Henri de Bourgogne

Count of Portugal from 1093 to his death. He was the son of Henry of Burgundy, heir of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy, and brother of Eudes I, Duke of Burgundy. As a younger son, Henry had little chances of acquiring fortune and titles by inheritance, and thus, joined the Reconquista against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. He helped king Alfonso VI of Castile to conquer modern Galicia and the north of Portugal and in reward he married his daughter Teresa of Leon. With the marriage, in 1093, Henry also became Count of Portugal, then only a fiefdom to the kingdom of Castile. From Teresa he had several sons. The younger and only to survive childhood was Alfonso Henriques, who became second Count of Portugal in 1112.

King Afonso I 'the Conqueror'

Afonso, Alfonso, Alphonso - (Guimarães, 1109, traditionally July 25, – Coimbra, 1185 December 6), also known as the Conqueror (Port. o Conquistador), was the first king of Portugal, declaring his independence from Leon-Castile, a deed often identifying the Condado Portucalense as the first nation-based state of Europe. Alfonso was the son of Henry, Count of Portugal and Teresa of Leon, the illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VI of Castile. He was proclaimed king in July 26, 1139 and died on December 6, 1185 in Coimbra.

At the end of the 11th century, the Iberian Peninsula political agenda was mostly concerned with the Reconquista, the driving out of the Muslim successor-states to the Caliphate of Córdoba after its collapse. With European military aristocracies focussed on the Crusades, Alfonso VI of Castile called for the help of the French nobility to deal with the Moors. In exchange, he was to give the hands of his daughters in wedlock to the leaders of the expedition and bestow royal privileges to the others. Thus, the heiress Urraca of Castile wedded Raimond, second son of the Duke of Burgundy, and her half-sister, princess Teresa of Leon, wedded his uncle, Henry of Burgundy. Henry was made Count of Portugal, a burdensome earldom in the south of Castile, where Moorish incursions and attacks were to be expected. With his wife Teresa as co-ruler of Portugal, Henry stood the ordeal and held the lands for his father-in-law.

From this wedlock several sons were born, but only one, Afonso Henriques thrived. The boy followed his father as Count of Portugal in 1112, under the tutelage of his mother. The relations between Teresa and her son Afonso proved difficult. Only eleven years old, Afonso had already his own political ideas, greatly different from his mother's. In 1120, the young prince took the side of the bishop of Braga, a political foe of Teresa, and both were exiled by her orders. Afonso spent the next years away from his own county, under the watch of the bishop. In 1123 Afonso became 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 lands. Near Guimarães he overcame the troops under his mother's ally Count Fernão Peres de Trava of Galicia, making her his prisoner and exiling her forever to a monastery in León. Thus the possibility of incorporating Portugal into a kingdom of Galicia was eliminated. He also vanquished Alfonso VII of Castile, another of his mother's allies, and thus freed the earldom from political dependence on the crown of León and Castile. He had already a dangerously independent mind. On April 6, 1129, Afonso Henriques dictated the writ in which he proclaims himself King of Portugal.

Afonso then turned his arms against the everlasting problem of the Moors in the south. His campaigns were successful and, on July 26, 1139, he obtained an overwhelming victory in the Battle of Ourique, and straight after was unanimously proclaimed king by his soldiers. This meant that Portugal was no longer a earldom of Castile, but an independent kingdom in its own right. Next, he assembled the first assembly of the states-general at Lamego, where he was given the crown from the bishop of Bragança, to confirm the independence.

Independence, however, was not a thing a land could choose on its own. Portugal had still to be acknowledged by the neighbouring lands and, most important, by the Catholic church and the pope. Afonso wedded Mafalda, daughter of Count Amadeo III of Savoy, and sent ambassadors to Rome to negotiate with the pope. In Portugal, he built several monasteries and convents and bestowed important privileges to religious orders. 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 Castile, Afonso declared himself the direct liegeman of the Papacy. Thus, Afonso continued to distinguish himself by his exploits against the Moors, from whom he wrested Santarém in 1146 and Lisbon in 1147. 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 Castile (Afonso's cousin) thought of an independent Count of Portugal as nothing but a rebel. Conflict between the two lands was constant and bitter in the following years. Afonso became involved in a war, taking the sides of the Aragonese king, an enemy of Castile. To insure the alliance, his son Sancho was sworn to Dulce Berenguer, daughter of the Count of Barcelona, and princess of Aragon. Finally (probably in 1143) the Treaty of Zamora established peace between the cousins and the recognition by the Kingdom of Castille that Portugal was an independent Kingdom.

