-grandmother the queen Jeanne Insane the, queen of Castille.

The last but one king of the dynasty of the Aviz was, according to these historians, victim of the marriages between families of Spanish and Portuguese monarchies, with an aim of unifying the Iberian peninsula.

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