In which the Chronicler speaketh briefly of the notable matters which
the Infant performed for the service of God and the honour of the
Kingdom.
Where could this chapter begin better than in speaking of that most
glorious conquest of the great city of Ceuta, of which famous victory
the heavens felt the glory and the earth the benefit. For it seemeth to
me a great glory, for the sacred college of the Celestial Virtues,[N23]
that all those holy sacrifices and blessed ceremonies should have been
celebrated in praise of Christ our Lord in that city from that day even
until now, and by his grace ever shall be celebrated. And as to the
profit of our world from this achievement, East and West alike are good
witnesses thereof, since their peoples can now exchange their goods,
without any great peril of merchandise--for of a surety no one can deny
that Ceuta is the key of all the Mediterranean sea. In the which
conquest the Prince was captain of a very great and powerful fleet, and
like a brave knight fought and toiled in person on the day when it was
taken from the Moors; and under his command were the Count of Barcellos,
the King's bastard, and Don Fernando, Lord of Braganza, his nephew, and
Gonçalo Vasquez Coutinho, a great and powerful noble, and many other
lords and gentlemen with all their men-at-arms, and others who joined
the said fleet from the three districts of the Beira, and the
Tral-os-Montes and the Entre Douro-e-Minho.[N24] Now the first Royal
Captain who took possession by the walls of Ceuta was this same of whom
I write, and his square banner was the first that entered the gates of
the city, from whose shadow he was never far off himself. On that day
the blows he dealt out were conspicuous beyond those of all other men,
since for the space of five hours he never stopped fighting, and neither
the heat, though it was very great, nor the amount of his toil, were
able to make him retire and take any rest. And in this space of time,
the Prince, with four who accompanied him, made a valiant stand. For as
to the others who should have followed in his company, some were
scattered through that vast city, and others were not able to join him
by reason of a gate through which the Infant with the said four
companions had passed together with the Moors, which gate was guarded by
other Moors on the top of the wall. So for about two hours the Prince
and his friends held another gate, which is beyond that one which stands
between the two cities[N25] in a turn of the wall under the shadow of
the castle, which gate is now called that of Fernandafonso. And to this
had retired the greater part of the Moors who had fled out of the other
town from the side of Almina just where the city was entered, but in the
end, despite the great multitude of the enemy, they shut that gate. And
whether their toil were idle or no could well be seen by those who had
fallen and lay dead there, stretched out along that ground. In that city
of Ceuta was the Infant knighted, together with his brothers, by his
father's hand, with great honour, on the day of the consecration of the
Cathedral Church. And the capture was on a Thursday, the 21st day of the
month of August, in the year of Christ 1415. And immediately on the
return of the King Don John to his kingdom, he made this honoured prince
a duke, with the seignory thereof, in a place of the province of the
Algarve.[N26] And afterwards at the end of three years there came
against Ceuta a great power of Moors, who were reckoned at a later time
by the King's Ransomers of Captives to be 100,000 strong--for there were
present the people of the Kings of Fez and of Granada and of Tunis and
of Marocco and of Bugya,[N27] with many engines of war and much
artillery, with the which they thought to take the aforesaid city,
encircling it by sea and land. Then the Infant was very diligent in
succouring it with two of his brothers, that is to say the Infant Don
John and the Count of Barcellos, who was afterwards Duke of Braganza,
with many lords and gentlemen and with the aid of a great flotilla; and
after killing many of the Moors and delivering the city, he repaired it
and returned again very honourably to Portugal. Yet he was not well
content with his victory, because the chance of taking the town of
Gibraltar, for which he had made preparation, did not offer itself to
him.[N28] The chief reason of his being thus hindered was the roughness
of the winter, which was just then beginning; for although the sea at
that time is dangerous everywhere, it is much more so at that very part
because of the great currents that are there. He also fitted out a very
great armada against the Canary Islands,[N29] to shew the natives there
the way of the holy faith.
Again, while the King Don Edward was reigning, by his order he passed
over a third time into Africa, when he besieged the city of Tangier, and
went for nineteen leagues with banners flying through the land of his
enemies; and then maintained the leaguer for two and twenty days, in
which time were achieved many feats worthy of glorious remembrance, not
without great slaughter of the enemy, as in the history of the kingdom
you can learn more fully.
He governed Ceuta, by command of the kings, his father, brother and
nephew,[I] for five and thirty years, with such prevision that the crown
of the kingdom never suffered loss of honour through any default of his;
but at last, because of his great burdens, he left the said government
to the King Don Affonso, at the beginning of his reign.[N30] Moreover,
from the time that Ceuta was taken he always kept armed ships at sea to
guard against the infidels, who then made very great havoc upon the
coasts both on this side the straits and beyond; so that the fear of his
vessels kept in security all the shores of our Spain and the greater
part of the merchants who traded between East and West.[N31]
[Footnote I: John, Edward and Affonso.]
