Duarte I: 1429-1449
Despite Duarte’s best efforts, his plans to move his capital to Corsica were never able to gain any momentum. While he planned to build a magnificent palace complex, few nobles helped him. In fact, for a noble to side with Duarte the madman meant being ostracized by much of the rest of the nobility. Not even Corsica would remain under Duarte's solid grip: revolts in 1431 and 1432 showed that Corsicans would not accept being ruled by a Portuguese, much less a madman like Duarte. In 1433, Duarte finally relented and let a local noble who had married into the de Avis family, Leopold, take the throne of the island as long as he swore fealty to the Portuguese crown. Duarte was forced to be content with simply owning a small summer palace on the island.
While no known portraits of Duarte c. 1430 survive, this actor from a recent film about the Corsica invasion is believed to be the closest portrayal of him.
The election of Pope Innocent VII to the Papacy in 1429 meant the end of the brief resurgence in Papal power. Innocent VII was little more than a marionette dancing to the tune of the kings of France. The Church began reeking of corruption and sin yet again, and its local functions began falling more and more in the hands of local nobles who cared little for piety and spirituality and instead wanted more earthly things: power and money. In 1433, Duarte suddenly found himself of control of much of the Church's Portuguese functions. When local nobles offered to pay the state in exchange for control of these functions, Duarte greedily agreed.
The 1430s compared to the 1420s were a relatively quiet decade for Portugal. This may have been in part to an incident in 1433 where Duarte hit his head while inspecting construction projects the crown was funding in Lisboa. After the incident, Duarte was never his old self. [Recent medical evidence shows he fractured his skull, which never healed, and top of that may have been suffering from amnesia after the injury.] Whatever the cause may have been, Duarte instead poured less money into himself and more money into the arts. Much of Lisboa was renovated, in the Moorish style, between 1430 and 1440.
Lisboa's historic lighthouse, completed in 1437.
In the autumn of 1438, a national scandal erupted when it was revealed that 19 year old Antonio, heir to the throne, was making love with a palace serving girl. Although the king publicly scolded Antonio, the situation was not rectified; few people of any importance had even an ounce of trust in the king anymore despite his worst days being a decade behind him. The serving girl is reported to have mysteriously disappeared that winter; one does not need to think very hard to determine what her fate might have been .
The Portuguese economy had fallen into a deep recession due to de Oliveira's "reforms" and Duarte's childish spending habits. By 1440, it was in complete tatters. Duarte realized this. However, he realized that there was a possible source of wealth very near Portugal: the gold mines of Sus, in southern Morocco. Falsely claiming to be going on Crusade, in 1441, Duarte had gathered enough support and troops to go on total war in Morocco.
At the time, Morocco was under the iron thumb of Abd ar-Rahman, an unpopular king with both the nobility and the peasantry. His widely hated tax policies led to a total peasant rebellion in the north of the county in 1440-1441. The Portuguese army, sixteen thousand strong, took advantage of ar-Rahman's army being pinned down by the anti-tax rebels and in September 1441 attacked Ifni, a port city in southwest Morocco. The city fell to the invaders in February 1442 after an easy siege. That same army proceeded to march north, towards Marrakesh, and in May destroyed ar-Rahman's remaining army with minimal casualties. ar-Rahman himself was captured shortly after the battle.
Meanwhile, in June, Taroudant, the major town and trade hub of Sus, fell to the Portuguese, who had already taken control of the major gold mines and trade routes. On June 25, ar-Rahman was released after signing a document ceding a strip of land, stretching from Ifni eastwards and including Taroudant and the majority of the gold mines of Sus, to Duarte's personal demesne.
While the so-called "Moroccan Crusade" had ended in success, it would take time for this slice of Africa to fall securely under Portuguese control. A revolt against Portuguese rule in 1443, while easily crushed, only steeled the Berber peoples of the area in their resolve to fight, a resolve which would not fade away for decades afterwards.
While Portugal would not truly look to the west until after Duarte was dead, the return of Henry, third son of Joao I, to Portugal from Constantinople in 1444, after the Ottoman Turks captured said city from the Knights of St. John, led to his employment with the Crown. After Joao's death, Henry would prove to be the decisive figure of the next few decades.
