Afonso V 'the African'
Portuguese monarch Afonso V, 'the African' (1432 – 1481), succeeded his father in 1438 when he was only six years old. He was known as 'the African' due to his military campaigns and conquests in North Africa.
Afonso was Duarte I's second son by his wife Eleanor of Aragon and became the heir apparent when his older brother, Infante João, died in 1433. His father, who sought to emulate the English Court's custom of a dynastic title to distinguish the heir apparent from the monarch's other children, made him the first Prince of Portugal.
His father's will named Eleanor as regent, but as a foreigner, she was not a popular choice. A meeting of the Portuguese Cortes late in 1438 passed a law naming Eleanor and Afonso's uncle Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, as joint regents. After the dual regency proved unworkable, the Cortes named Pedro as the king's "protector and guardian" and the kingdom's "ruler and defender". When Eleanor attempted to resist, she failed to attract supporters and fled to Castile. Although Pedro attempted to restrict the nobility's political power and expand the crown's powers, resistance from powerful nobles led by his half-brother, the Count of Barcelos, resulted in a constant struggle for power. After Afonso made his uncle the count the first Duke of Braganza in 1442, his uncle the regent attempted to secure his position; Pedro had Afonso marry his daughter, Isabella of Coimbra, three years later.
However, when Afonso came of age in on 9 June 1448, the Duke of Braganza's years of scheming reached fruition. On 15 September, Afonso V nullified all the regency's laws and edicts. The following year, prompted by what proved to be false accusations, Afonso declared Pedro a rebel. Pedro subsequently died when his forces lost the Battle of Alfarrobeira. Afonso's ambitions then turned towards North Africa. Pope Nicholas V's 1452 edict Dum Diversas granted him the right to reduce "Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers" to hereditary slavery. In 1455, Romanus Pontifex reaffirmed those rights and laid the foundations for the subsequent slave trade and European colonialism. Afonso's forces subsequently conquered Alcácer Ceguer in 1458, won and lost Tangiers several times between 1460 and 1464 and took Arzila in 1471.
Henry IV of Castile's death in December 1474 without a male heir prompted Afonso's unsuccessful attempt to unite Portugal and Castile by betrothing himself to Henry's daughter, Joanna. With Joanna's paternity under question, the War of the Castilian Succession saw Afonso and Joanna's supporters pitted against Henry's half-sister Isabella and her husband Ferdinand of Aragon. Although both sides claimed victory at the indecisive 1475 Battle of Toro, Afonso's failure to claim a clear victory damaged Afonso and Joanna's prospects for obtaining the Castilian crown. After the battle, Afonso sailed to France seeking assistance from Louis XI, but the succession was settled when Ferdinand and Isabella declared a decisive victory after the Battle of Peleagonzalo. The outcome was clearer at sea; when Castile attempted to break into Portugal's lucrative West African trade, the Battle of Guinea delivered a decisive Portuguese victory. The 1479 Treaty of Alcaçovas settled the remaining issues between Portugal, Castile and Aragon. From there, Portugal's interests were directed towards expansion in Africa.
In the meantime, after his return from France, Afonso briefly abdicated in November 1477, then reconsidered, preferring to rule from a monastery at Sintra, where he died four years later. His son João II succeeded him as Portugal's 13th king.
Links to add:
Eleanor of Aragon
Infante João
Portuguese Cortes
Pedro, Duke of Coimbra
Duke of Braganza
Isabella of Coimbra
Battle of Alfarrobeira.
Nicholas V
Dum Diversas
Romanus Pontifex
Tangiers
Arzila
Henry IV of Castile
Henry's daughter, Joanna
War of the Castilian Succession
Isabella of Castile
Ferdinand of Aragon.
Battle of Toro
Louis XI
Battle of Peleagonzalo
Battle of Guinea
Sintra
João II
