Navigator Enrique on which ship he sailed. Henry the Navigator and the great geographical discoveries
Plan
Introduction
1 Political activity
2 Legacy
3 Sources
4 Bibliography
Introduction
Heinrich ( Enrique, Enrique) Navigator(port. Henrique; March 4, 1394 (13940304), Porto - November 13, 1460, Sagres) - Portuguese Infante, son of King João I, organizer of many Portuguese sea expeditions south along the West African coast. Henry participated in the capture of Ceuta (1415) (see Battle of Ceuta), which became an outpost of Portuguese expansion in Africa. Since 1418, Henry settled in the south of Portugal near the city of Lagos and founded an observatory there. In the city of Sagrish, he founded a navigation school, where the best mathematicians and cartographers taught.
1. Political activity
Various interests were intertwined in the activities of Henry the Navigator: a colonizer (the desire to capture new lands for the Portuguese crown), an explorer (discovering new lands, compiling maps, etc.), a missionary (spreading Christianity among new peoples), a crusader (Henry was a Grand Master knightly-monastic order of Christ, participated in a number of campaigns against the Arabs of North Africa). Henry paid his main attention to sailing south along the western coast of Africa in order to find an eastern sea route to India around Africa.
The search for a sea route to India was very important for Portugal. A country located away from the main trade routes of that time could not participate in world trade with great profit. Exports were small, and the valuable goods of the East, such as spices, the Portuguese had to buy at very high prices, while the country after the Reconquista and the wars with Castile was poor and did not have financial resources for this.
However, the geographical position of Portugal was very conducive to discoveries on the western coast of Africa and attempts to find a sea route to the "land of spices".
At that time, sailors believed that the Earth was flat, Africa stretched all the way to the South Pole and was a barren and uninhabited desert, and the Indian Ocean was not connected to the Atlantic. They were afraid to meet something unfamiliar; From generation to generation, stories were passed on about mythical monsters that live in the depths of the ocean and easily destroy ships, about the solar heat of the tropics that burns ships, about the fact that the water beyond the equator becomes impossible for navigation ...
But, starting from 1419 and until his death, Henry equipped expeditions one after another, which discovered a number of islands off the western coast of Africa (Madeira Island), the Azores, the Cape Verde Islands). These expeditions rounded Cape Bojador, Cape Cabo Blanco, explored the mouths of the Senegal and Gambia rivers. Moving farther and farther, they brought gold from the Guinean coast, created strongholds on open lands.
Even then, the first batches of black slaves were delivered to Portugal and the slave trade began. Henry immediately introduced a state monopoly on the trade in black slaves.
Understanding the importance of maritime trade and navigation, the infant paid great attention to the development of cartography and shipbuilding, inviting masters from different countries to Portugal. During his reign, the Portuguese invented new types of ships that could go against the wind, develop an impressive speed for those times and at the same time carry large volumes of goods. Without such vessels, efficient maritime trade would not be possible.
In 1452, Pope Nicholas V authorized the seizure of African lands by the Portuguese and the conversion of their inhabitants into slavery with his bull.
2. Legacy
After the death of Henry the Navigator, there was a break in the advance of the Portuguese to the south. However, his activities largely laid the foundations for the 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 far from always on his side. For example, under his command, the Portuguese troops suffered a crushing defeat when they tried to take Tangier in 1437, after which Henry the Navigator was ready to give up Ceuta as well. 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 the Portuguese navigators to go around the Cape of Good Hope and find a sea route to India and the Far East.
3. Sources
Zurara, Gomish Ianish di. Chronicle of the discovery and conquest of Guinea. Eastern Literature. Translation from Portuguese - O. Dyakonov
4. Bibliography
· Beasley Ch. R. Henry the Navigator. M., 1979
Life story
Henry (Enrique) the Navigator - a Portuguese prince, nicknamed the Navigator. For 40 years, he equipped and sent numerous sea expeditions to explore the Atlantic coast of Africa, creating the prerequisites for the formation of a powerful colonial empire of Portugal. Born March 4, 1394 in Porto. The 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, together with his father, took part in a military campaign, as a result of which the Moorish fortress of Ceuta, located on the African coast of Gibraltar, was taken. There he learned that caravans loaded with gold, following from the Niger River valley, crossed the Sahara, but decided that Portugal should look for sea routes to the gold-bearing lands of Guinea. Thus was the beginning (since 1416) of 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 tailwinds and coastal currents. One of the results of these expeditions was the discovery of Madeira (1418–1419) and the Azores (1427–1431).
