Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry of Portugal, Duke of Viseu, better known as Prince Henry the Navigator, was a Portuguese prince. He was very important in the early days of the Portuguese Empire. He helped start what is called the Age of Discovery. Henry was the third child of King John I of Portugal, who started the House of Aviz.

Henry helped make a new kind of ship called the caravel. He led efforts to explore and trade with other parts of the world. He focused on exploring Western Africa and the islands of the Atlantic Ocean. He wanted to find new trade routes. Henry encouraged his father to capture Ceuta, a Muslim port on the coast of North Africa across the Straits of Gibraltar from the Iberian Peninsula. He was very interested in learning about the Saharan trade routes and liked stories about Prester John. Because of his support, he is often called the patron of Portuguese exploration. Prince Henry died on 13 November 1460 in Vila do Bispo, in the region of Algarve.

Early life

The Casa do Infante, in Porto, is traditionally considered Prince Henry's birthplace.

Prince Henry the Navigator was the third son of King John I and Philippa, sister of King Henry IV of England. He grew up in or near Porto. As a young man, Henry helped lead an expedition to capture the city of Ceuta in northern Morocco in 1415. Ceuta was a place where pirates attacked Portuguese villages. Henry helped plan and lead the group that took Ceuta, and for his success he was made Duke of Viseu and given important responsibilities.

After Ceuta was captured, Henry learned more about lands to the south from people they met. This inspired him to explore further by sea. In 1419, he became the governor of the Algarve, a region in southern Portugal.

Resources and income

In 1420, Henry became in charge of the Order of Christ. This group gave him important money for his plans, like trying to take over the Canary Islands. In 1431, he gave houses for teaching different subjects. These houses later became part of the University of Lisbon.

Henry also got rights to profits from trading in places he found and had exclusive rights to tuna fishing in the Algarve. He helped a lot in encouraging Portuguese exploration in the Atlantic Ocean and Africa.

Vila do Infante and Portuguese exploration

The Fortress of Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent in the Algarve, is said to have been the seat of the legendary Sagres school.

Prince Henry the Navigator rebuilt a village in the Algarve and named it Terçanabal. The village was later called Vila do Infante, meaning "Estate or Town of the Prince." It was a good place for his sea adventures.

People used to think Henry had a special school for sailors and map-makers at a place called Sagres. But historians now say this was not true. Henry hired map-makers to help chart the coast of Mauritania, but there was no big science center or organized group for navigation like some stories say. A famous Portuguese mathematician, Pedro Nunes, said that sailors from Sagres were well-prepared with tools and knowledge for their journeys.

Henry's explorations

Map depicting Atlantic winds (green), currents (blue) and approximate Portuguese sailing routes (red) utilizing the Volta do mar technique, perfected under Prince Henry.

Prince Henry began exploring the coast of Africa, which was mostly unknown to Europeans at the time. He wanted to find gold from West Africa and learn more about a faraway Christian kingdom. He also wanted to stop pirates from attacking Portugal’s coast. For these trips, a new type of ship called the caravel was made. This ship was lighter and faster, and it could sail better against the wind than older ships. It used a special sail called the lateen sail, which helped sailors travel far into the Atlantic Ocean.

Henry helped pay for many voyages and took a small part of any profits made. These trips used small ships that followed the coast, stopping each night to rest. Portuguese sailors learned to use wind patterns to travel across the ocean more easily. This skill later helped explorers reach new parts of the world. Some of these early trips led to the discovery of islands like Madeira and the Azores. Slowly, explorers moved down the west coast of Africa, passing places like Cape Bojador and reaching areas such as the Senegal River and the Cape Verde islands.

Expedition to Alcácer-Ceguer

Late in his life, Prince Henry joined an expedition led by King Afonso V against a town in north Africa called Kasr es-Seghir. This town was used by pirates from the Marinid sultanate. Portugal and the Marinids were at war.

After the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453, Pope Calixtus III asked for help. Although Pope Calixtus III died in August 1458, King Afonso V decided to attack Tangier in Morocco. He was persuaded to attack Ksar es-Seghir instead. The Portuguese fleet had around 200 to 220 ships and about 25,000 to 26,000 warriors. They gathered in Lagos before sailing to Alcácer-Ceguer in October 1458. Prince Henry led the Algarve group during this campaign.

Origin of the "Navigator" nickname

No one called Prince Henry "the Navigator" when he was alive or for many years after. The name was created by two German historians in the 1800s. Later, British authors used it in their books about him.

At the time, Prince Henry was not known for being very smart. It was much later that writers said he liked maps and learning about faraway places. The idea that he started a special school for explorers called the "Sagres school" was made up even later. Over time, people began to see him as a big helper in exploring new places.

Main article: Sagres school

Death and legacy

Prince Henry the Navigator died on November 13, 1460. He was first buried in the Church of Saint Mary of Lagos and later moved to the Monastery of Batalha, where his tomb can still be visited today. He is also shown in the Monument of the Discoveries in Lisbon.

In 1994, the Prince Henry Society and the Portuguese government gave Prince Henry the Navigator Park to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Before Portugal started using the euro in 2002, his picture appeared on the largest banknote of the Portuguese escudo.

Monuments to Prince Henry can be found in many places around the world, including: