Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/681

 I HENRY THE NAVIGATOR fiefs were parcelled out among other princes, who marched in league to take possession. Henry beat them off, but the arrival of the em- peror with overwhelming forces compelled him to retire to Liibeck, and at length into Hoi- stein. He was forced soon after to humble himself at the feet of Frederick (1181), who banished him for three years to England, where he became the father of a son from whom the British Hanoverian sovereigns trace their de- scent. He was meanwhile reinstated in his hereditary possessions of Brunswick and Lime- burg, and at the end of the three years re- crossed the channel to take personal posses- sion. In consequence of asserted violation by the imperial authorities of his hereditary do- minions, he undertook a war (1189) for their absolute recovery. Frederick died in 1190; when, after making peace and entering into a family alliance with Henry VI., by the mar- riage of his son with Agnes, cousin of the em- peror, Henry at length found repose. HENRY THE NAVIGATOR, a Portuguese prince, born March 4, 1394, died at Sagres, Nov. 13, 1460. He was the fourth son of King John I. of Portugal and Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. While still a youth he displayed his courage in war with the Moors of Barbary, and was knighted for his bravery in the expedition which achieved the conquest of Ceuto in 1415. On his return from this expedition he fixed his residence at Sagres in Algarve, near Cape St. Vincent, and occupied himself with sending out vessels to cruise against the Moors and to harass the coast of Africa, where he made three campaigns. He was distinguished for learning, particularly for mathematical and geographical knowledge, and founded at Sagres an observatory and a school where young noblemen were instructed in the sciences connected with navigation. The first use of the compass in European navi- gation, and in part the invention of the astro- labe, are ascribed to him. His studies and inquiries led him to the conclusion that the coast of Africa did not end, as was then com- monly supposed, at Cape Nun, and that great and valuable discoveries might be made by tracing its line to the southward into the un- known and dreaded torrid zone. The first expedition he sent for this purpose consist- ed of two vessels commanded by Joao Gon- calves Zarco and Tristram Vaz, who set out to pass Cape Nun, but were driven off the coast by storms, and accidentally discovered the little island of Porto Santo near Madeira. In the next year (1419) the same captains dis- covered and subsequently colonized Madeira. Prince Henry during the next 12 years sent vessel after vessel down the coast of Africa, some of which passed Cape Nun and reached Cape Bojador, 300 m. further south. But that cape, from the failure of repeated attempts to double it, was now popularly considered the limit of the habitable world, and there began to be much complaint in Portugal at the ex- HENRYSON 667 pense and hazard of these fruitless expeditions. But the prince persevered, and at length Gil Eannez, whom he sent out in 1433, succeeded in passing Cape Bqjador, an achievement that created great excitement at the time, and which forms an era in the history of maritime discovery. The Azores had been visited short- ly before. From 1434 to 1441 Prince Henry was chiefly occupied with the domestic affairs of Portugal, which were involved in much con- fusion. In 1441 the pope, at the request of Prince Henry, granted to the Portuguese crown all that it could conquer from Cape Bojador to the Indies. The discoveries of the Portu- guese had by this time been extended to the mouth of a river nearly 200 m. S. of Cape Bo- jador. In 1445 the prince sent a vessel under command of Diniz Dyaz or Diniz Fernandez, who sailed down the coast till he reached Cape Verd ; the longest advance at one effort that had yet been made by Europeans in Af- rican navigation. By this time the popular feeling had changed with regard to these voy- ages, many of which brought not only honor and fame but profitable returns in gold and slaves, and numbers of enterprising men were ready to engage in them. In 1447 a fleet of 14 vessels was fitted out at Lagos, and the command given by Prince Henry to Lancarote, and sent to the African coast, but without any greater result than extending the limit of dis- covery to the river Gambia. Several other expeditions in the same direction were subse- quently sent out by the Portuguese govern- ment, under the advice and control of Prince Henry, one of which just before his death reached Sierra Leone. The Portuguese his- torian Faria y Sousa, in his Asia Portugueses (Lisbon, 1666), thus sums up the character of Prince Henry: "He was bulky and strong; his complexion red and white ; his hair coarse and shaggy. His aspect produced fear in those who were not accustomed to him ; not in those who were, for, even in the strongest current of his vexation at anything, his courtesy al- ways prevailed over his anger. He was pa- tient in labor, bold and valorous in war, versed in arts and letters ; a skilful fencer ; in the mathematics superior to all men of his time ; generous in the extreme, and zealous in the ex- treme for the increase of the faith. No bad habit was known in him. He did not marry, nor was it known that he ever violated the purity of continency." HENRYSON, Robert, a Scottish poet of the 15th century. Of the particulars of his life and the time of his death little or nothing is known. Dunbar, in his "Lament" (1508), speaks of "gude Mr. Robert Henryson" as among the departed poets. He seems to have been chief schoolmaster at Dunfermline, and was not unlikely an ecclesiastic, and perhaps a Benedictine monk. One account identifies him with Henryson of Fordell, father of James Henryson, who perished in the battle of Flod- den. His principal work is his collection of