History

Portugal, perched on the edge of the Iberian Peninsula where the European sub‑continent makes its final dive into the Atlantic, has a unique and romantic past, the dreamlike events of which have had a world impact far out of proportion to the country's size.

In Portugal's early, pre‑national history, we see an expected similarity to that of all the Iberian peninsula, the grosser aspects of Portugal's geographic situation dominating. Once the country becomes politically separate, however, a national character emerges, which, appealing though it is to connect with such subtler geographical features as Portugal's face on the Atlantic, can only be understood by taking into account the tremendous influence of the country's great early rulers.

These were men of tremendous charisma, whose personalities painted the national character in unfading romantic colors, and overrode its geography.

PRE‑NATIONHOOD: pre‑history to 1128

As mentioned above, Portugal's early history coincides with that of Spain, with the proviso that it was more profoundly subject to northern influence (Celtic, British, etc.) than its neighbor and less to the southern, Arabic cultures.

The earliest remains found in Portugal are the collective tombs at Palmela, Cascais and Alapraia, cut into the rock, and in the Algarve, where they are built above ground. These, dating from 2500‑1700 B.C., while of no individuality apparent to the layman, evidence the very early habitation of this part of the world. Their builders were the ancient "Iberians" who came from the south and southeast.

Celtic influences and remains, dating from the invasions of the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., are of greater interest. The most dramatic are the "castros" and "citânias" of the north, especially the province of Minho. These are fortified, stone towns situated on hilltops; the most famous of them, Catania de Briteiros, about 15 km. from Guimarães, is of real touristic interest, with remains of about 200 houses, streets, walls, etc. Many Celtic remains from Briteiros and the neighboring town of Sabroso can be seen in the Sarmento Museum in Guimarães.

Other Celtic hill town remains are to be found along the rivers Minho, Cávado, Lima and Ave.

About 200 words of Celtic origin are in the Portuguese vocabulary. Celtic influence on the Portuguese character is highly speculative, but it is likely that their former presence here accounts for some of the difference between Portugal and Spain.

Also in ancient times the Phoenicians used to ply the coast. The fishermen of Nazaré and Aveiro are traditionally of Phoenician descent. This can be seen today in the unusual and ancient design of their boats ‑ soaring pointed bows with mystical symbols painted on.

The past existence of fertility cults is evidenced by the two stone boars at Bragança and the more famous one at Murça, as well as the Festa of Sao Goncalo in Amarante, in which the men and women exchange gifts of cakes baked into the shape of a phallus.

All the pre‑Roman experiences of Portugal, however, are shadowy in comparison with the Latin period, lasting from the first to the fifth century A.D. The Romans had tremendous difficulty conquering this country, which they called Lusitania. The Lusitanian chief, Viriato, held off vast Roman legions for years, leading to the appellation of the "horrida et bellicosa provincia".

During this time the country gained its language and religion. The Romans built in Portugal, as everywhere they went, wealthy towns supplied with water by graceful aqueducts, connected by marvelous roadways, spiritually sustained by pseudo‑Greek temples and art. The largest excavations are at Conimbriga, just outside Coimbra. There is a fine "Temple of Diana" in Evora and a tremendous aqueduct leading into the city of Elvas. Aside from these outstanding remains, one finds pottery, glasswork, stone carvings, etc., in many small museums throughout Portugal, and excavations turn up a wealth of new remains yearly.

Once again in common with Spain, Portugal witnessed the demise of the Roman culture and its replacement with the Teutonic rulers, the Visigoths being the most important of these. These tribes left some words in the language. There are few Visigoth remains for the tourist to see. The Museum of Ethnology at Belem has some sculpture, and there is a charming small church called São Frutuoso outside Braga. Cedofeita, at Oporto, was originally Visigoth but has been largely rebuilt.

The great Islamic invasion came in the early eighth century, and Muslims were a dominant people in Portugal until the middle of the twelfth century. Highly advanced farmers, the Muslims introduced many new species to Portugal. Their artistic influence, especially in building, was also significant, seen today in the iron grillwork on the bottom windows of many older buildings, the famous, white chimneys of houses in the Algarve, pierced with holes in Arabian patterns, and in the designs of the houses in Algarve, which are square and whitewashed, with flat roofs.

The most impressive example of Moorish artistic influence is in the use of glazed, painted tiles, called "azulejos", a word derived from the Arabic word for "smooth" (see "Art and Culture" section). The use of these Arab‑inspired surfaces is still important in today's building, as the tourist can see in modern Lisbon.

