Henry the Navigator Portuguese discovery. Biography of Henry the Navigator

As a child, he was interested in fencing, horse riding, studying science and religion. However, most of all he was attracted to military affairs and mastery of the spear. This occupation predetermined Henry’s future life.

First hikes and discoveries

in 1415, a military campaign was carried out and the fortress of Ceuta on the coast of Africa was captured. The king entrusted control over the conquered outpost to Henry. At that time, Henry learned of caravans traveling through the desert carrying gold from Guinea. He began searching for sea routes to gold-bearing lands. Beginning in 1418, Henry organized a series of naval expeditions, which resulted in the discovery of several islands on the northwestern coast of Africa (Madeira (1418) and the Azores (1427)). An interesting fact is that the organizer himself went on sea expeditions no more than three times.

The island of Madeira became the first colony of Portugal. Black slaves were sent to Portugal for the first time. Thus, the beginning of the slave trade was laid, on which Henry introduced a state monopoly. After the discovery of the Azores, they also began to be colonized. In the occupied territories, the Portuguese grew grapes and sugar cane, extracted valuable wood and sent it to their homeland.

One of the important directions for Portugal was the search for a sea route to India - the land of spices - around the African continent. Located far from the main trade routes, Portugal could not effectively participate in trade. Eastern goods were very expensive for the country that was poor at that time, and exports to other countries were small. Therefore, Henry paid great attention to sea voyages to the northwestern coast of Africa in order to find an eastern route to India.

In 1438, Henry founded an observatory and nautical school called Villa do Infante. It became the first center of science in Europe; the best European scientists, astronomers and cartographers of that time came here.

Last years

Prince Henry spent his last years in solitude, surrounded by students from his nautical school. The great Navigator died on November 13, 1460 in Sagres, Portugal.

After his death, Portuguese explorers managed to reach the shores of modern Sierra Leone and discover the Cape Verde Islands (now the Republic of Cape Verde). Henry's work in finding sea routes to India and the Far East was continued by such great travelers as.

When people talk about the era of great geographical discoveries, his name is the last to be remembered. Although, thanks to the efforts of this particular romantic of long voyages and fanatical crusader warrior, Portugal began the colonial conquest of Africa, and black slaves were brought to Europe for the first time. But the organizer of these trips himself went to sea only three times in his entire life and no further than 200 miles. And yet the Portuguese Prince Henry deservedly bore the proud nickname “navigator”.

Infante Henry or Henrique, born in 1394, was the son of the Portuguese king John I and Philippa of Lancaster, who brought the traditions of British chivalry to the country. Enrique and his brothers were taught the seven knightly virtues - writing poetry, horse riding, fencing, playing checkers, hunting and swimming, but most of all the young man was interested in mastering a spear, although he did not neglect the study of natural sciences and theology. Chivalry as a military and religious service determined Henry's entire subsequent life. At the age of 21, he initiated the capture of a Moorish fortress in northern Africa.
Only 150 miles - such was the length of the first sea voyage, the future inspiration for the naval conquests of Portugal.

The king entrusted the defense of Ceuta, a new Portuguese outpost on the African coast, to Infante Henry. To achieve this, part of the treasury's income came under the complete and uncontrolled control of the prince, and after 5 years the prince became the Grand Master of the Order of the Cross.
Now enormous power was concentrated in the hands of the navigator: spiritual, military and financial. And Prince Henry used this power in the best way for Portugal. From freed Christian slaves, he learned about caravans that transported gold across the African desert from the coast of Guinea to the Muslim ports of the Mediterranean. The prince, knowledgeable in geography, decided that Guinea could be reached by sea, then the treasures taken from the infidels could be taken to Lisbon. In addition, by bypassing Muslim territories from the south, you can reach Christian Ethiopia and begin profitable trade with it, and then reach India itself by sea.
The Infante’s aggressive plans were also mixed with scientific curiosity, supported by accurate geographical maps found in Ceuta. And when Henry’s brother Prince Pedro brought from Venice the manuscript of the already famous traveler Marco Polo, the Infant firmly decided that the lands lay south of Ceuta.

Prince Henry began organizing sea expeditions to the northwestern shores of Africa. At the insistence of the prince, astronomy and mathematics were included in the program of the University of Lisbon in 1431. In 1438, near Cape Saint Vincent in the fortress of Sagres, Prince Henry organized the observatory and nautical school of the Villa de Infante. Prominent scientists, astronomers, cartographers and navigators from all over Europe were invited there, and the navigator prince participated in discussions along with the scientists. The school accepted all worthy people regardless of class, religious and ethnic differences, which was unusual for Catholic Portugal in the 15th century.
Through the efforts of the prince, the nautical school of Villa de Infanta became the first scientific center in European history. The fortress still preserves a huge 43-meter diameter wind rose - a diagram of long-term observations of the direction and strength of the wind. Inspired by the support of the prince, the captains of the Portuguese caravels discovered the island of Madeira in 1418. At the same time, the navigator began to explore new lands and soon the first settlers appeared in Madeira, and wine began to be delivered to the Metropolis - rare in quality even for wine-producing Portugal.