Madeira Island, located 900 km southwest of Portugal, became the first Portuguese colony. On his lands 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 great danger to navigation. But the southern route to the tropical lands of Africa was finally opened - in 1434 Gilles Ianish rounded the cape.
Henry was strongly influenced by his brother Prince Pedro, the king's second son. In 1418–1428 he visited many of the royal courts of Europe. Later, Pedro 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 reviewing the manuscript, Heinrich invited the captains of their ships to 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. In this he was supported by his brother Pedro.
After the second campaign in Ceuta (1418), Henry established his residence in the Algarve, the southernmost province of Portugal, where the reliable bay of Lagos was located. In 1443, Henry received at his disposal Sagrish, the southwestern point of Portugal at Cape San Vicente, or, as it was then called, the "Sacred Cape." There, at the expense of the Portuguese spiritual and 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 participated in an unsuccessful expedition to Tangier; Ferdinand was taken prisoner by the Moors and imprisoned, where he died because Henry failed to ransom him. After that, in 1438, his older brother, King Duarte, died. The middle brother Pedro became regent, but, having started a fight with the pretender to the throne, Alfonso V, he was killed at Alfarrobeyre in 1449.
All these events led to the fact that the expeditions were organized by Henry sporadically, and long intervals appeared in their schedule. Nevertheless, in 1444 Henry's captains discovered the Senegal River, two years later they reached the Gebe River in Sierra Leone. South of this point, during the life of Henry, the Portuguese could not advance. In 1455 and 1456 the Venetian Alvise da Cadamosto, the most famous of Henry's skippers, sailed up the Gambia River in the 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, not far from Cape 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 became a national hero.
Henry spent his last years in almost complete seclusion in Sagrisha, 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 Saghris on the "Sacred Cape", where he died on November 13, 1460.
Portrait of Infante Enrique
Whose portrait is this, my God?
I. I. Dmitriev. Inscription for a portrait (1803)
And this portrait will not be yours!
A. A. Delvig. K E.A. Kilshtetova(1818)
When we read the "Chronicle" of Gomis Ianish di Zurara, which marked the beginning of the history of the caravels of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, we brought a portrait of the inspirer and organizer (not by night it will be said) of the pioneer studies of the sea-ocean ( Mare incognitum) of the Portuguese Infante Henry the Navigator. This portrait was attached to the so-called Parisian copy of Zurar's work without specifying who was depicted on it. They considered it obvious that there could be no other options but to take him for a portrait of an infant: after all, Henry was in fact the main character of the Chronicle.
The chronicle was first published in 1453, the portrait, as art historians believe, could have been executed later (it is inserted as a frontispiece in a copy of the chronicle kept in the National Library in Paris.)
For many years there was no doubt that this is indeed a portrait of the Portuguese Infante Enrique. Moreover, this version seemed to have received significant confirmation when, in the eighties of the 19th century, a polyptych dedicated to the patron saint of the Portuguese capital, Saint Vincent of Zaragoza, was discovered in the monastery of San Vicente de Fora in Lisbon (currently the polyptych is stored in the National Museum of Ancient art ( Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga) in Lisbon).
The authorship of the work was established quickly. All six panels of the polyptych were executed, it is believed, by Nuno Gonçalves, one of the first Portuguese artists ( Nuno Goncalves). The dates of his life are not exactly known, it is believed that he worked between 1450 and 1471.
The third panel from the left of the polyptych, called the Panel of Princes, depicts a man very similar to the portrait from Zurar's Chronicle.
There is a temptation to consider the newly acquired image of a man who looks like Henry the Navigator as the canonical image of the infant. Entire generations of historians could not resist this temptation, one way or another concerning the deeds of the Portuguese prince in their works. Images from the "Chronicle" and from the "Panel of Princes" were replicated unimaginably
But real researchers differ from superficial amateurs (to whom I include myself) in that they are always gnawed by the worm of doubt. These researchers asked themselves a few simple questions. What kind of events are depicted on the panels from the monastery of St. Vincent.? Who are the sixty characters that are here? What is the significance of the numerous symbols shown here and there on the panels? Who was the customer for this work?