Even with all this, the Arab presence had not the significance in Portugal that it did in Spain. For one thing, it was a little over half as long in time. For another, the Arab rulers in Portugal created nothing to compare with the great kingdoms of Cordoba, Sevilla or Granada, so productive in literature and architecture. In Portugal we find no dramatic Arab remains like the Alhambra or the Cordoba Mosque.

The Portuguese character does not contain so high a proportion of Moor as does the Spanish. This is especially true in the north, though Portugal is undoubtedly a male‑dominated society, those elements that compounded produced the Spanish "machismo" are very much subdued in the Portuguese. Such matters are more fully discussed in the section "People". Though the Portuguese are a very polite people, one does not find this taken up to the ritual level as in Spain and Arab countries. Nor is there the obsessive concern with death and violence. In the Portuguese bullfight, for example, public killing of the animal is forbidden, and the bull's horns are padded. (See "The Bullfight" section).

With the end of the Arab domination, Portuguese nationhood begins.

BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION: 1134 to 1385

The founding of Portugal is one of the most exciting history has to offer. Set in a variety of fairy tale landscapes, from the mist‑enshrouded green hills of Minho to the African scenery of the Algarve, it features a cast of gigantic, shadowy figures, battling and loving their way up and down the country, building a plethora of beautiful castles and monasteries, and subject to passions so overwhelming as to approach the monstrous.

The story begins with the marriage in 1095 of Henry of Burgundy to Dona Teresa, illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VI of Castilla and Leon. Henry had fought alongside EI Cid in the Spanish wars, and received this bride as reward, along with her dowry, the county of Portugal, then a small region between the Douro and Minho Rivers.

Teresa gave birth to a vigorous son, Afonso, and when the boy was five years old, his father died. Teresa was ambitious to be a queen and held to a policy of maneuvering her loyalties among the bickering Spanish nobles, hoping somehow to expand her region. Eventually she took as a lover Fernando Peres, second son of the Count of Trava in Galicia. Fernando abandoned his legal wife to come to Portugal, but was compensated with the title of Lord of Porto and Coimbra. .

All this excited the envy and anger of the nobles, in whose care young Afonso had been placed. They favored the youth à as true heir not wishing to fall under the Spanish rufe. Inevitably, the young man clashed with his mother. This took place in 1128 on the field of São Mamede near Guimaraes, Afonso and the barons emerging victorious.

Afonso at first tried to expand the kingdom northward into Galicia but, meeting with no success, turned his forces against the Moors to the south. His first important victory was won in the Battle of Ourique, 1139, on a battlefield far south of '. the Tagus River near Beja. Though Afonso Henrique had long considered himself to be proper king of his realm, he was not officially recognized as such until after this battle. He received recognition in 1143, at the conference of Zamora.

Afonso continued his expansion, taking Santarém in 1147, and in the same year taking the formidable Moorish stronghold at Lisbon. In the latter enterprise he had the help of Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land, who were persuaded with the offer of unlimited pillage.

Conquests continued with a new campaign in 1157‑58, resulting in the acquisition of Evora, Alcácer and Beja for the new kingdom. In 1179 a Papal Bull recognized the kingdom and its turbulent king, and six ‑years later, King Afonso died, having single‑handedly created an entire country.

Several kings in a hereditary line with the House of Burgundy followed, making legal improvements and solidifying the kingdom by its continued existence in time, if nothing else.

Their main accomplishment, after a serious reversal, was to wrest the Algarve from the hands of the Moors once and for all by the middle of the thirteenth century, fully 200 years before Spain was able to rid itself of the Muslims.

The next great ruler to appear was Diniz, called variously the poet‑king and the farmer‑king. The origins of the former title are obvious, the second results from his significant agricultural rulings.

Dom Diniz organized Portuguese agriculture in such a way as to integrate it with the economies and needs of his trading partners and to make it highly profitable. He made it impossible for the church to acquire more land in his realm, thus saving it for farming. He is also credited with building the first Portuguese fleet and planting the lovely forests of Leiria for future shipbuilding and to stabilize the sand dunes in the area. An intellectual considered one of the finest poets of his time, he established the University of Coimbra.

Dom Diniz was married to a saint, Isabella of Aragona, who dedicated her life to the poor. She used to distribute food to the poor from the royal pantries. A beautiful legend which forms the subject for many art works tells that one day Dom Diniz caught her carrying out food in her apron, but when she opened her apron, the food had been transformed to roses, so that she was not apprehended. Later, as she passed the roses out to the poor, each one turned to gold in the receiver's hands.

It is a fact of life that being married to a saint has its drawbacks, but the "farmer‑king" was able to compensate himself with many mistresses and illegitimate children.