Henry the Navigator c. 1445
In 1447, Portuguese settlers in Africa, wishing to found a settlement free of Berbers, founded the settlement of São Pedro, in a land they called Rio de Oro. In time, the settlement would eventually become primarily Berber, and be called Dakhla.
Duarte died in 1449 of unknown causes. The end of the madman's reign led to nobles breathing a sigh of relief, as a far more moderate, if illegitimate king, came to power...
Despite Duarte’s best efforts, his plans to move his capital to Corsica were never able to gain any momentum. While he planned to build a magnificent palace complex, few nobles helped him. In fact, for a noble to side with Duarte the madman meant being ostracized by much of the rest of the nobility. Not even Corsica would remain under Duarte's solid grip: revolts in 1431 and 1432 showed that Corsicans would not accept being ruled by a Portuguese, much less a madman like Duarte. In 1433, Duarte finally relented and let a local noble who had married into the de Avis family, Leopold, take the throne of the island as long as he swore fealty to the Portuguese crown. Duarte was forced to be content with simply owning a small summer palace on the island.
While no known portraits of Duarte c. 1430 survive, this actor from a recent film about the Corsica invasion is believed to be the closest portrayal of him.
The election of Pope Innocent VII to the Papacy in 1429 meant the end of the brief resurgence in Papal power. Innocent VII was little more than a marionette dancing to the tune of the kings of France. The Church began reeking of corruption and sin yet again, and its local functions began falling more and more in the hands of local nobles who cared little for piety and spirituality and instead wanted more earthly things: power and money. In 1433, Duarte suddenly found himself of control of much of the Church's Portuguese functions. When local nobles offered to pay the state in exchange for control of these functions, Duarte greedily agreed.
The 1430s compared to the 1420s were a relatively quiet decade for Portugal. This may have been in part to an incident in 1433 where Duarte hit his head while inspecting construction projects the crown was funding in Lisboa. After the incident, Duarte was never his old self. [Recent medical evidence shows he fractured his skull, which never healed, and top of that may have been suffering from amnesia after the injury.] Whatever the cause may have been, Duarte instead poured less money into himself and more money into the arts. Much of Lisboa was renovated, in the Moorish style, between 1430 and 1440.
Lisboa's historic lighthouse, completed in 1437.
In the autumn of 1438, a national scandal erupted when it was revealed that 19 year old Antonio, heir to the throne, was making love with a palace serving girl. Although the king publicly scolded Antonio, the situation was not rectified; few people of any importance had even an ounce of trust in the king anymore despite his worst days being a decade behind him. The serving girl is reported to have mysteriously disappeared that winter; one does not need to think very hard to determine what her fate might have been .
The Portuguese economy had fallen into a deep recession due to de Oliveira's "reforms" and Duarte's childish spending habits. By 1440, it was in complete tatters. Duarte realized this. However, he realized that there was a possible source of wealth very near Portugal: the gold mines of Sus, in southern Morocco. Falsely claiming to be going on Crusade, in 1441, Duarte had gathered enough support and troops to go on total war in Morocco.
At the time, Morocco was under the iron thumb of Abd ar-Rahman, an unpopular king with both the nobility and the peasantry. His widely hated tax policies led to a total peasant rebellion in the north of the county in 1440-1441. The Portuguese army, sixteen thousand strong, took advantage of ar-Rahman's army being pinned down by the anti-tax rebels and in September 1441 attacked Ifni, a port city in southwest Morocco. The city fell to the invaders in February 1442 after an easy siege. That same army proceeded to march north, towards Marrakesh, and in May destroyed ar-Rahman's remaining army with minimal casualties. ar-Rahman himself was captured shortly after the battle.
While Portugal would not truly look to the west until after Duarte was dead, the return of Henry, third son of Joao I, to Portugal from Constantinople in 1444, after the Ottoman Turks captured said city from the Knights of St. John, led to his employment with the Crown. After Joao's death, Henry would prove to be the decisive figure of the next few decades.
Henry the Navigator c. 1445
In 1447, Portuguese settlers in Africa, wishing to found a settlement free of Berbers, founded the settlement of São Pedro, in a land they called Rio de Oro. In time, the settlement would eventually become primarily Berber, and be called Dakhla.
Duarte died in 1449 of unknown causes. The end of the madman's reign led to nobles breathing a sigh of relief, as a far more moderate, if illegitimate king, came to power...
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