Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry the Navigator

Infante Henrique, Duke of Viseu KG (Porto, March 4, 1394–Sagres, November 13, 1460); pron. IPA: [ẽ'ʁik(ɨ)]), was an infante (prince) of the Portuguese House of Aviz and an important figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire. He is known in English as Prince Henry the Navigator or the Seafarer (Portuguese: o Navegador).

Prince Henry the Navigator was the third son of King John I of Portugal, the founder of the Aviz dynasty; and of Philippa of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt. Henry encouraged his father to conquer Ceuta (1415), the Muslim port, on the North African coast across the Straits of Gibraltar from the Iberian peninsula, with profound consequences on Henry's worldview: Henry became aware of the profit possibilities in the Saharan trade routes that terminated there and became fascinated with Africa in general, with the legend of Prester John, and with expanding Portuguese trade.

Contrary to outdated studies that claim that Henry gathered around him at his Vila do Infante on the Sagres peninsula a school of navigators and map-makers, in fact he did none of this. He did employ some cartographers to help him chart the coast of Mauretania in the wake of voyages he sent there, but for the rest there was no center of navigational science or any supposed "observatory", as Russell makes very clear.

Early life

Henry was born in 1394, the third son King John I of Portugal. His mother, the Queen, was Philippa of Lancaster, sister to King Henry IV of England. Henry was 21 when he, his father and brothers attacked the Muslim port of Ceuta in northern Morocco. This attack was successful and inspired Henry to explore down the coast of Africa, most of which was unknown to Europeans. The desire to locate the source of the West African gold trade (to enrich Portugal while undermining the North African's trade in it) and locate the legendary Christian kingdom of Prestor John were two of his main interests in the region. In 1419, his father appointed him the governor of the province of Algarve. Although he was interested in exploring the west coast of Africa, his main motivation was the capture of slaves that he brought back to Portugal for sale and for use on his estates. The ships that sailed the Mediterranean were too slow and too heavy to make these voyages. Under his direction, a new and lighter ship was developed, the caravel, which would allow sea captains to sail further and faster. It is also of interest to note that he was probably homosexual. This of course is unmentionable in Portugal, but the evidence is quite clear. He avoided women, never married, but had strong attachments to several men and also very young boys whom he "brought up", as his contemporary biographer says, in "his bed chamber."

Resources and income

On May 25, 1420, Henry gained appointment as the governor of the very rich Order of Christ, the Portuguese successor to the Knights Templar, which had its headquarters at Tomar. Henry would hold this position for the remainder of his life, and the order was an important source of funds for Henry's ambitious plans of self-agrandizement, especially his persistent attempts to conquer the Canary Islands.

Henry also had other resources. When John I died in 1433, Henry's eldest brother Duarte became king, and granted Henry a "Royal Fifth" of all profits from trading within the areas he discovered as well as the sole right to authorize expeditions beyond Cape Bojador. He also held various valuable monopolies on resources in the Algarve. When Duarte died five years later, Henry supported his brother Pedro for the regency during Afonso V of Portugal's minority, and in return received a confirmation of this levy. Henry also promoted the colonization of the Azores during Pedro's regency (1439–1448).

Vila do Infante, patron of Portuguese exploration

From his Vila do Infante, or Town of the Prince, on the Sagres peninsula, Henry sponsored voyages down the coast of Mauretania that were primarily slaving expeditions, bringing back to the nearby town of Lagos, from whence they set out, numerous African slaves for Henry's own use and for sale by him. Henry justified this on the grounds that he was converting these captives to Christianity. As Sir Peter Russell remarks in his biography "In Henryspeak, conversion and enslavement were interchangeable terms." The old view that Henry's court rapidly grew into the technological base for exploration, with a naval arsenal and an observatory, etc., has long ago been debunked. There was no observatory or "school" of navigation, although Henry did possess geographical curiosity and therefore employed cartographers. Jehuda Cresques, a noted cartographer, received an invitation to come to Sagres and probably make maps for Henry, a position he accepted. But most of all, Henry was interested in profits from this voyages. He wanted to build a profitable base for his household, since he was not in line for the succession of the throne.

The nearby port of Lagos provided a convenient harbor from which these expeditions left. The voyages were made in very small ships, mostly the caravel, a light and maneuverable vessel that used the lateen sail of the Arabs. Most of the voyages sent out by Henry consisted of one or two ships that navigated by following the coast, stopping at night to tie up along some shore.

