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Birth:          25 Jul 1110 Villa de Guimaraes, Braga, Portugal
Death:          6 Dec 1185 Mosteiro Decelas, Coimbra, Portugal
Burial:         Igeja Santa Cruz, Coimbra, Portugal

Notes
famous Crusading king who recovered Lisbon from the Moors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_I_of_Portugal
Afonso I[a] (1106/ 25 July 1109 /1111 – 6 December 1185), nicknamed "the 
Conqueror" (Portuguese: O Conquistador), "the Founder" (O Fundador) or "the Great" 
(O Grande) by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali [in Arabic ?????????] ("the 
Portuguese") and Ibn-Arrink [in Arabic ??? ??????? or ??? ???????] ("son of Henry", 
"Henriques") by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal. He 
achieved the independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia, the County 
of Portugal, from Galicia's overlord, the King of León, in 1139, establishing a new 
kingdom and doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued 
until his death, in 1185, after forty-six years of wars against the Moors.
From birth to rebellion: Afonso's youth[edit]

Afonso was the son of Henry of Burgundy and Theresa, the natural daughter of King 
Alfonso VI of León and Castile. According to Fernão Lopes' Crónica de Portugal de 
1419, the future Portuguese king was born in Guimarães, which was at the time the 
most important political center of his parents. This was accepted by most Portuguese 
scholarship until Torquato de Sousa Soares proposed in 1990 Coimbra, the center of 
the county of Coimbra and another political center of Afonso's progenitors, as his 
birthplace, which caused a huge outrage in Guimarães and a polemic between this 
historian and José Hermano Saraiva. Almeida Fernandes later proposed Viseu as the 
birth place of Afonso basing himself on the Chronica Gothorum, which states Afonso 
was born in 1109, a position followed by José Mattoso in his biography of the king.[1] 
Abel Estefânio has suggested a different date and thesis, proposing either 1106 or 
1111 as the birth date and the region of Tierra de Campos or even Sahagún as likely 
birth places based on the known itineraries of counts Henry and Teresa.[2][3] The pair 
reigned jointly as count and countess of Portugal until Henry's death on 22 May 1112 
during the siege of Astorga,[4] after which Theresa reigned alone.[5]

In an effort to pursue a larger share in the Leonese inheritance, his mother Theresa 
joined forces with Fernando Pérez de Trava, the most powerful count in Galicia.[5] 
The Portuguese nobility disliked the alliance between Galicia and Portugal and rallied 
around Afonso. The Archbishop of Braga was also concerned with the dominance of 
Galicia, apprehensive of the ecclesiastical pretensions of his new rival the Galician 
Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Diego Gelmírez, who had claimed an alleged 
discovery of relics of Saint James in his town, as a way to gain power and riches over 
the other cathedrals in the Iberian Peninsula. In 1122, Afonso turned fourteen, the 
adult age in the 12th century. He made himself a knight on his own account in the 
Cathedral of Zamora, raised an army, and proceeded to take control of his mother's 
lands.

Sole count[edit]

In 1128, near Guimarães, at the Battle of São Mamede Afonso and his supporters 
overcame troops under his Count Fernando Peres de Trava of Galicia. Afonso exiled 
his mother to Galicia, and took over rule of the County of Portucale.[5] Thus the 
possibility of re-incorporating Portugal (up to then known as Southern Galicia) into a 
Kingdom of Portugal and Galicia as before was eliminated and Afonso became sole 
ruler following demands for independence from the county's church and nobles. He 
also vanquished his mother's nephew, Alfonso VII of León, who came to her rescue, 
and thus freed the country from political dependence on the crown of his cousin of 
León. On 6 April 1129, Afonso Henriques dictated the writ in which he proclaimed 
himself Prince of Portugal.

Afonso then turned his arms against the persistent problem of the Moors in the south. 
His campaigns were successful and, on 25 July 1139, he obtained an overwhelming 
victory in the Battle of Ourique, and straight after was unanimously proclaimed King of 
the Portuguese by his soldiers, establishing his equality in rank to the other realms of 
the Peninsula. The first assembly of the Portuguese Cortes convened at Lamego 
(wherein he would have been given the crown from the Archbishop of Braga, to 
confirm his independence) is a 17th-century embellishment of Portuguese history.