Then, for decades, Henry stubbornly equipped sea expeditions to the Canary Islands, but the captains could not get past the underwater rocks at Cape Bojador. Sailing ships were hit by holes on the ill-fated cape, where dragons were believed to be found at that time, and sank.
But in 1434, having rounded it from the open ocean, one of the captains opened the way to West Africa, and Henry received the honorary title of “navigator”.

But why did Henry the Navigator himself never set off on long-distance sea expeditions?
It was believed that the prince was afraid of pirates or that he considered it offensive for a person of royal blood to be among the sailors, but most likely the prince considered his main business to analyze the captains' reports, separate truth from fiction and equip new sea voyages. The romantic of distant travels, Henry the Navigator, deliberately closed the sea to himself.

Henry the Navigator never married. Reserved and gloomy, he believed himself responsible for the death of his younger brother Ferdinand, who was captured by the Moors during their unsuccessful naval expedition to Tangier in 1437.
Henry spent his last years in Sagrish, surrounded by students from his nautical school. Two years before his death, he briefly went to sea for the third time.
Henry the Navigator died on November 13, 1460.
His work was continued by the famous Portuguese sailors Bartolomeo Dias, Vasco da Gamma and the greatest of the Infante's followers, Ferdinand Magellan. They owe their achievements to the Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator - the man on the coat of arms who was inscribed: “Talent for good deeds.”

Life story
Henry (Enrique) the Navigator - Portuguese prince, nicknamed the Navigator. For 40 years, he equipped and sent numerous naval expeditions to explore the Atlantic coasts of Africa, creating the preconditions for the formation of a powerful colonial empire of Portugal. Born March 4, 1394 in Porto. Third son of King Joan I (founder of the Avis dynasty) and his wife Philippa of Lancaster (daughter of John of Gaunt).
In 1415, Prince Henry and his father took part in a military campaign, which resulted in the capture of the Moorish fortress of Ceuta, located on the African coast of Gibraltar. There he learned that caravans loaded with gold, coming from the Niger River valley, were crossing the Sahara, but decided that Portugal should look for sea routes to the gold-bearing lands of Guinea. Thus began (from 1416) a long and well-organized campaign of sea expeditions. The ships moved along the African continent and returned to Portugal, using a wide belt of favorable winds and coastal currents. One of the results of these expeditions was the discovery of Madeira (1418–1419) and the Azores (1427–1431).
The island of Madeira, located 900 km southwest of Portugal, became the first Portuguese colony. On his lands they began to grow sugar cane and planted vineyards.
The exploration of Africa itself was fraught with great difficulties, for example, Cape Bojador in the south of the Canary Islands posed a huge danger for navigation. But the southern route to the tropical lands of Africa was finally opened - in 1434 Gilles Ianish rounded the cape.
Henry was greatly influenced by his brother Prince Pedro, the king's second son. In 1418–1428 he visited many of the royal courts of Europe. Pedro later arrived in Venice, where he observed with interest the trade of the Venetians with the eastern countries and where he was presented with the manuscript of the Book of Marco Polo. After reading the manuscript, Henry suggested that the captains of his ships collect information about the sea route to India, as well as about the African Christian country of Ethiopia. He hoped to reach this land by bypassing the Muslim countries from the southeast. His brother Pedro also supported him in this.
After his second campaign in Ceuta (1418), Henry established his residence in the Algarve, the southernmost province of Portugal, where the secure bay of Lagos was located. In 1443, Henry received Sagrish, the southwestern point of Portugal at Cape São Vicente, or, as it was then called, the “Sacred Cape,” at his disposal. There, at the expense of the Portuguese spiritual-knightly Order of Christ, of which he was the head, the prince founded an observatory and a nautical school. Called Villa do Infante, it became a center of attraction for prominent scientists, cartographers and astronomers of the time.
Henry's life was a chain of personal tragedies. In 1437, together with his younger brother Ferdinand, he took part in an unsuccessful expedition to Tangier; Ferdinand was captured by the Moors and imprisoned, where he died because Henry failed to ransom him. After this, his elder brother King Duarte died in 1438. The middle brother Pedro became regent, but, having begun a fight against the pretender to the throne Alfonso V, was killed at Alfarrobeira in 1449.
All these events led to the fact that expeditions were organized sporadically by Henry, and long intervals appeared in their schedule. However, in 1444 Henry's captains discovered the Senegal River, and two years later they reached the Geba River in Sierra Leone. During Henry's lifetime, the Portuguese were unable to advance south of this point. In 1455 and 1456 the Venetian Alvise da Cadamosto, the most famous of Henry's skippers, sailed up the Gambia River in Gambia, and the following year discovered the coast of the Cape Verde Islands. At this time, a massive trade in African slaves began, the center of which was located in Argen, near Cabo Blanco. Henry encouraged the slave trade, and considered the act of baptizing slaves as a way to save their souls. The prince's expeditions began to generate income and in the eyes of the Portuguese nobles and merchants, Henry turned into a national hero.
Henry spent his last years in almost complete solitude in Sagrish, surrounded only by members of his “university,” although in 1458 he accompanied a successful expedition to Tangier and further south to Arquila. He then returned to Sagrish on the "Sacred Cape", where he died on November 13, 1460.