No definitive answers to these questions have yet been received. However, there is consensus on some of them. Most scholars agree that the panels depict several social groups in 15th-century Portuguese society. And that they are attended by the children of King João I of Portugal. True, it is not possible to understand which of them is who.
Of course, we are immediately attracted by the “Panel of Princes”. A man in black, with a small mustache, in a black round chaperone on his head surprisingly resembles the famous images of Henry the Navigator (we use here this famous name, which was given to Prince Enrique in the 19th century by German historians Heinrich Schaefer and Gustav de Veer and was later fixed by the works English biographers Infante Henry Major (1868) and Raymond Beasley (1895). Infante D. Henrique) But we must be aware that there are no reliable portraits of the Infante. No one. The portrait from Zurar's Chronicle is not signed. The only sign that may indicate that this portrait is related to Heinrich is the motto below the portrait: talent de bien faire against the background of two pyramids, which is confidently considered the motto of Infante Enrique.
We will talk about this motto further, but now we will return to the portrait. We must take into account that the main, decisive part of the first campaigns along the western coast of Africa was made during the reign of King Duarte I of Portugal. Therefore, it was hypothesized that the portrait of the king, and not his brother Enrique, was placed in the Chronicle of Zurar. Such a practice of depicting monarchs in the chronicles of that time was quite natural.
If we accept this alternative point of view, it will be easier to decipher the image on the “Panel of Princes”: it shows only crowned persons, and this is not a “Panel of Princes”, but a “Panel of Kings”. With this version, the man in the black chaperon is King Duarte, symmetrically to which is the image of his wife, Queen Eleanor of Aragon. Below them, their son, King Afonso V of Portugal, and his wife, Queen Isabella of Coimbra are depicted on their knees. The child in the image is the future King João II. This interpretation is much simpler than if we consider the man in black to be Prince Enrique. If we accept the latter option, we will not be able to determine what kind of lady is located on the left side of the panel. Prince Enrique was, as you know, single. If the lady is his mother, Philippa, then why is her husband, King João I, not here? If sister Isabella, Duchess of Burgundy, then why is she here at all, especially without her husband. And why is this strange couple placed above the images of the king and queen, and where then to look for the parents of the royal couple? Everything is completely confused, not to be compared with the previous hypothesis, which assumes the presence of only crowned persons on the panel.
But if the man in black is not Prince Enrique, then where is he? Let's turn to the fifth panel of the polyptych - "Panel of Knights".
Here is also its fragment, with the best color rendering. And color, as we will see later, does matter.
According to an alternative interpretation of the images on the polyptych, which denies the presence of the Infante Enrique on the "Panel of Princes", the infant is located precisely on the "Panel of the Knights", in the group of four younger brothers of King Duarte of Portugal.
The man in green clothes on the right is the younger brother of King Infante Pedro (Duke of Coimbra, regent for King Afonso V). On it we see the chain of the Order of the Garter, of which Pedro was a knight.
On the left, in red robes, Infante Juan (Constable of Portugal, Master of the Order of Santiago). The manner of holding the sword by the blade, which we see here, was typical for the images of the knights of this order.
In the upper part of the four-figure composition, a man in black robes and a helmet is depicted - Infante Fernando, Grand Master of the Order of Avis. In 1437, he participated with his brothers in a campaign in North Africa and was taken prisoner. The Muslims offered to release him in exchange for the return of Ceuta to them, but both the prince himself and his older brother Infante Enrique did not agree to this deal. Fernando remained a prisoner until his death in 1443, and was subsequently declared a Saint.
At the bottom of the composition is a man in purple clothes. In the version under consideration, this is Infante Enrique, Henry the Navigator. He is on his knees, on his neck is a symbol of the Order of Christ, of which Enrique was Grand Master. The face of this already gray-haired man is very different from all his images in historical literature. Both his posture and casual dressing emphasize the artist's desire to humiliate his model.
How could Henry the Navigator deserve such an attitude towards himself?
