Afonso I of Portugal

Dom Afonso I, born Afonso Henriques, lived from sometime between 1106 and 1111 until 6 December 1185. He was the first king of Portugal, reigning from 26 July 1139 until his death. The Portuguese gave him the nicknames "the Conqueror," "the Founder," and "the Great." He won independence for the County of Portugal, created a new kingdom, and through the Reconquista doubled its territory, a goal he pursued all his life.

Afonso was the child of Theresa of León and Henry of Burgundy, who ruled the County of Portugal. Henry died in 1112, leaving Theresa as the sole ruler. The Portuguese nobility grew unhappy with Theresa's romantic involvement with the Galician Fernando Pérez de Traba and his political sway. They rallied behind Afonso, who rebelled and defeated his mother at the Battle of São Mamede in 1128, soon becoming the sole Count of Portugal. In 1139, Afonso rejected the authority of the Kingdom of León and set up the independent Kingdom of Portugal.

He fought the Moors in the south. In 1139 he achieved a major victory at the Battle of Ourique, and in 1147 he captured Santarém and Lisbon from the Moors, aided by crusaders heading to the Holy Land for the Second Crusade. After defeating León at Valdevez, he secured Portugal's independence and got papal approval through the bull Manifestis Probatum. Afonso died in 1185, and his son Sancho I succeeded him.

Afonso was the youngest of three children born to Theresa—the illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso VI of León—and Henry of Burgundy. His older siblings were Urraca Henriques and Sancha Henriques. Historians agree that Henry also had an illegitimate child, Pedro Afonso, who joined his half-brother's campaigns and later became a monk at Alcobaça Monastery.

Where Afonso was born is hotly debated among scholars. Four main possibilities exist: Guimarães, an important fortified site in the County of Portugal; Viseu, a key economic hub; Coimbra, a major city where he later spent most of his time and was buried; or elsewhere, such as Tierra de Campos, Sahagún, or Braga. According to the *Chronicon Lusitanum*, he was born in Viseu, then the main political center of his parents. Most Portuguese scholars accepted this until 1990, when Torquato de Sousa Soares proposed Coimbra, sparking outrage in Guimarães and a dispute with historian José Hermano Saraiva. Almeida Fernandes later backed Viseu based on the *Chronicon*, which says Afonso was born in 1109, a view followed by historian José Mattoso in his biography. Still, popular belief widely holds that Afonso was born in Guimarães. Abel Estefânio suggested a different date—1106—and proposed Tierra de Campos or Sahagún as likely birthplaces, based on the known travels of Henry and Theresa.

His baptism site is also uncertain. Tradition points to the Church of São Miguel do Castelo in Guimarães, but recent architectural and archaeological evidence casts doubt: the church was consecrated in 1239, a century after his birth. Some argue the baptism took place at the Cathedral of Braga, performed by Archbishop Saint Gerald of Braga, a politically smart move for Count Henry to have the highest-ranking clergy in his domain baptize his heir.

Henry and Theresa ruled jointly as count and countess of Portugal until Henry died on 22 May 1112 during the siege of Astorga. Theresa then ruled as a widow. Both she and Queen Urraca ruled alone after their husbands died, ostensibly to protect their young children but also in their own right. Theresa proclaimed herself queen—a claim Pope Paschal II recognized in 1116—but was captured and forced to acknowledge her vassalage to her half-sister Urraca of León.

Afonso's tutor is unknown. Later traditions, likely started by a bastard descendant of Egas Moniz in the mid-13th century and expanded by later chronicles, claimed it was Egas Moniz de Ribadouro, possibly based on oral memories linking the tutor to the Ribadouro house. Yet contemporary documents from Afonso's early chancery suggest, according to Mattoso, that the most likely tutor was Ermígio Moniz, Egas Moniz's older brother. Ermígio was the senior brother in the Ribadouro family and served as Afonso's "dapifer" and "majordomus" from 1128 until his death in 1135, indicating his close proximity to the prince.

To pursue a larger share of the Leonese inheritance, Theresa allied with Fernando Pérez de Trava, the most powerful count in Galicia. The Portuguese nobility disliked this Galician-Portuguese alliance and rallied around Afonso. The Archbishop of Braga, Maurice Bourdin, also feared Galician dominance, worried about the ecclesiastical ambitions of his rival, the Galician Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Diego Gelmírez, who had claimed to discover relics of Saint James to gain power and wealth over other cathedrals in the region.