Kingship[edit]

Independence from Alfonso VII of León's suzerainty, however, was not a thing he just 
could achieve militarily. The County of Portugal still had to be acknowledged 
diplomatically by the neighboring lands as a kingdom and, most importantly, by the 
Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. Afonso wed Mafalda of Savoy, daughter of 
Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, and sent ambassadors to Rome to negotiate with the 
Pope. He succeeded in renouncing the suzerainty of his cousin, Alfonso VII of León, 
becoming instead a vassal of the papacy, as the kings of Sicily and Aragon had done 
before him. In 1179 the bull Manifestis Probatum accepted the new king as vassal to 
the pope exclusively.

In Portugal he built several monasteries and convents and bestowed important 
privileges to religious orders. He is notably the builder of Alcobaça Monastery, to 
which he called the Cistercian Order of his uncle Bernard of Clairvaux of Burgundy. In 
1143, he wrote to Pope Innocent II to declare himself and the kingdom servants of the 
church, swearing to pursue driving the Moors out of the Iberian Peninsula. Bypassing 
any king of León, Afonso declared himself the direct liege man of the papacy. Afonso 
continued to distinguish himself by his exploits against the Moors, from whom he 
wrested Santarém (see Conquest of Santarém) and Lisbon in 1147 (see Siege of 
Lisbon).[6] He also conquered an important part of the land south of the Tagus River, 
although this was lost again to the Moors in the following years.

Meanwhile, King Alfonso VII of León (Afonso's cousin) regarded the independent ruler 
of Portugal as nothing but a rebel. Conflict between the two was constant and bitter in 
the following years. Afonso became involved in a war, taking the side of the 
Aragonese king, an enemy of Castile. To ensure the alliance, his son Sancho was 
engaged to Dulce, sister of the Count of Barcelona and Infanta of Aragon. Finally after 
winning the Battle of Valdevez, the Treaty of Zamora (1143) established peace 
between the cousins and the recognition by the Kingdom of León that Portugal was a 
sovereign kingdom.

In 1169 the now old Dom Afonso was disabled in an engagement near Badajoz by a 
fall from his horse, and made prisoner by the soldiers of the king of León Ferdinand II 
also his son-in-law. Portugal was obliged to surrender as his ransom almost all the 
conquests Afonso had made in Galicia (north of the Minho River) in the previous 
years.[6]

In 1179 the privileges and favours given to the Roman Catholic Church were 
compensated. In the papal bull Manifestis Probatum, Pope Alexander III 
acknowledged Afonso as king and Portugal as an independent crown with the right to 
conquer lands from the Moors. With this papal blessing, Portugal was at last secured 
as a kingdom.

In 1184, in spite of his great age, he still had sufficient energy to relieve his son 
Sancho, who was besieged in Santarém by the Moors. Afonso died shortly after, on 6 
December 1185. The Portuguese revere him as a hero, both on account of his 
personal character and as the founder of their nation.[6] There are mythical stories 
that it took 10 men to carry his sword, and that Afonso wanted to engage other 
monarchs in personal combat, but no one would dare accept his challenge.

Scientific research[edit]

In July 2006, the tomb of the king (which is located in the Santa Cruz Monastery in 
Coimbra) was to be opened for scientific purposes by researchers from the University 
of Coimbra (Portugal) and the University of Granada (Spain). The opening of the tomb 
provoked considerable concern among some sectors of Portuguese society and IPPAR 
– Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico (Portuguese State Agency for 
Architectural Patrimony). The government halted the opening, requesting more 
protocols from the scientific team because of the importance of the king in the 
nation's formation.[7][8]

Parents
DE BURGUNDY Henry (Henri) (ABT 1069 - 1 Nov 1112)
DE CASTILE AND LEON Teresa Alfonso (ABT 1080 - 1 Nov 1130)

Siblings
HENRIQUEZ Urraca (1108 - )
HENRIQUEZ Afonso I "The Conqueror" (25 Jul 1110 - 6 Dec 1185)

Marriage To OF SAVOY Matilde (Maud) (1125 - 4 Nov 1157)
    m. 1146 

Notes

Parents
____ Amadeus (Amadeo) III (ABT 1092 - 30 Mar 1149)
OF ALBON Matilda (Mathilde) (Maud) (ABT 1106 - AFT Jan 1145)

Children by OF SAVOY Matilde (Maud) 1125 - 4 Nov 1157
AFFONSEZ Urraca (1151 - 16 Oct 1188)
AFFONSEZ Sancho I "The Popular" (11 Nov 1154 - 26 Mar 1212)

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