It can be assumed that the reason was his joining the speech of Alfonso I, Duke of Braganza (Afonso of Portugal, the illegitimate son of King Juan I) against the regent Pedro, Enrique's half-brother. Therefore, Enrique is depicted on his knees, as if asking for forgiveness from his brother killed in this civil strife. The symbol of the Order of Christ on the chest is damaged
Harness belt unfastened
The holes on the belt are arranged in some strange disorder.
The pommel of the sword is twisted relative to the plane in which the guard is located, the blade looks blunt and untidy (despite the fact that the blades of his brothers' weapons shine). The tassel of the lanyard is made of black tangled threads, while the tassels on the weapons of the Enrique brothers are of gold and silver cords.
Many other details can be cited that humiliate the infant, making him a character begging for forgiveness from the family. Here is just one more symbol that should emphasize the position of Enrique. The color of the clothes of the princes in this panel plays a major role in this. It is subordinated to the meaning of liturgical flowers in the rite of the Catholic Church. Black for Fernando is the color of mourning and sorrow, green for Pedro is the color of everyday service, red for Juan is passionarity and sacrifice, purple for Enrique is the color of repentance and humility.
I don’t know which version of the portrait of Henry the Navigator to give preference to, but I think it’s interesting to know both.
(This post was written using articles from the English and Portuguese Wikipedias as well as materials from the PAINÉIS DE S. VICENTE DE FORA website)
The ruling house of Portugal dates back to the Capetian dynasty, more precisely, from its first Burgundian branch. The first count of Portugal, Henry (Enrique), conquered the county in the fight against the Moors in 1095. He was the grandson of the founder of the Burgundian branch, Robert, and the younger brother of the Duke of Burgundy. According to another version, Henry of Portugal was the offspring of the Hungarian Arpad dynasty, but this version has no confirmation. In 1139, the Kingdom of Portugal was formed, and three periods can be distinguished in the history of its ruling house. The transition from one period to another was always accompanied by a sharp dynastic struggle, but all the new dynasties that came to power, one way or another, were related to each other.
The life and work of Henry the Navigator coincided with the second period in the history of the ruling house, which began with Henry's father, Joan (his name is also found in literature as Joan and John). The second period lasted from 1385 to 1580 and entered the history of Portugal as the period of the Avis dynasty. Joan was the illegitimate brother of the last member of the previous dynasty, Fernando I, who died in 1383. By law, since Fernando had no sons, the Portuguese crown was to pass to the Castilian king Juan I, who was married to Fernando's daughter and, therefore, his son-in-law. However, the Portuguese did not want to be under the rule of Castile, which led to an armed struggle. An uprising began in the country, and the widow of Fernando, Leonor, who supported the Castilian party, had to flee. In 1384, she officially renounced power in favor of the Castilian king.
In early 1384, Castilian troops led by Juan invaded Portugal. They were opposed by the forces of the townspeople and part of the nobility, as well as the majority of the population of the southern and part of the central regions of the country. One of the leaders of the fight against the Castilians was Joan. The military campaign of 1384 was successful for Juan I - he managed to defeat the Portuguese fleet and besiege Lisbon by land and sea. The siege of the capital lasted five months, but suddenly a disease began to spread in the Castilian army, leading to numerous deaths. Juan urgently lifted the siege and withdrew to Seville.
In March 1385, the Cortes were convened in Coimbra, who proclaimed Joan king, and already in July the Portuguese defeated Juan's troops at Troncoso, and on August 14 a decisive battle took place between the troops at Aljubarrota, where the Portuguese won a landslide victory. Joan fought bravely in the front ranks of his army, and after the victory he gave all the booty to the soldiers, also rewarding those who distinguished themselves with titles and lands. In subsequent years, Joan strengthened his power, bringing to submission those cities and regions that still remained loyal to the Castilians - Juan and his wife Beatrice. Joan even undertook a campaign in Castile, but it ended in failure. The struggle continued for many more years, until a lasting peace was concluded in 1411 and the Castilian king Juan II finally abandoned his claims to Portugal.
Having made peace with Castile, Joan resumed the war against the infidels with the aim of capturing the large and rich city of Ceuta in Africa. Three sons accompanied him on a military campaign, and in July 1415 Ceuta was taken by the Portuguese.
