Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/563

Rh HISTORY.] PORTUGAL 541 do Sal was taken in 1158. In 1161 Affonso Henriques met with his first important check. The Almohade caliphs, having at last triumphed in Africa, determined to extend their power to Spain, and on the arrival of their troops the Portuguese king was defeated. Then the character of the war changed. A disputed succession weakened the Almohade caliphate, and independent bands of &quot;salteadors,&quot; who were little better than brigands or free-lances, began to establish themselves in the cities of Alemtejo ; such was Giraldo Sempavor, who took Evora in 1166. Affonso Henriques became ambitious to win the great city of Badajoz, although by a treaty signed at Cella Nova with Alphonso VII. he had undertaken to confine his con quests to the right bank of the Guadiana. No doubt it was owing to the death of his cousin and the separation of the kingdoms of Castile and Leon that he believed he could effect his purpose. But his son-in-law, Ferdinand of Leon, would not allow such a breach of treaty, and determined to oppose it ; and Affonso Henriques made the fatal mistake of again mixing himself up in Spanish affairs by invading Galicia in 1167. At last, in 1169, he formed the siege of Badajoz ; Ferdinand at once invested the besieger in his camp, and the Portuguese hero was severely wounded and taken prisoner. To gain his freedom he was compelled to surrender his conquests in Galicia, and Ferdinand nobly inflicted no harsher terms ; nevertheless the old king never recovered from the effect of his wound, and the remaining exploits of his reign were the work of his son Dom Sancho. By 1169 the internal dissensions of the Mohammedans were over, and the new Almohade caliph, Yusuf Abii Ya kub, crossed over to Spain with a large army. He speedily reconquered all the Portuguese acquisitions in Alemtejo, and in 1171, after a vain attempt to take Santarem, made a truce for seven years with Affonso Henriques, who in the following year admitted his son Sancho as king with himself, and left him all the duties of war. Dom Sancho proved himself the worthy son of his father, and for twelve years Alemtejo was one great battle-ground. The greatest struggle was in 1184, when Yusuf brought over fresh forces from Africa, and again besieged Santarem ; but pestilence defended the city, and on 4th July Sancho utterly defeated the fever -stricken army of the besiegers, Yiisuf himself being mortally wounded in the battle. This triumph worthily closed the reign of the great crusader king, Affonso Henriques, who died on 6th December 1185. The fame of Dom Sancho I., &quot; the Povoador &quot; or &quot; City- builder,&quot; rests more on his internal administration than on his early exploits as a soldier. But before he had time to obey his inclinations he had to continue a war of life and death with the Mohammedans. In 1189 he conquered Algarves and took Silves, the capital of the province, with the help of some English, Dutch, Danish, and Frisian crusaders; but the conquest was not final, for in 1192 Yusuf Abu Ya kub reconquered not only Algarves but the whole province of Alemtejo, including Alcacer do Sal, failing only before Santarem. Finding the Mohammedans under their great Almohade caliph too dangerous to attack again, Dom Sancho made peace with them, and for some years, until 1200, concerned himself with the affairs of Spain, waging continuous war against Alphonso IX. of Leon without any particular result. His internal adminis tration was far more important. During his father s reign there had been nothing but fighting, and, except in Lisbon and Oporto, where a large trade for that period had arisen, and in the northern provinces of Entre Minho e Douro and Tras-os-Montes, where agriculture survived, the scanty population lived chiefly on the spoils taken in their yearly incursions on the Mohammedans. Sancho therefore both encouraged the growth of towns and fostered agriculture. The Portuguese towns had almost without exception pre served their old Roman local self-government, which had been taken advantage of by the Mohammedans ; and Sancho wisely followed their example, while he encouraged the increase of population by wise laws, and furthered immigration, especially from the crusaders of England, France, and the north of Europe. The country districts he treated on a different principle. He granted large tracts of land to noblemen and cities and the military orders, on condition that they should be cultivated and occupied. The later years of Sancho s reign were filled with disputes with Pope Innocent III. This struggle bears a curious resemblance to the quarrels of Henry II. with the pope, which had raged a few years earlier in England. Dom Sancho had insisted on priests accom panying their flocks to battle, and also on making them amenable to the secular courts. This seemed monstrous to Innocent, who sent legate after legate to demand Sancho s submission and the payment of the tribute to the Holy See. But the king had in his chancellor Juliao the first Portuguese student who studied the revival of Roman law at Bologna, and who had imbibed broad views there as to the papal power, and he in Sancho s name asserted the king s full right even to dispose of the estates of the church in his kingdom if he liked. This general quarrel was complicated by the behaviour of Martinho Rodrigues, bishop of Oporto, who was hated -alike by his chapter, the king, and the people of his city, and who, after being besieged in his palace for five months, escaped to Rome, and claimed the pope s protection in 1209. Sancho was now in weak health and in no mood to con tinue the struggle, so in 1210 he yielded to all the de mands of the pope and the bishops ; then, after giving large estates to his sons and daughters, he retired to the convent of Alcobaca, where he died in 1211, leaving a reputation as a warrior and a statesman only second to that of his father. The reign of Affonso II. &quot; the Fat &quot; is chiefly important Affonso in the constitutional history of Portugal, and for one JI - memorable feat of arms, the recapture of Alcacer do Sal. On his father s death, Affonso, probably by the advice of the chancellor Juliao, summoned a cortes or parliament, consisting of the bishops, &quot;fidalgoes,&quot; and &quot;ricos homens&quot; of the realm, which is the first on record, as that at Lamego in 1143 is apocryphal. The king assented to the final compact which his father had made with the church, and propounded a law of mortmain, probably drawn up by Juliao, by which the church could receive no more legacies of land, because it could not perform military service. Affonso himself proved to be no warrior, but he was very tenacious of the wealth and power of the crown, and refused to hand over to his brothers the large legacies which Dom Sancho had left to them ; and it was not until after a long civil war, in which Alphonso IX. of Leon joined, that he gave his sisters their legacies, at the same time taking care that they all became nuns, while his brothers went into exile, and never obtained their lands at all. Though Affonso himself was no soldier, the Portuguese infantry showed how free men could fight at the battle of Navas de Tolosa in 1212 ; and his ministers, bishops, and captains took advantage of the weakness of the Almohades after this great defeat to reconquer Alemtejo, and in 1217 they retook Alcacer do Sal, and defeated the walis of Andalusia with the help of a body of crusaders. In this expedition the king took no part ; he was more bent upon filling his treasury, which soon brought him again into conflict with the church. His chancellor, Goncalo Mendes, inherited the policy of Juliao, and encouraged him to lay hands on the lands of the archbishop of Braga, Estevao Scares,