The Historical Nights Entertainment | Page 3

King of Portugal II.
THE FALSE DEMETRIUS Boris Godunov and the Pretended Son of
Ivan the Terrible III. THE HERMOSA FEMBRA An Episode of the
Inquisition in Seville IV. THE PASTRY-COOK OF MADRIGAL The
Story of the False Sebastian of Portugal V. THE END OF THE VERT
GALANT The Assassination of Henry IV VI. THE BARREN
WOOING The Murder of Amy Robsart VII. SIR JUDAS The Betrayal
of Sir Walter Ralegh VIII. HIS INSOLENCE OF BUCKINGHAM
George Villiers' Courtship of Anne of Austria IX. THE PATH OF
EXILE The Fall of Lord Clarendon X. THE TRAGEDY OF
HERRENHAUSEN Count Philip Königsmark and the Princess Sophia
Dorothea XI. THE TYRANNICIDE Charlotte Corday and Jean Paul
Marat

I. THE ABSOLUTION

Aftonso Henriques, first King of Portugal

In 1093 the Moors of the Almoravide dynasty, under the Caliph Yusuf,
swept irresistibly upwards into the Iberian Peninsula, recapturing
Lisbon and Santarem in the west, and pushing their conquest as far as
the river Mondego.
To meet this revival of Mohammedan power, Alfonso VI. Of Castile
summoned the chivalry of Christendom to his aid. Among the knights
who answered the call was Count Henry of Burgundy (grandson of
Robert, first Duke of Burgundy) to whom Alfonso gave his natural
daughter Theresa in marriage, together with the Counties of Oporto and
Coimbra, with the title of Count of Portugal.
That is the first chapter of the history of Portugal.
Count Henry fought hard to defend his southern frontiers from the
incursion of the Moors until his death in 1114. Thereafter his widow
Theresa became Regent of Portugal during the minority of their son,
Affonso Henriques. A woman of great energy, resource and ambition,
she successfully waged war against the Moors, and in other ways laid
the foundations upon which her son was to build the Kingdom of
Portugal. But her passionate infatuation for one of her knights--Don
Fernando Peres de Trava--and the excessive honours she bestowed
upon him, made enemies for her in the new state, and estranged her
from her son.
In 1127 Alfonso VII. of Castile invaded Portugal, compelling Theresa
to recognize him as her suzerain. But Affonso Henriques, now aged
seventeen--and declared by the citizens of the capital to be of age and
competent to reign--incontinently refused to recognize the submission
made by his mother, and in the following year assembled an army for
the purpose of expelling her and her lover from the country. The
warlike Theresa resisted until defeated in the battle of San Mamede and
taken prisoner.

* * * * * *
He was little more than a boy, although four years were sped already
since, as a mere lad of fourteen, he had kept vigil throughout the night
over his arms in the Cathedral of Zamora, preparatory to receiving the
honour of knighthood at the hands of his cousin, Alfonso VII. of
Castile. Yet already he was looked upon as the very pattern of what a
Christian knight should be, worthy son of the father who had devoted
his life to doing battle against the Infidel, wheresoever he might be
found. He was well-grown and tall, and of a bodily strength that is
almost a byword to this day in that Portugal of which he was the real
founder and first king. He was skilled beyond the common wont in all
knightly exercises of arms and horsemanship, and equipped with far
more learning--though much of it was ill-digested, as this story will
serve to show--than the twelfth century considered useful or even
proper in a knight. And he was at least true to his time in that he
combined a fervid piety with a weakness of the flesh and an impetuous
arrogance that was to bring him under the ban of greater
excommunication at the very outset of his reign.
It happened that his imprisonment of his mother was not at all pleasing
in the sight of Rome. Dona Theresa had powerful friends, who so used
their influence at the Vatican on her behalf that the Holy
Father--conveniently ignoring the provocation she had given and the
scandalous, unmotherly conduct of which she had been guilty--came to
consider the behaviour of the Infante of Portugal as reprehensibly
unfilial, and commanded him to deliver Dona Theresa at once from
duress.
This Papal order, backed by a threat of excommunication in the event
of disobedience, was brought to the young prince by the Bishop of
Coimbra, whom he counted among his friends.
Affonso Henriques, ever impetuous and quick to anger, flushed scarlet
when he heard that uncompromising message. His dark eyes
smouldered as they considered the aged prelate.
"You come here to bid me let loose again upon this land of Portugal

that author of strife, to deliver over the people once more to the
oppression of the Lord of Trava?" he