Joan I was on the throne for almost 50 years. Before becoming King of Portugal, he led the Order of Avis. Spiritual and knightly orders have always remained the military and political power of the kingdom. Often, the bastard son of the king became the head of the order - this is how Joan himself got this post of master of the Order of Avis. Already under him, his numerous sons were at the head of the orders. Retaining the importance of the military support of the kingdom, the orders began to engage in other activities, one of which was the development of the sea and new lands.
This activity reached its peak under the younger son of Joan I, Henry, who went down in history as Henry the Navigator. Henry's mother was Philippa, daughter of John Guant, and on his mother's side, Henry was a cousin of the English King Henry V.
Heinrich, or rather Prince Enrique, received the nickname "Seafarer" after his death for his merits in the exploration of new lands. Indeed, he was one of the most famous people of the beginning of the era of geographical discoveries. He himself did not take part in voyages to the shores of uncharted lands, but regularly equipped and financed expeditions. Therefore, it is a little strange that in the 19th century he received such a nickname.
Almost nothing is known about the prince's childhood. He probably received the usual education and upbringing for his status, but it is also likely that he had a passion for various sciences, since he later showed extraordinary knowledge in mathematics, astronomy and geography.
He gained his first fame as a warrior, and at the age of 20 he distinguished himself in the capture of Ceuta, participating under the leadership of his father in a military campaign against the Moors. In subsequent military campaigns, he became so famous that Pope Martin V offered him the post of commander of his army. Henry received similar offers from King Henry V of England and from Emperor Sigismund, but refused them. While still in Morocco, Henry was interested in the hinterland of Africa. He learned about the existence of the legendary Christian state of "Prester John", which, according to rumors, was located somewhere in Africa. Portugal was at constant war with the Moors, and Henry's dream was to unite the two Christian states in the fight against a common enemy. In addition, he knew that gold was transported by caravan route from the Guinean coast of Africa to the Muslim ports of the Mediterranean. And if a sea route was laid, then, as he dreamed, this gold could be transported to Lisbon, thereby taking it away from the infidels. And Heinrich decided to devote his life to the realization of his dream.
He refused all offers of a military career and retired to Cape San Vicente and settled in Sagris, making it his residence. He founded there a spiritual and knightly order, called the "Order of Christ", and studied everything that was connected with the sea. Sparing no expense, Heinrich built new shipyards and built ships. Portuguese captains did not dare to take ships on long journeys, but sailed along the coast. They called the Atlantic Ocean the "Sea of Darkness", and swimming on it was considered a dangerous occupation. And the African coast was unknown. In the time of Henry, it was known that beyond the desert (Sahara) there were territories rich in gold, to which the Moors knew the caravan route, but no one had ever sailed there by sea and, of course, there were no navigational charts. Heinrich collected any information about those lands, and he himself tried to put them on maps that he drew with his own hand. According to a contemporary, Henry sought to find out “the lands lying beyond the Canary Islands and the cape called Boyador (Bochador), because until then no one, either from written sources or from human memory, probably knew anything about those lying behind this cape. lands."
The main ship of those times was a caravel - a small vessel with a displacement of not more than 200 tons, convenient for fishing and transporting goods. Under Henry, the ship underwent some changes: it became a little lighter and was equipped with three or more masts with oblique (Latin) sails, which allowed it to be more maneuverable and sail against the wind.
The first expedition was sent in 1416. She passed along the western coast of Morocco, but the captains were afraid to continue the journey because of rumors that further in the south the lands were barren and deserted, since there is such heat that the ships themselves light up. But the first failure did not stop Prince Enrique. He stubbornly went to the goal. He asked everyone - sailors, merchants, cartographers, foreigners calling at ports, who could give him at least some information about the issues that interested him. He did not even neglect the advice of the Moors. Through his supporters, Henry kept in touch with European countries. More and more expeditions were sent from the port of Lagos, setting off along the western coast of Africa. Heinrich demanded that the captains inform him of all, even the most insignificant, open harbors and trade routes, and carefully mapped all new information.
His perseverance, though not immediately, was crowned with a “victory”. In 1420, an expedition sent by Henry discovered the island of Madeira, which was colonized a few years later, becoming the first Portuguese foreign port. Then, in 1434, Captain Gilles Eanes managed to round Cape Bojador, advancing further than all European navigators of that time. Two years later, another captain sent by Henry, Gonçalves, reached the bay of Rio de Oro, and in 1441, Portuguese ships reached Cape Blanche.