Heir to the throne was Prince Afonso, who led an unsuccessful rebellion against his father, but later inherited the kingdom despite his ungraceful impatience. King Afonso is remembered chiefly as the villain in the famous story of Ines de Castro.

Afonso's son, Dom Pedro, was betrothed to Constanza of Leon, who brought with her as lady‑in‑waiting the beautiful Ines, a Galician girl known as "the Heron's Neck". Pedro and Ines fell in love immediately. With the customary disregard of youth and nobility for the common morality, they began the central love affair of Portuguese history.

King Afonso,fearing the possible consequences of a royal scandal to the young heir, had Ines banished from court, not that this abated the passion of his young son, who overcame the simple obstacle of distance with frequency.

In 1345 Constanza died in childbirth and Ines returned to Portugal, where she lived in bliss with Prince Pedro in Coimbra, that romantic university town on the Mondego River. Their liason produced four children during the next ten years.

A plot was afoot, however, to use the passion of Dom Pedro for political ends. The brothers of Ines conspired to influence him, hoping to back one of the sons for the throne of Castilla. In the Portuguese Court there was still great fear of any involvement in Spanish affairs, and one faction finally persuaded King Afonso that for the sake of the nation Ines must die.

On January 7, 1355, three members of the faction rode with the king to where Ines was staying, the Quinta das Lagrimas, House of Tears. The king lost heart at the sight of his grandchildren, riding back alone and leaving the murderers to stab Ines to death.

At the sight of his beloved's mutilated body, Dom Pedroimmediately organized a rebellion, hoping for a quick vengeance, but the hastily got together rebellion was easily put down, and Pedro was forced to swear an oath that he would not seek revenge on the three murderers, an oath which must have meant little to him in his distraught state.

Two years later the old king died, and Pedro became king. . His first act was to sign a special extradition treaty with Spain, where Ines murderers were seeking refuge. Only one, who had fled to Italy, escaped Pedro's terrible revenge. The two who were caught were publicly executed at Sanatarem. Their hearts were drawn from their bodies, one through the chest, the other through the back, with the executioner instructed to prolong the agonies.

Next King Pedro had the body of Ines exhumed and dressed I in coronation costume. Claiming that he had married her secretly, he had her corpse installed as queen, and the . perfumed lords and ladies of the royal court filed by to kiss the moldering hand.

Imagine the effect such events must have had on the soul of the young nation, and you will begin to understand the i overwhelming romanticism of the Portuguese. Try to imagine such events taking place in the ruling circles of a modern ,3 country. The participants would obviously be considered mad, and yet King Pedro went on to rule Portugal excellently for the next ten years, bringing its laws into a codified form. He continued King Diniz' separation from the church, not allowing papal documents to circulate in the country without state I permission. True, he would turn purple with wrath at the sound of string instruments, and he found the only means to rid I himself of memory was to stay up all night dancing with his people; he is remembered in Portugal as a great ruler.

The tourist can see the beautiful tombs of King Pedro and Ines de Castro in the Monastery of Alcobaca, placed foot to foot, so that the lovers might see each other immediately upon rising on the day of resurrection.

The last king of this dynasty, Fernando (1367‑83), continued in the grand tradition of coupling a scandalous romantic life with extremely capable political management. He further developed the growing enterprises of agriculture and marine affairs. It was said that by the end of his reign the Tagus resembled "a forest of masts".

King Fernando's love life was stormy and public. In love with another man's wife, Leonor Teles, he rejected two fiancées, had Leonor's first marriage annulled by the church and, despite a popular protest by three thousand of his subjects, married her.

Leonor took as lover the Count of Ourem, who aided her in her intrigues to secure the succession for her daughter Beatriz.

By the time King Fernando died of old age in his Late thirties in 1383, Beatriz was wife to the King of Castilla, a situation foreboding dire consequences for Portugal's independence should she become queen.

However, Joao, Master of Aviz and the popular choice of the people, led a rebellion which he set off by boldly entering the Palace of Lisbon to stab to death the Count of Ourem.

The rebellion was one of the people. Practically none of the nobles or the church clergy favored the side of Aviz. Castile was quite confident of success, but surprisingly, the Spanish were not able to solidify their position over two years of indecisive battling.

Finally, on August 14, 1385, the famous Battle of Aljubarrota took place, which secured Portuguese independence for the next couple of centuries.

The situation was desperate for Portugal. The Castilian forces outnumbered the Portuguese by three to one. In addition, the ports of Oporto and Lisbon were blockaded.