Also he caused to be peopled in the great Sea of Ocean five islands,
which embraced a goodly number of people at the time of the writing of
this book, and especially Madeira;[N32] and from this isle, as well as
the others, our country drew large supplies of wheat, sugar, wax, honey
and wood, and many other things, from which not only our own people but
also foreigners have gained and are gaining great profit. Also the
Infant Don Henry was with the king Don Affonso his nephew, in that army
he collected against the Infant Don Pedro, from which followed the
battle of Alfarrobeira, where the aforesaid Don Pedro was killed and the
Count of Avranches who was with him, and all their host defeated.[N33]
And there, if my understanding suffice for the matter, I may truly say
that the loyalty of men of all times was as nothing in comparison of
his. Further, although his services[J] did not occasion him such great
labours as those I have mentioned, yet of a certainty the circumstances
of the matter gave to them a lustre and a grandeur that exceeded all
else: and of these I leave a fuller account to the general history of
the Kingdom.
[Footnote J: In this battle.]
Don Henry also made very great benefactions to the Order of Christ, of
which he was ruler and governor by the authority of the Holy Father, for
he bestowed upon it all the spiritualties of the islands[K] and in the
kingdom he made purchases of lands (from which he created new
commanderies), as well as of houses and estates, which he annexed to the
said Order. And in the Mother-Convent of the Order he built two very
fair cloisters and one high choir, with many rich ornaments, which he
presented for sacred uses.[N34] And for that he had a great devotion to
the Virgin Mary, he built in her honour a very devout house of prayer,
one league from Lisbon, near the sea, at Restello, under the title of
St. Mary of Belem. And in Pombal and in Soure, he built two very notable
churches. Also, he bequeathed many noble houses to the City of Lisbon,
being pleased to give his protection for the greater honour of the holy
Scriptures; and he ordained a yearly grant of ten marks of silver to the
Chair of Theology for ever. And in the same way he gave to his chapel of
St. Mary of Victory seven marks of yearly revenue.[N35] But I know not
for the present if there is to be an increase in these grants after his
death, for, at the time that King Affonso ordered this book to be
written he was yet alive, of an age little less than sixty years, so
that I cannot make an end of his benefactions, for, as his mind was
great and ever intent on noble actions, I am sure that his members may
indeed grow weaker with the lapse of time, but his will can never be too
poor both to undertake and to finish a multitude of good deeds, so long
as his soul and body are united together. And this may well be
understood by those that saw him ready to go to Ceuta[N36] and almost
embarked on shipboard with that intent--to end his life there, toiling
in arms for the honour of the Kingdom and the exaltation of the Holy
Faith. For in this cause he ever had a desire to finish his days: yet he
desisted from carrying out his purpose for this time, because the King
agreed with his Council in hindering the voyage, though he had
previously given him leave. And though the chief cause of this be not
known to most men, some wiseacres, who were not members of the Chief
Council, perceived that the reason was as follows: the Lord King, like a
man of great discretion, considering the great things to be performed at
home, ordered him to remain, that he might give him, as his uncle and
especial friend and most notable servant, the principal part in
searching out the remedies for these troubles. But it mattereth not
much, whether this was the cause of his remaining or whether it was some
other reason outside our knowledge: let it suffice that by this action
you may see what was the chief part of his life's purpose, and this is
what I ought in reason to set forth after what I have said. And among
those actions of the Prince's[L] there are many others of no little
grandeur, with which another man, who had not attained to the excellency
of this hero, might well be content, but in this history I omit them, in
order not to depart from what I promised at first to write of. Not that
I would keep silence altogether concerning them, for in the general
chronicle of the Kingdom I intend to touch on each in its own place. And
because I began this chapter with the taking of a city,[M] I would fain
end it with an account of that noble town which our Prince caused them
to build on Cape St. Vincent, at the place where both seas meet, to wit,
the great Ocean sea and the Mediterranean sea. But of the perfections of
that town it is not possible to speak here at large, because when this
book was written there were only the walls standing, though of great
strength, with a few houses--yet work was going on in it continually.
According to the common belief, the Infant purposed to make of it an
especial mart town for merchants. And this was to the end that all ships
that passed from the East to the West, should be able to take their
bearings and to get provisions and pilots there, as at Cadiz--which last
is very far from being as good a port as this, for here ships can get
shelter against every wind (except one that we in this Kingdom call the
cross-wind), and in the same way they can go out with every wind,
whenever the seaman willeth it. Moreover, I have heard say that when
this city was begun, the Genoese offered a great price for it; and they,
as you know, are not men that spend their money without some certain
hope of gain. And though some have called the said town by other names,
I believe its proper one, according to the intention of its founder, was
that of "the Infant's town", for he himself so named it, both by word of
mouth and by writing.[N37]
[Footnote K: In his jurisdiction.]
[Footnote L: In home affairs.]
[Footnote M: Ceuta.]