PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR GATEWAY AT BELEM. WITH STATUE, BETWEEN THE DOORS, OF PRINCE HENRY IN ARMOUR. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR THE HERO OF PORTUGAL AND OF MODERN DISCOVERY 1394-1460 A.D. WITH AN ACCOUNT OF GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE AGES AS THE PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK BY C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, M.A., F.R.G.S. FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD; GEOGRAPHICAL STUDENT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 1894 Venient annis sæcula seris Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, Tethys que novos detegat orbes, Nec sit terris ultima Thule. SENECA, Medea 376/380. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET LONDON 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND The Knickerbocker Press 1895 CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE xvii INTRODUCTION. THE GREEK AND ARABIC IDEAS OF THE WORLD, AS THE CHIEF INHERITANCE OF 1 THE CHRISTIAN MIDDLE AGES IN GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. CHAPTER I. EARLY CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS (CIRCA 333- 29 867) CHAPTER II. VIKINGS OR NORTHMEN (CIRCA 787- 50 1066) CHAPTER III. THE CRUSADES AND LAND TRAVEL 76 (CIRCA 1100-1300) CHAPTER IV. MARITIME EXPLORATION (CIRCA 1250- 106 1410) CHAPTER V. GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE IN CHRISTENDOM FROM THE FIRST 114 CRUSADES (CIRCA 1100-1460) CHAPTER VI. PORTUGAL TO 1400 (1095-1400) 123 CHAPTER VII. HENRY'S POSITION AND DESIGNS AT THE 138 TIME OF THE FIRST VOYAGES, 1410-15 CHAPTER VIII. PRINCE HENRY AND THE CAPTURE OF 147 CEUTA (1415) CHAPTER IX. HENRY'S SETTLEMENT AT SAGRES AND 160 FIRST DISCOVERIES (1418-28) CHAPTER X. CAPE BOJADOR AND THE AZORES (1428- 168 41) CHAPTER XI. HENRY'S POLITICAL LIFE (1433-41) 179 CHAPTER XII. FROM BOJADOR TO CAPE VERDE (1441-5) 192 CHAPTER XIII. THE ARMADA OF 1445 228 CHAPTER XIV. VOYAGES OF 1446-8 240 CHAPTER XV. THE AZORES (1431-60) 250 CHAPTER XVI. THE TROUBLES OF THE REGENCY AND 257 THE FALL OF DON PEDRO (1440-9) CHAPTER XVII. CADAMOSTO (1455-6) 261 CHAPTER XVIII. VOYAGES OF DIEGO GOMEZ (1458-60) 289 CHAPTER XIX. HENRY'S LAST YEARS AND DEATH (1458- 299 60) CHAPTER XX. THE RESULTS OF PRINCE HENRY'S WORK 308 INDEX 325 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE MAIN GATE OF THE MONASTERY Frontispiece CHURCH AT BELEM Built on the site of an old sailor's chapel, existing in Prince Henry's day, and used by his men. In the niche between the two great entrance doors, is a statue of Prince Henry in armour. THE MONASTERY CHURCH AT 132 BATALHA[1] West front of church in which Prince Henry and his House lie buried. This church was founded by the Prince's father, King John, in memory of his victory over Castille at Aljubarrota. BATALHA CHURCH— 136 PORTUGAL'S WESTMINSTER[1] The aisle containing the tombs of Prince Henry and his brothers, the Infants of the House of Aviz. EFFIGIES OF KING JOHN THE 148 GREAT AND QUEEN PHILIPPA Henry's father and mother, from their tomb in the Abbey of Batalha. GATEWAY OF THE CHURCH AT 154 THOMAR The Mother Church of the Order of Christ, of which Henry was Grand-Master. HENRY IN MORNING DRESS[2] 258 The original forms the frontispiece to the Paris MS. of Azurara's Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. COIMBRA UNIVERSITY 298 THE RECUMBENT STATUE OF 306 PRINCE HENRY From his tomb in Batalha Church; with his escutcheons (1) as titular King of Cyprus; (2) as Knight of the Garter of England; (3) as Grand Master of the Order of Christ. ALLEGORICAL PIECE[3] 310 Supposed to represent Columbus, as St. Christopher, carrying across the ocean the Christian faith, in the form of the infant Christ. From the map of Juan de la Cosa, 1500. VASCO DA GAMA[4] 314 From a portrait in the possession of the Count of Lavradio. AFFONSO D'ALBUQUERQUE[5] 318 Ebd E-BooksDirectory.com LIST OF MAPS.[6] PAGE THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY 2 From Nordenskjöld's fac-simile atlas THE WORLD ACCORDING TO EDRISI. c. 24 1150 As reconstructed by M. Reinaud from the written descriptions of the Arabic geographer. This illustrates the extremely unreal and untrue conception of the earth among Moslem students, especially those who followed the theories of Ptolomy—e.g., in the extension to Africa eastward, so as practically or actually to join China, making the Indian Ocean an inland sea. THE MAPPE-MONDE OF ST. SEVER 48 (B. Mus., Map room, shelf 35 [5], sheet 6). Of uncertain date, between c. 780-980 but probably not later than the 10th century. One of the earliest examples of Christian map-making. THE ANGLO-SAXON MAP 54 (B. Mus., Cotton mss., Tib. B.V., fol. 59). This gives us the most interesting and accurate view of the world that we get in the pre-Crusading Christian science. The square, but not conventional outline is detailed with considerable care and precision. The writing, though minute, is legible; but the Nile, which, like the Red Sea in Africa, is coloured red, in contrast to the ordinary grey of water in this example, is made to wander about Africa from side to side, with occasional disappearances, in a thoroughly mythical