Ferdinand the Saint Prince

The Coat of Arms of Infante Fernando, known as the Holy Infante.

Infante Ferdinand
the Saint Prince
Portuguese infante and Roman Catholic Saint
House	House of Aviz
Father	John I of Portugal
Mother	Philippa of Lancaster
Born	29 September 1402(1402-09-29) Santarém, Portugal
Died	5 June 1443(1443-06-05) (aged 40) Fez, Morocco

The Blessed Infante Fernando (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɨɾˈnɐ̃du]; English: Ferdinand; September 29, 1402-June 5, 1443), commonly known as the Saint Prince (Portuguese: Infante Santo; more correctly translated as the Holy Prince,) was an infante (prince) of Portugal of the House of Aviz and a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

Ferdinand was the sixth and youngest son of King John I of Portugal and his wife Philippa of Lancaster. Ferdinand and his brothers Edward, Peter, Henry and John of Reguengos, sister Isabella and half-brother Afonso, constitute what Portuguese historians have traditionally labelled the 'illustrious generation' (Ínclita Geração)

Ferdinand became interested in religious questions as a young man. Ferdinand was made Lord of Salvaterra de Magos and Atougouia around 1429. After his father's death in 1433 and the death of administrator João Rodrigues de Sequeira, Ferdinand was appointed by his brother Edward of Portugal to succeed them master and administrator of the Order of Aviz. He was offered the office of Cardinal by Pope Eugene IV.

Nonetheless, Ferdinand was dissatisfied with his meager domains and, in 1436, asked his brother King Edward for permission to go abroad to seek his fortune in the service of a foreign king. Ferdinand's threat prompted the reluctant Edward to endorse the plan, long promoted by their brother Henry the Navigator, to launch a Portuguese campaign of conquest against Marinid Morocco.

Main article: Battle of Tangier (1437)

In August 1437, the Portuguese expeditionary force, under Henry's leadership, set out to seize Tangier. Ferdinand brought his household and Aviz knights with him. The campaign proved disastrous. Henry impetuously launched a series of assaults on the walls of Tangier with no success, while allowing his siege camp to be encircled by a Moroccan army rushed north by the Wattasid strongman Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Wattasi, governor of the Marinid palace of Fez (called Lazeraque by the Portuguese chroniclers). Unable to break out, the Portuguese expeditionary force was starved into submission. To preserve his army from destruction, Henry signed a treaty with the Moroccan ruler, agreeing to restore Ceuta (which had been captured by the Portuguese in 1415), in return for being allowed to withdraw his army unmolested. Henry handed his brother Infante Ferdinand over to the Moroccans as a hostage until the fulfillment of the treaty. Ferdinand was placed under house arrest first in Asilah, then later moved to Fez.

Back in Portugal, Ferdinand's brothers, Edward of Portugal, Peter of Coimbra and John of Reguengos pleaded with the Portuguese Cortes (parliament) to ratify the treaty and deliver Ceuta to Morocco. But the burgher-dominated Cortes refused. According to legend, Ferdinand himself communicated he did not want to be released in exchange for the precious city, and wished to remain in captivity. But Ferdinand's surviving letters and the account of Ferdinand's secretary Frei João Álvares, who was with him throughout his captivity, makes it reasonably clear that Ferdinand did not seek out a martyr's fate, that he expected the treaty to be honored and his release to be secured quickly.

The harrowing fate of the abandoned young Ferdinand is said to have contributed to King Edward's decline into depression that contributed to his premature death in 1438. Once it became clear that the Portuguese had no intention of ransoming him (and after a hare-brained attempt to escape), Ferdinand's status as a noble hostage was downgraded and he was subjected to ordeals and humiliations by his Moroccan jailers.

Image of Ferdinand the Saint in captivity, from a tripyich at the Batalha Monastery

Disregarding the Cortes, the new regent Peter of Coimbra decided to fulfill the treaty and swap Ceuta for his imprisoned brother. In April, 1440, a flotilla under the command of D. Fernando de Castro was sent to Ceuta, with instructions to evacuate the Portuguese garrison and deliver the city to the Marinids. As it turns out the lead ship was intercepted by Genoese pirates, and Fernando de Castro killed, so command of the mission was passed on to his son Álvaro de Castro. In the meantime, an embassy under Gomes Eanes and Martim de Tavora proceeded to Asilah to receive the released Ferdinand from the Marinid authorities. But negotiations with the strongman Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Wattasi in Fez went poorly. In the end, the deal fell through and the swap was not realized.

Ferdinand died in captivity in Fes in 1443. Remaining imprisoned members of his party (including his secretary, Frei João Álvares) were eventually ransomed a few years later.

Ferdinand's remains were transferred to the Monastery of Batalha in 1471, where they lie in the Founder's Chapel. Ferdinand's sacrifice in the name of national interests gave him his nickname the Saint Prince (Portuguese: o Infante Santo) and soon fostered a saintly cult. Henry the Navigator commissioned Ferdinand's secretary Frei João Álvares to set down the details of Ferdinand's life and captivity in 1460 (it was eventually published in 1527). However, Álvares chronicle, originally intended as a piece of Christian hagiography to supplement the cult of the 'Saint Prince', did not flatter Henry's leadership nor absolve him of responsibility for Ferdinand's fate.

Tomb of Ferdinand the Saint, at the Batalha Monastery

Ferdinand was beatified in 1470, and the Bollandists have included his life in their great publication.

Sources

• Frei João Álvares (c.1460) Chronica dos feytos, vida, e morte do infante santo D. Fernando, que morreo em Fez, first published 1526, Lisbon. [1730, edition, Fr. Jeronimo dos Ramos, editor, Lisbon: M. Rodrigues. online

• Ruy de Pina (c.1510) Chronica d'el Rey D. Duarte, first published 1790 in J.F. Correia da Serra, editor, Collecção de livros ineditos de historia portugueza, Vol. 1, Lisbon: Academia das Ciências. [1901 edition, Gabriel Pereira, editor, Lisbon: Escriptorio online

• Ruy de Pina (c.1510) Chronica d'el Rey D. Affonso V, first published 1790 in J.F. Correia da Serra, editor, Collecção de livros ineditos de historia portugueza, Vol. 1. Lisbon: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa [1901 edition, 3 vols, Gabriel Pereira, editor, Lisbon: Escriptorio, online

• Russell, P.E. (2000) Prince Henry 'the Navigator': a life New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press.