God and the English seem to have been the saving factors. The Castilians were struck with the plague, and the English, honoring a treaty made in 1380, sent a contingent of 500 archers, giving the Portuguese a weaponry superiority comparable to that of a machine gun over rifles. The extraordinary Monastery of Batalha was built as a result of a pledge made by João beseeching the aid of God in this battle.

With the Battle of Aljubarrota, the line of Aviz is solidly installed and the period of ‑Portuguese greatness begins.

AGE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT: 1385 to 1578

The marriage of King João to his English wife, Philippa of Lancaster, produced six children, among which was that lonely figure, Prince Henry the Navigator, the man who stood as a beacon light through the age of European exploration and discovery.

Henry, living in a maritime nation during just the right historical period, early became aware of the earthshaking nautical thinking taking place in various European capitals of his day. With their thoughts and even their existences often unknown to one another, there were many navigators in Barcelona, Genoa, Venice, etc., doubting the dark myths of nautical dangers that had until then kept men from exploring the great sea and suspecting that wonderful new lands and shorter routes to the rich kingdoms of the east were waiting to be discovered by the daring.

It was Prince Henry, head of an order of warrior‑monks, who brought all these men and ideas together at the isolated promontory of Sagres, that windswept and dramatic location which forms the southwestern corner of the nation.

Among the great European explorers who owe their discoveries to the school at Sagres were Columbus, Fernao Gomes, Diogo Cao, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Alvares Cabral and Magellan.

The inspiration of Henry's school was not to fade until the whole world was opened to European navigation, trading and colonization.

Portugal grew to possess an empire covering nearly one third of the known world. Portuguese became the lingua franca of the day, being spoken on four continents as a native language by men of many races. Great missionary movements came from Portugal to influence the high civilizations of Asia as well as the savages of the Brazilian and African jungles.

Meantime, in the political sphere, King Joao was succeeded by King Duerte (1433‑38), who was in turn followed by Afonso V (1438‑81). Both these kings encouraged and aided Henry the Navigator, until his death in 1460, after which the navigational enterprise was taken over by Fernao Gomes.

When Joao II became king (1481‑95) he finalized the ongoing process of centralization of power, executing the two most powerful nobles, one of them by his own hand. João continued with the national maritime enterprise, with the economic motive of discovering a route to the Indies by sea, that would avoid the expensive Arab middlemen. João II financed many voyages and kept the trading monopoly in royal hands besides financing and encouraging the continuous astronomical and cartographical work. In 1494 King João agreed to the Treaty of Tordesillas, which decreed that Portugal would possess all the discovered lands east of a line 370 leagues west of Cape Verde, while Castilla would get all to the west of that line. Thus Portugal received possession of Brazil, eventually to become its most important daughter.

It was the reign of Manuel I (1495‑1521) during which Portugal was to attempt to reap the harvest sown by generations of explorers and navigators. Riches flowed in from the colonies to Lisbon, and following the riches came painters, poets and artisans of the most inventive. The outstanding Portuguese architectural style was developed during this age and called "Manueline". Its greatest architect was Boytac, and its greatest monuments the Monastery at Belém, the decoration of the Batalha Monastery and the convent of Christ at Tomar.

Lisbon was built into the most beautiful city of Europe. The intertwined sculpted anchors, ship chains, seaweed, tropical flora that marked the Manueline style testified to the origin of all this wealth in the sea voyages. It was a period of tremendous abundance and frenetic activity for the country.

Nations rise and fall, and it was now the time for Portugal's decline. A vain and luxury‑seeking aristocracy had been created. The empire had become so large that Portuguese manpower, an item always in scant supply in the small nation, was overextended. Portugal was drained by the expense of defending its colonies against encroachment by the many contending European countries.

Finally, Portugal entered into a single, overwhelming disaster under the impetuous and charismatic King Sebastian, last of the House of Aviz (1568‑78). Sebastian believed himself a man of great destiny. Not content to see his country sink into a slow, graceful decline, he preferred to gamble all the accumulated wealth and power still left in a crusade against the Muslims, an attempt to win back the greatness that was slipping away like sand.

Sebastian set out with 800 ships and 70,000 men, the cream of Portugal's young manhood, hoping to conquer the enemy capital of Fez. Outnumbered five to one by the Moroccans, the Portuguese went down in terrible defeat in the battle of Alcazarquivir. All but 50 of Sebastian's troops were either killed or sold into slavery.

Such was the love of the people for this colorful and dramatic king, who fit so well the heroic spirit of the nation, that a cult was begun, "Sebastianism", which refuses to believe that he is dead and hopes that he will someday return to lead the nation back to its former greatness. It is a cult the spirit of which lives on in the national emotional style of "suadade", a deep, ' gentle sadness over greatness lost, alleviated by hopes for its renaissance.