The activities of Henry the Navigator intertwined various interests: colonizer (the desire to capture new lands for the Portuguese crown), explorer (discovery of new lands, drawing maps, etc.), missionary (spread of Christianity among new peoples), crusader (Henry was the Grand Master knightly and monastic order of Christ, participated in a number of campaigns against the Arabs of North Africa). Henry paid his main attention to voyages to the south along the western coast of Africa in order to find an eastern sea route to India around Africa and the fight against Barbary pirates to ensure the safety of navigation and suppress devastating raids on the shores of Portugal.

Finding a sea route to India was very important for Portugal. The country, located away from the main trade routes of the time, could not participate in world trade with great benefit. Exports were small, and the Portuguese had to buy valuable goods from the East, such as spices, at very high prices, while the country, after the wars with Castile, was poor and did not have the financial capacity for this.

However, the geographical position of Portugal was very favorable for discoveries on the west coast of Africa and the search for a sea route to the “land of spices”.

From 1419 until his death, Henry equipped expeditions one after another that discovered a number of islands off the west coast of Africa: Madeira Island, the Azores, and the Cape Verde Islands. These expeditions rounded Cape Bojador, Cape Cabo Blanco, and explored the mouths of the Senegal and Gambia rivers. Moving further and further, they brought gold from the Guinean coast and created strongholds on open lands. Immediately after the appearance of the first batches of black slaves and the beginning of the slave trade, Henry introduced a state monopoly on the slave trade.

Understanding the importance of maritime trade and navigation, the infant paid great attention to the development of cartography and shipbuilding, inviting craftsmen from different countries to Portugal.

During this period, Mediterranean ships were not fast and maneuverable enough for long ocean travel and exploration. Under the leadership of Henry, a new type of ship was created - a caravel with slanting lateen sails. Such a caravel could go quickly and very steeply to the wind, which made it practically independent of the prevailing direction of the winds. She could explore the open ocean and rivers and was more spacious than her Arabian prototype.

In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the bull Romanus Pontifex. This bull confirmed the previously sanctioned right of Christian powers to enslave non-Christian peoples and approved further colonization. But most importantly, it prohibited other Christian powers from encroaching on the rights of the Portuguese in northwestern Africa.

Heritage

Best of the day

After the death of Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese colonial advance to the south slowed down somewhat. However, his activities laid the foundations for the future maritime and colonial power of Portugal. He was no stranger to political struggle, in particular, he participated in intrigues around the Portuguese throne. In military affairs, success was not always on his side. For example, under his command, Portuguese troops suffered a crushing defeat in an attempt to capture Tangier in 1437, after which Henry the Navigator was ready to give up Ceuta. Prince Henry died in 1460, by which time Portuguese explorers had reached the coast of what is now Sierra Leone and discovered the Cape Verde Islands. Henry's efforts inspired Portuguese sailors to round the Cape of Good Hope and find a sea route to India and the Far East.

The Portuguese prince Enrique the Navigator made many geographical discoveries, although he himself went to sea only three times. He marked the beginning of the era of great geographical discoveries and significantly improved the position of Portugal.

Origin

Ancestor Enrique (Enrique), became the first Portuguese count, winning the title in 1095 in the fight against the Moors - Arabs and Berbers who professed Islam, who occupied northwestern Africa and part of Europe. The ancestor of the ruling house was a relative of the Duke of Burgundy and representatives of the Hungarian Arpad dynasty, but there is no documentary evidence of this version.

The Kingdom of Portugal was founded in 1139. The ruling dynasties, which were related to each other, changed from time to time, which was always accompanied by a bloody war. The beginning of the next period in the history of the ruling house was given by Enrique's father, Joan (Joan, John). During the change of power, he invaded Portugal, laying siege to Lisbon by land and sea. The military campaign, during which João fought bravely, was successful. Later, he increasingly strengthened his power and as a result became a full-fledged ruler.

