Читать книгу The Story of the Nations: Portugal - H. Morse Stephens - Страница 11

During these years, in which he had been fighting the Moors, Affonso Henriques had observed the terms of the Treaty of Zamora, and had prudently avoided all interference in the affairs of Spain; but the death of his cousin, the Emperor Alfonso, in 1157, which left him the oldest and most famous warrior in the peninsula, seems to have tempted him to abandon this prudent policy. The Emperor had divided his kingdoms, leaving Castile to his son Sancho, and Leon and Gallicia to his son Ferdinand, a division which also seems to have tempted Affonso to believe he could play a part in Spanish affairs. His alliance was sought on all sides, and in January, 1160, he betrothed his eldest daughter, Donna Matilda, to Raymond Berenger, heir to the throne of Aragon; and a little later in the same year he promised his second daughter, Donna Urraca, to King Ferdinand; and concluded the Treaty of Cella Nova, by which it was agreed that each monarch should prosecute his wars against the Moors independently, and that the course of the Guadiana should be the limit between their respective lines of conquest. This treaty was, undoubtedly, caused by the fact that the Moors in Africa had again become united under the rule of the Almohade caliph, Abd-el-Mumin, and that a great invasion of Spain by the Mohammedans was to be expected.

This invasion occurred in the very next year, 1161. Abd-el-Mumin crossed the straits of Gibraltar with eighteen thousand tried Almohade soldiers, and after subduing the independent Mohammedan emīrs, inflicted upon Affonso Henriques his first real defeat, and drove him back to Lisbon and Santarem. The death of Abd-el-Mumin in 1163 again changed the aspect of affairs. A disputed succession kept the Almohade warriors busy in Africa, and independent bands of “salteadors,” who were little better than brigands and free lances, began to establish themselves as petty feudal princes in the various cities and districts of the Alemtejo, the province south of the Tagus, which now became the battle-ground between the Christians and the Moors. Affonso Henriques let them do as they liked; he had a greater ambition, and as he had formerly schemed and planned to take Santarem, Lisbon, and Alcacer do Sal, he now cast his eyes upon the great city of Badajoz, although it lay upon the eastern side of the Guadiana which he had agreed to leave to the King of Leon. With this object in view he took Beja in 1162, Truxillo and Evora in 1165, and Caceres in 1166, thus gradually working up to the city which he coveted. King Ferdinand was not the man to allow these breaches of treaty to pass unnoticed, and founded the city of Ciudad Rodrigo, to command and threaten the north-eastern districts of Portugal.

But Ferdinand was at this time engaged in fighting his nephew, Alfonso IX. of Castile, and Affonso thought that he could take advantage of him. In 1167 he once more occupied Tuy and Limia, the two Gallician frontier cities, which he had formally surrendered by the Treaty of Zamora; and in 1169 he laid siege to Badajoz. This breach of treaty naturally incensed King Ferdinand, who collected a vast army, and besieged his father-in-law in his camp. The Spaniards were in every way successful; the Portuguese were everywhere defeated; their warrior monarch, now in advanced years, had his leg broken, and was forced to capitulate.

Ferdinand used his victory with moderation; he remembered what great things Affonso had done for Christendom; and after two months’ captivity, he allowed the Portuguese king to return to his country on his surrendering the cities in Gallicia, and on the left bank of the Guadiana, which he had taken in violation of treaties. But the spirit of the old warrior was broken; he was never again able to mount a horse, and about the year 1172, he associated his son Sancho with him in the government of Portugal, to whom he gave the title of King, and assigned all the duties of war and the leadership of the Portuguese armies.

Sancho was however a mere boy at this time, though he afterwards proved himself a worthy son of his father, and it was necessary for Affonso to take other measures against the Moors, who were now united under the Almohade caliph Yūsuf. He first promised the Knights Templars one-third of whatever they might conquer in the future, if they defended the Alemtejo. But the Templars were too weak in numbers to do much, and Yūsuf speedily reconquered the whole of the Alemtejo, and then laid siege to Santarem. Here however he was foiled; the defences had been strengthened with all the military skill known in the Middle Ages, and the city was well provisioned. Yūsuf was obliged to retire, and when he did so, Affonso, for the first time in his long career, made a truce with the infidels for seven years.

When his son Sancho, who had in 1174 married Donna Dulce, daughter of Raymond Berenger, Count of Barcelona, and Petronilla, Queen of Aragon, came to years of discretion, he broke this truce; and in 1176 he made an incursion into Moorish Spain as far as the city of Seville, and brought back much booty with him. This incursion revived perpetual fighting with the Mohammedans, and for the next few years the Alemtejo once more became a great battle-ground. In 1179, in which year Pope Alexander III. affirmed the independence of Portugal by a special papal bull, the Moors were beaten back from Abrantes; in 1180, they destroyed Corruche, and in 1181 they were defeated at Evora. The greatest struggle was yet to come. In May, 1184, Yūsuf crossed the straits with the finest and best-equipped Moslem army the Almohades ever brought into Spain; and in June he laid siege for the second time to Santarem. Pestilence defended the Portuguese city, and on 4th of July, 1184, Sancho utterly defeated the fever-stricken army of the Moors in a great battle, in which Yūsuf himself was mortally wounded. A legend runs that Affonso Henriques was carried in his litter at the head of the reinforcements, that enabled Sancho to win this signal victory, which, whether he himself were present or not, formed a worthy close to the reign of the great crusader-king.

During these last years of the Moorish wars, Affonso preserved all the quickness of intellect, if none of the bodily activity of his early years, and as his son Sancho was always at war, he devoted himself entirely to his last remaining daughter, Donna Theresa. The beauty of this princess was sung by the troubadours in all the courts of Europe, and her hand in marriage was eagerly sought by many suitors. In 1183, the old king at last accepted an offer for her, and she left her father and her country to marry Philip, the wealthy Count of Flanders. Poets and chroniclers agree in saying that the departure of this dear daughter broke the old king’s heart; he lived however to hear of, even if the legend be unfounded that he was not present at, the last great victory at Santarem, and he died on 6th of December of the following year, 1185, at Coimbra. He was buried in the church of the priory of Santa Cruz, in that city of which his friend S. Theotonio had been prior, and his tomb has been rightly reverenced as that of the true founder of Portuguese independence.

It is seldom the case that in one man’s reign a small inconsiderable county has grown into a powerful compact little kingdom, even during the Middle Ages, and that the new kingdom should be perpetuated to modern times is quite unparalleled in the history of Europe. This is what gives the history of the reign of Affonso Henriques such unusual interest and importance in general, as distinct from Portuguese, history. There is no geographical or ethnological reason why the part of the Iberian peninsula called Portugal should have formed an independent kingdom, more than Leon or Castile. It was the greatness of one man which made it an independent country. This is the first lesson taught by the Story of Portugal, that nations are not always marked out by natural geographical limits, or race divisions. The second lesson is, that a nation, which has thus become independent, may under certain circumstances develop a distinct individuality, which gives it a different character in every way to its neighbours. It has been shown that chance, the foresight of Donna Theresa and the greatness of Affonso Henriques made Portugal independent; the course of the history to be narrated will show how, while the other kingdoms of the peninsula coalesced into Spain, Portugal remained independent and developed separately. Spain and Portugal are now two separate countries with different languages, literatures, and national characteristics; how they began to separate has been shown; how they became finally distinct is now to be related.