Early results of Henry's explorers

Until Henry's coastal explorations, Cape Bojador remained the most southerly point known to Europeans on the unpromising desert coast of Africa, although the Periplus of the Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator described a journey further south about 2,000 years earlier.

As a first fruit of this work João Gonçalves Zarco, Bartolomeu Perestrelo and Tristão Vaz Teixeira rediscovered the Madeira Islands in 1420, and at Henry's instigation Portuguese settlers colonized the islands.

In 1427, one of Henry's navigators discovered the Azores — probably Gonçalo Velho. Portuguese soon colonized these islands in 1430.

Gil Eanes, the commander of one of Henry's expeditions, became the first European known to pass Cape Bojador in 1434. This was a breakthrough as it was considered close to the end of the world, with difficult currents that did not encourage commercial enterprise.

Henry also continued his involvement in events closer to home. He functioned as a primary organizer of the Portuguese expedition to Tangier in 1437. This proved a disastrous failure: the Moroccans captured Henry's younger brother Fernando and held him captive to guarantee that the Portuguese would fulfill the terms of the peace agreement that had been made. Henry refused to fulfill these terms, thus condemning Fernando to remain in miserable captivity until his death eleven years later. Henry's reputation as a military leader suffered as a result, and for most of his last twenty-three years he concentrated on his exploration activities, or on Portuguese court politics.

Using the new ship type, the expeditions then pushed onwards. Nuno Tristão and Antão Gonçalves reached Cape Blanco in 1441. The Portuguese sighted the Bay of Arguin in 1443 and built an important fort there around the year 1448. Dinis Dias soon came across the Senegal River and rounded the peninsula of Cap-Vert in 1444. By this stage the explorers had passed the southern boundary of the desert, and from then on Henry had one of his wishes fulfilled: the Portuguese had circumvented the Muslim land-based trade routes across the western Sahara Desert, and slaves and gold began arriving in Portugal. By 1452, the influx of gold permitted the minting of Portugal's first gold cruzado coins. A cruzado was equal to 400 reis at the time. From 1444 to 1446, as many as forty vessels sailed from Lagos on Henry's behalf, and the first private mercantile expeditions began.

Alvise Cadamosto explored the Atlantic coast of Africa and discovered several islands of the Cape Verde archipelago between 1455 and 1456. In his first voyage, which started on March 22 1455, he visited the Madeira Islands and the Canary Islands. On the second voyage, in 1456, Cadamosto became the first European to reach the Cape Verde Islands. António Noli later claimed the credit. By 1462, the Portuguese had explored the coast of Africa as far as present-day nation Sierra Leone. When Henry died in 1460, his sailors had only reached as far as the Canary Islands in West Africa. Twenty-eight years later, Bartholomeu Dias proved that Africa could be circumnavigated when he reached the southern tip of the continent. This is now known as the "Cape of Good Hope." In 1499, Vasco da Gama was the first sailor to travel from Portugal to India. Just a few years earlier, Queen Isabella of Spain hired a sailor from Genoa to reach India by sailing west. It wasn't until years later that anyone understood that the "Indians" he encountered weren't from India after all.

Prince Henry the Navigator Park

Prince Henry the Navigator Park in New Bedford.

Prince Henry the Navigator Park on Pope's Island in New Bedford, Massachusetts is dedicated to the explorer, and was created in 1994.

It was a gift to the city from the Prince Henry Society of New Bedford and the Portuguese government.

The park sits between New Bedford and Fairhaven, between the fishing docks of both cities, looking out toward the hurricane barrier in the New Bedford Harbor and Buzzards Bay beyond.

The park consists of a large granite and bronze statue in tribute to Prince Henry the Navigator that overlooks New Bedford harbor; as well as a stone plaque, a walkway, and a parking and viewing area from which tourists can view the harbor.

Books

• Russell, Peter E. Prince Henry "the Navigator": a life. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300082339. OCLC 42708239.
• Major, Richard Henry. The life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator: and its results. London: Asher & Co. OCLC 64421592.
• Johnson, Harold B. Dois estudos polémicos (in Portuguese). Tucson: Fenestra Books. ISBN 1587363453. OCLC 60579741. where the evidence for his homosexuality is laid out in detail.

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