In 1167, Afonso was disabled in an engagement near Badajoz by a fall from his horse, and made prisoner by the soldiers of the king of Leon. Portugal was obliged to surrender as his ransom almost all the conquests Afonso had made in Galicia in the previous years. In 1184, in spite of his great age, he had still sufficient energy to relieve his son Sancho, who was besieged in Santarém by the Moors. He died shortly after, in 1185. The Portuguese reveres him as a hero, both on account of his personal character and as the founder of their kingdom.

King Sancho I Martino

In 1170, Sancho was knighted by his father, King Afonso I, and from that time he became his second in command, both administratively and military. At this time, the independence of Portugal (declared in 1139) was not firmly established. The kings of León and Castile were trying to annex the country and the Catholic church was late in giving its blessing and approval. Due to this Afonso I had to search for allies within the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal made an alliance with the kingdom of Aragon and together they fought Castile and León. To secure the agreement, Prince Sancho of Portugal married, in 1174, princess Dulce Berenguer, younger sister of king Alfonso II of Aragon. Aragon was thus the first Iberian kingdom to recognize the independence of Portugal.

With the death of Afonso I in 1185, Sancho I became the second king of Portugal. Coimbra was the centre of his kingdom; Sancho terminated the exhausting and generally pointless wars against his neighbours for control of the Galician borderlands. Instead, he turned all his attentions to the South, against the Moorish communities that still thrived. With Crusader help he took Silves in 1191. Silves was an important city of the South, an administrative and commercial town with population around 20,000 people. Sancho ordered the fortification of the city and built a castle that is today an important monument of Portuguese heritage. However, military attention soon had to be turned again to the North, where León and Castile threatened again the Portuguese borders. Silves was again lost to the Moors.

Sancho I dedicated much of his reign to political and administrative organization of the new kingdom. He accumulated a national treasure, supported new industries and the middle class of merchants. Moreover, he created several new towns and villages and took great care in populating remote areas in the northern Christian regions of Portugal, notably with Flemings and Burgundians – hence the nickname the Populator. The king was also known for his love of knowledge and literature. Sancho I wrote several books of poems and used the royal treasure to send Portuguese boys to study in European Universities.

King Afonso II

Afonso II, or Affonso (Archaic Portuguese), Alfonso or Alphonso (Portuguese-Galician) or Alphonsus (Latin version), nicknamed "the Fat" (Portueguese o Gordo), third king of Portugal, was born in Coimbra on April 23, 1185 and died on March 25, 1223 in the same city. He was the second but eldest surviving son of Sancho I of Portugal by his wife, Dulce Berenguer of Barcelona, Infanta of Aragon. Afonso succeeded his father in 1212.

As a king, Afonso II set a different approach of government. Hitherto, his father Sancho I and his grandfather Afonso I, were mostly concerned with military issues either against the neighbouring Kingdom of Castile or against the Moorish lands in the south. Afonso did not pursue territory enlargement policies and managed to insure peace with Castile during his reign. Despite this, some towns, like Alcácer do Sal in 1217, were conquered from the Moors by the private initiative of noblemen. This does not mean that he was a weak or somehow cowardly man. The first years of his reign were marked instead by internal disturbances between Afonso and his brothers and sisters. The king managed to keep security within Portuguese borders only by outlawing and exiling his kin.

Since military issues were not a government priority, Afonso established the state's administration and centralized power on himself. He designed the first set of Portuguese written laws. These were mainly concerned with private property, civil justice, and minting. Afonso also sent ambassadors to European kingdoms outside the Iberian Peninsula and began amiable commercial relations with most of them.

Other reforms included the always delicate matters with the pope. In order to get the independence of Portugal recognized by Rome, his grandfather, Afonso I, had to legislate an enormous amount of privileges to the Church. These eventually created a state within the state. With Portugal's position as a country firmly established, Afonso II endeavoured to weaken the power of the clergy and to apply a portion of the enormous revenues of the Roman Catholic church to purposes of national utility. These actions led to a serious diplomatic conflict between the pope and Portugal. After being excommunicated for his audacities by Pope Honorius III, Afonso II promised to make amends to the church, but he died in 1223 before making any serious attempts to do so.

Afonso married Infanta Urraca of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VIII, King of Castile, and Leonora of Aquitaine, in 1208.