Joan was the first to sit on the throne for almost half a century. In addition, he headed the order of knighthood, although this role usually goes to the king's son. It was John (Joan, Juan) who first laid the foundation for the exploration of the sea and new lands, but it was his son, Prince Enrique the Navigator, who achieved real success in this field.

As a child, the boy and his brothers were taught knightly virtues: horse riding, writing poetry, fencing, hunting, swimming, and playing checkers. Enrique was most interested in the art of war, although he did not neglect natural science and theology. Chivalry determined the entire future existence of the prince.

Interests of the colonialist

The personality of Prince Enrique the Navigator combined the interests of a colonizer, explorer, missionary and crusader. Already at the age of 21, he participated in the Battle of Ceuta, which later became a trading settlement. Henry (Enrique, Enrique) the Navigator settled in Lagos in the south of the country, Sagres, where he opened observatories and navigation schools.

During the years of Enrique's reign, expansion proceeded at an unprecedented pace. In just one year, twice as many territories were added as in the previous two decades. The Portuguese reached the western edge of the continent - Cape Verde.

Enrique the Explorer

But a much greater contribution was made by Henry the Navigator (Prince Enrique) as an explorer. Even after the defense of Ceuta, he learned from freed slaves that caravans with gold were constantly walking across the African desert. The prince, who was familiar with geography, understood that places where huge treasures were concentrated could be reached by sea. In addition, he understood that in the same way it was possible to reach Ethiopia and begin trade with it, and then reach India itself.

Enrique the Navigator immediately began preparing and equipping sea expeditions to the shores of Africa. He founded navigation and seafaring schools and observatories, and added astronomy and mathematics to the course at the University of Lisbon. For Catholic Portugal during the Middle Ages, it was very unusual that everyone was accepted into the navigating school, regardless of religious affiliation, class or ethnic differences. To this day, a huge wind rose has been preserved in the fortress, where the school was once located.

Position of Portugal

For Portugal at that time, it was important to find a sea route to India - a source of spices and other treasures. The country was located far from the main trade routes and could not participate in international trade. At that time, Portugal could only receive goods from the East at a very high price, which, of course, was completely unprofitable economically. The geographical position of the country, however, favored discoveries.

Major discoveries

Enrique the Navigator considered his main task to be a thorough analysis of the captains' reports and the ability to distinguish truth from fiction. Since 1419, he constantly equipped expeditions, and sailors, inspired by the king's support, participated in the discovery of Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde. And this was at a time when Europeans considered Cape Noon on the coast where Morocco is now located, the extreme point of the world. They said that terrible sea monsters lived behind the cape, and the scorching sun would destroy any ship that dared to sail into those waters. But Prince Henry Enrique the Navigator, whose discoveries proved to the whole world the possibility of exploration, neglected these tales.

Sailors began to regularly sail beyond Cape Nun. Expeditions equipped by Enrique the Navigator discovered capes Bojador and Cabo Blanco there, and explored the Senegal and Gambia rivers. They moved further and further, returning with gold. The Portuguese built strongholds on open lands. Soon the first batches of slaves began to be sent from there.

Understanding how important the development of shipbuilding was in geographical discoveries, Enrique invited the best craftsmen to Portugal. Ships back then were not fast enough for long journeys, and this needed to change. Under Enrique, they created a caravel with oblique sails, which could move quickly and almost regardless of the direction of the wind. Under the leadership of Enrique, many geographical discoveries were made, but he himself went to sea only three times. It was rumored that he was afraid of pirates or simply considered it an insult to be among sailors. Most likely, the prince simply considered it his job to analyze the reports of sailors and supervise the equipment of new campaigns.

Missionary

The biography of Prince Enrique the Navigator is not limited to geographical discoveries alone, although they constituted the most significant part of it. As a knight, Enrique actively spread Christianity among the conquered peoples. He was a Master of the Order of Christ and took part in several campaigns against the Arabs living in northern Africa.

Prince's Legacy

After the death of Henry (Enrique), the active advance of the Portuguese in a southern direction slowed down significantly. But it was the activities of this man that laid the main pillars of the maritime and colonial power of Portugal. Enrique was no stranger to political intrigue, but in military affairs success was not always on his side.

Personal life

The prince never married. He was gloomy and very reserved, blaming himself for the death of his younger brother, who died in an unfortunate year in 1437. Prince Enrique the Navigator spent his last years within the walls of a school he built with his own hands. He was surrounded by students. A couple of years before his death, Enrique went to sea for the third time, but for a very short period of time. Prince Henry died in 1460 and was buried in the monastery chapel.