João Gonçalves was the first to bring gold and slaves to Portugal. Prince Enrique immediately informed the pope of the discovery of a country of barbarian peoples, lying outside the territory of the Muslim world. He asked Pope Eugene IV to grant Portugal open lands and those that would still be open, in order to bring the peoples living on them into the bosom of the Catholic Church. The Pope, of course, gave such permission, and subsequent pontiffs always confirmed it.
Many more expeditions were sent by Heinrich. Thanks to his efforts, the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores, the Lanzarote expedition discovered the mouth of the Senegal River, and in total about three and a half thousand kilometers of the West African coast were mapped. The last expedition sent by him went to sea in 1458. In the last years of his life, he developed plans for establishing a through sea route to India. Heinrich was the founder of navigational science. At home in Sagrisha, he founded an observatory and opened the first nautical school, inviting the best foreign specialists to work in it.
Documents from that era depict Heinrich as a man fanatically devoted to science and the Christian faith. His main goals in life were to find new lands for Portugal and new souls for the Christian church. Family ties for the prince practically did not exist. This is evidenced by the fact that when his own brother was captured during a military expedition and a large ransom was demanded for him, Henry opposed "such a ruinous waste", although it was considered a great shame to leave a royal son in captivity. Henry's brother spent several years in captivity and died, having received the title of Saint Infante.
Henry the Navigator died on November 13, 1460 and was buried in the chapel of the monastery of Batalha. He failed to open a sea route to India, but in the same 1460, the one who did this was born - Vasco da Gama.
HEINRICH THE NAVIGator(1394-1460), correctly Enrique (Dom Enrique o Navigator), Portuguese prince, nicknamed the Navigator. For 40 years, he equipped and sent numerous sea expeditions to explore the Atlantic coast of Africa, creating the prerequisites for the formation of a powerful colonial empire of Portugal. Born March 4, 1394 in Porto. The 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, together with his father, took part in a military campaign, as a result of which the Moorish fortress of Ceuta, located on the African coast of Gibraltar, was taken. There he learned that caravans loaded with gold, following from the Niger River valley, crossed the Sahara, but decided that Portugal should look for sea routes to the gold-bearing lands of Guinea. Thus was the beginning (since 1416) of 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 tailwinds and coastal currents. One of the results of these expeditions was the discovery of Madeira (1418–1419) and the Azores (1427–1431).
Madeira Island, located 900 km southwest of Portugal, became the first Portuguese colony. On his lands 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 great danger to navigation. But the southern route to the tropical lands of Africa was finally opened - in 1434 Gilles Ianish rounded the cape.
Henry was strongly influenced by his brother Prince Pedro, the king's second son. In 1418–1428 he visited many of the royal courts of Europe. Later, Pedro arrived in Venice, where he observed with interest the trade of the Venetians with the eastern countries, and where he was presented with a manuscript Books Marco Polo . After reviewing the manuscript, Heinrich invited the captains of their ships to 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. In this he was supported by his brother Pedro.
After the second campaign in Ceuta (1418), Henry established his residence in the Algarve, the southernmost province of Portugal, where the reliable bay of Lagos was located. In 1443, Henry received at his disposal Sagrish, the southwestern point of Portugal at Cape San Vicente, or, as it was then called, the "Sacred Cape." There, at the expense of the Portuguese spiritual and 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 participated in an unsuccessful expedition to Tangier; Ferdinand was taken prisoner by the Moors and imprisoned, where he died because Henry failed to ransom him. After that, in 1438, his older brother, King Duarte, died. The middle brother Pedro became regent, but, having started a fight with the pretender to the throne, Alfonso V, he was killed at Alfarrobeyre in 1449.
All these events led to the fact that the expeditions were organized by Henry sporadically, and long intervals appeared in their schedule. Nevertheless, in 1444 Henry's captains discovered the Senegal River, two years later they reached the Gebe River in Sierra Leone. South of this point, during the life of Henry, the Portuguese could not advance. In 1455 and 1456 the Venetian Alvise da Cadamosto, the most famous of Henry's skippers, sailed up the Gambia River in the 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, not far from Cape 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's last years were spent in almost complete seclusion in Sagrisha, 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 Saghris on the "Sacred Cape", where he died on November 13, 1460.
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