ALPHONSO I. (Affonso Henriques),
son of Henry of Burgundy, count of Portugal, and Teresa of
Castile, was born at Guimaraes in 1094. He succeeded his
father in 1112, and was placed under the tutelage of his
mother. When he came of age, he was obliged to wrest from
her by force that power which her vices and incapacity had
rendered disastrous to the state. Being proclaimed sole
ruler of
Portugal in 1123, he defeated his mother's troops
near Guimaraes, making her at the same time his prisoner.
He also vanquished Alphonso Raymond of Castile, his mother's
ally, and thus freed
Portugal from dependence on the crown of
Leon. Next turning his arms against the Moors, he obtained,
on the 26th July 1139, the famous victory of Ourique, and
immediately after was proclaimed king by his soldiers.
He assembled the Cortes of the kingdom at Lamego, where he
received the crown from the archbishop of Braganza; the assembly
also declaring that
Portugal was no longer a dependency of
Leon. Alphonso continued to distinguish himself by his
exploits against the Moors, from whom he wrested Santarem in
1146 and Lisbon in 1147. Some years later he became involved
in a war that had broken out among the kings of Spain; and in
1167, being disabled during an engagement near Badajoz by a
fall from his horse, he was made prisoner by the soldiers of
the king of Leon, and was obliged to surrender as his r:asom
almost all the conquests he had made in Galicia. In 1184,
in spite of his great age, he had still sufficient energy to
relieve his son Sancho, who was besieged in Santarem by the
Moors. He died shortly after, in 1185. Alphonso was a man of
gigantic stature, being 7 ft. high according to some authors.
He is revered as a saint by the Portuguese, both on account
of his personal character and as the founder of their kingdom.
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)