This battle marked the end of Portugal's greatest period, though other accomplishments were still to come. The small country, besides having created its own, unique personality with the help of the great poet, Camoens, had changed the course of world history.

By opening the watery walls which had separated the people of the world, Portugal brought the world a step closer to realization of its still unfulfilled dream of unity. In ruling its colonies Portugal also set a philosophic precedent 500 years in advance of the rest of the world by freely intermarrying. with the natives of the colonies. This first became official policy in India under the governorship of Afonso de Albuquerque in 1509. But far from being the dictum of a lofty ruling class, extreme tolerance and conviction of racial equality was a deeply embedded trait of the romantically inclined Portuguese colonists, who fell in love with equal facility with women of white, black, red or yellow pigmentation.

The best example of the results of this attitude are seen, however, not in India, but in Brazil, that most delightful of South American countries, where every conceivable combination of Indian, European and African blood is to be found with a minimum of racial tension.

In other contributions of world significance, Portugal extended Western ethics and morality through proselytizing in the Christian religion, and greatly enriched and strengthened capitalism and the middle class in Europe. By proving the economic value of the exact sciences, Portugal gave a great boost to that enterprise which was to add so much to human knowledge. And in the artistic realms, the nation contributed the Manueline style of architecture and the immortal epic, "Lusiads", by Camoens.

CRISIS AND ENDURANCE: 1578 to the present

Both people and nations learn through suffering, and the next centuries were to contain enough of that to elevate the Portuguese national intelligence as high as any in the world.

The national tragedies had already begun with the loss of the flower of Portuguese manhood in Morocco, described above. From this it was a short step in time to the Castilian domination, which had always lurked in the background awaiting the moment of national weakness.

In August of 1580 the Spanish conquered Portugal, invading through the heavily fortified Alentejo Province.

The next 60 years of Spanish domination was a heartrending period of loss for the nation. Though ostensibly a separate nation (the three Spanish Philips who ruled used a double crown) Portugal was not free to defend its colonies, and the country had to help Spain in its foreign wars with France, Holland and England. Thus Portugal suffered the drain of war in defense of its neighbor's interests, while losing many of its own hard‑won pieces of the world.

Finally, in 1640, unable to abide the continuous national impotence, the people installed as their own king the Duke of Bragança, the most powerful noble of the country, descended from Nuno Alvares Pereira, who had helped to win Portuguese independence at the Battle of Aljubarrota.

The Duke became Joao IV and contended with Spain throughout his reign. Following monarchs of the Braganza line continued the resistance until in 1668 a treaty was signed assuring the country's independence. Portugal had temporarily emerged from the doldrums.

Joao V (1706‑50) was the next important king, who introduced Portugal's second significant architectural period. He was lavish in his building, as can be seen from his tremendous monastery at Mafra, the magnificent library at Coimbra, and the aqueduct of Lisbon, among others. There are many churches and municipal buildings, especially in the north, in the Joanine style named after this king. The style is a tasteful variation of the Baroque, characterized by whitewashed exteriors, granite trim in graceful lines, and heavily worked surface in the interior.

In religious affairs, Portugal achieved distinction during King Joao's reign with the elevation of Lisbon to the level of a patriarchate. The Joanine ritual was installed, a very sensual one, as befit this lavish period.

But another tragedy, worse than those that had come before, was waiting. This was the terrible earthquake of 1755, which occurred during the time of King José (1750‑77).

The quake, which occurred at 9:30 in the morning of All Soul's Day, was the most severe setback yet to the small nation. Within a day, which included three huge tremors, terrible fires and three overwhelming tidal waves, Lisbon was almost totally destroyed. Up to 30,000 citizens are said to have been killed in the calamity.

Fortunately, the proper man for the hour arose, the Marquis de Pombal, who took over effective rule from King José.

Pombal was a believer in absolute rule, a strict man who summarily executed his enemies among the nobility, expelled the Jesuits from Portugal, and directed the national economy with the creation of monopolies and harsh protectionist measures.

On the side of humanitarianism, Pombal made slavery illegal in Portugal itself, and decreed that the Indians of Brazil were not to be enslaved. He also ended the legal distinction between old Christians and those who had converted.

But Pombal is particularly remembered for his rebuilding of the shattered capital. It is due to him that Lisbon has its 18th century look, and his Praça do Comercio is one of the finest squares of Europe. As the tourist walks through the squares and streets of 18th century Lisbon, including the grand Avenida da Liberdade, he will not fail to appreciate the architectural work of this statesman, who did as much as any man could have to shore up the shaky foundations of Portugal during its most severe crisis.