fashion. This map, from a ms. of Priscian's Peviegesis, appears to have been executed at the end of the 10th century; it is on vellum, highly finished, and has been engraved, in outline, in Playfair's Atlas (Pl. I), and more fully in the Penny Magazine (July 22, 1837). In the reign of Henry II., it appears to have belonged to Battle Abbey. THE TURIN MAP OF THE 11TH CENTURY 76 (B. Mus., Map room. From Ottino's reproduction). One of the oldest and simplest of Christian Mappe-Mondes, giving a special prominence to Paradise, (with the figures of Adam, Eve, and the serpent), to the mountains and rivers of the world, and to the four winds of heaven. It is to be associated with the Spanish map of 1109, and the Mappe-Monde of St. Sever. THE SPANISH-ARABIC MAP OF 1109 84 (B. Mus., Add. mss., 11695). The original, gorgeously coloured, represents the crudest of Christian and Moslem notions of the world. Even more crude than in the Turin map and the Mappe- Monde of St. Sever, both of which offer some resemblances to this. The earth is represented as of quadrangular shape, surrounded by the ocean. At the E. is Paradise with the figures of the Temptation. A part of the S. is cut off by the Red Sea, which is straight (and coloured red), just as the straight Mediterranean, with its quadrangular islands, divides the N.W. quarter, or Europe, from the S.W. quarter, or Africa. The Ægean Sea joins the Mediterranean at a right angle, in the centre of the map. In the ocean, bordering the whole, are square islands, e.g., Tile (Thule), Britania, Scocia, Fu(o)rtunarum insula. The Turin map occurs in another copy of the same work—A Commentary on the Apocalypse. THE PSALTER MAP OF THE 13TH 92 CENTURY (B. Mus., Add. mss., 28, 681). A good illustration of the circular type of mediæval map, which is sometimes little better than a panorama of legends and monsters. Christ at the top; the dragons crushed beneath him at the bottom; Jerusalem, the navel of the earth, in the middle as a sort of bull's- eye to a target, all show a "religious" geography. The line of queer figures, on the right side, figuring the S. coast of Africa, suggests a parallel with the still more fanciful Mappe-Monde of Hereford. (For copy see Bevan and Phillott's edition of the Hereford map). THE S.W., OR AFRICAN SECTION OF THE 106 HEREFORD MAP c. 1275-1300 (B. Mus., King's Lib., XXIII). The S. coast of Africa, as in the Psalter map, is fringed with monstrous tribes; monstrous animals fill up a good deal of the interior; half of the wheel representing Jerusalem in the middle of the world appears in the N.E. corner; and the designer's idea of the Mediterranean and Atlantic islands is specially noteworthy. The Hereford map is a specimen of the thoroughly traditional and unpractical school of mediæval geographers who based their work on books, or fashionable collections of travellers' tales—such as Pliny, Solinus, or Martianus Capella—and who are to be distinguished from the scientific school of the same period, whose best works were the Portolani, or coast-charts of the early 14th century. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MARINO 114 SANUTO. c. A.D. 1306 (B. Mus., King's Lib., 149 F. 2 p. 282). The shape of Africa in this map is supposed by some to be valuable in the history of geographical advance, as suggesting the possibility of getting round from the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean. SKETCH MAP OF DULCERT'S 116 PORTOLANO OF 1339 (From Nordenskjöld's fac-simile atlas). This illustrates the accuracy of the 14th century coast- charts, especially in the Mediterranean. THE LAURENTIAN PORTOLANO OF 1351 120 (From the Medicean Lib. at Florence; reproduced in B. Mus., Map room, shelf 158, 22, 23). This is the most remarkable of all the Portolani of the 14th century, as giving a view of the world, and especially Africa, which is far nearer the actual truth than could be expected. Especially its outline of S. Africa and of the bend of the Guinea coast, is surprisingly near the truth, even as a guess, in a chart made one hundred and thirty-five years before the Cape of Good Hope was first rounded. N.W. SECTION OF THE CATALAN MAP OF 124 1375-6 (B. Mus., Map room, 13, 14). This gives the British Islands, the W. coasts of Europe, N. Africa as far as Cape Boyador, and the Canaries and other islands in the Atlantic. The interior of Africa is filled with fantastic pictures of native tribes; the boat load of men off Cape Boyador in the extreme S.W. of the map probably represents the Catalan explorers of the year 1346, whose voyage in search of the "River of Gold" this map commemorates. CHART OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA, 128 BY BARENTSZOON (Engraved in copper 1595. Almost an unaltered copy of a Portolano from the 14th century. From Nordenskjöld's fac-simile atlas). This illustrates the remarkable correctness in the drawing of the Mediterranean basin and the coasts of W. Europe, reached by the Italian and Balearic coast-charts, or Portolani, in the 14th century. THE BORGIAN MAP OF 1450 290 (B. Mus., Map room, shelf 2 [6], 13, 14; copy of 1797). This map was executed just before the fall of Constantinople (1453), and gives a view of the world as imagined in the 15th century. It is very