ALPHONSO V

ALPHONSO V. the Magnanimous, commenced his reign in 1416. He was the son of Fernando the Just, of Castile, whom the Aragonese had chosen for their king. Alonzo was one of the greatest princes of the fifteenth century. The first act of his reign was to destroy a list containing the names of those who had conspired against him. But the free nature of the constitution, which was almost republican, imposed restraints little in accordance with Alonzo's ardent aspirations after fame, and he resolved to seek a wider sphere of action. Accordingly he left his kingdom, and during a reign of forty-three years scarcely revisited it, unless momentarily, or when urgent affairs demanded his presence. The shores of the Mediterranean were to be witnesses of his exploits, where the possession of the Balearic Isles, Sardinia and Sicily, gave him dominion. His first expedition was directed against Corsica, then in possession of the Genoese. Thence sailing to Naples, he offered to make John II. his heir if he would assist him against Louis of Anjou. Being recalled to Spain by an attack made by the Castilians upon his hereditary states, he left his brother Don Pedro at Naples; and coasting the Adriatic, he suddenly descended on Provence, and captured Marseilles, which

pertained to the Duke of Anjou, his competitor for the kingdom of the two Sicilies. Alonzo, ever generous in war, preserved the city from pillage; and refusing a present that was offered him in acknowledgment of his forbearance, contented himself with carrying away the body of a canonized bishop. After restoring peace at home, he directed his arms anew against Naples, where his cause appeared to be compromised. In 1435, Queen Joanna being dead, he besieged Gaeta; but when he had reduced that place, Philippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, appeared with a fleet before the town, and after a bloody engagement, took Alonzo prisoner, with a great number of his followers. The high character which Alonzo bore induced the conqueror to treat him honourably: he made him his ally, and without ransom restored him to liberty, with all his suite. Immediately on recovering his freedom, Alonzo made his third attempt on the kingdom of Naples. After an obstinate resistance the city was taken by assault, in 1442, and Alonzo entered it in triumph. The states were convoked, and he was solemnly proclaimed; his elevation being sanctioned by Pope Eugenius IV., who had promised to René that honour. Alonzo fixed his residence at Naples, where he died on the 27th June 1458, at the age of sixty-four, while preparing for a new war against several of the Italian princes. Possessed of many noble qualities, he united humanity with valour; but his amorous disposition sometimes inclined him to abuse his authority. He was a lover and patron of literature, and delighted in Cæsar's Commentaries, a copy of which he always carried about with him. His secretary, Antonio de Palermo, has left a life of this prince.

3d. Portugal.—ALPHONSO I. Enriquez, son of Henri of Bourgogne, Count of Portugal, and Teresa of Castile, was born in 1094. The Count Henry dying when Alonzo was but three years old, he was placed under the tutelage of his mother; and when he came to age, he was obliged to wrest from her by force that power which her vices and incapacity had rendered disastrous to the state. Being proclaimed Count of Portugal in 1128, he defeated a body of troops which his mother had armed against him, and made her his prisoner. He also vanquished the Castilians who came to support his enemies, and freed Portugal from dependence on the crown of Leon. Then turning his arms against the Moors, on the 26th July 1139 he obtained the famous victory of Ourique, which gave him a crown. Not satisfied, however, with being proclaimed king by his army on the field of battle, he assembled the cortes of the kingdom in 1145 at Lamego, where he received the crown from the hands of the archbishop of Braganza. Holding a naked sword in his hand, he said—"I have delivered you with this sword from the power of the Moors: I have conquered your enemies: you have made me your king. Let us at once establish laws for maintaining order, justice, and peace, in this realm." The constitution of the kingdom was accordingly voted by the deputies, and the freedom of Portugal was proclaimed as follows:—"You are asked if you wish that the king should pay tribute to Castile, and appear before the states of this kingdom as a vassal." Upon which a shout was raised,—"We are free, and our king shall be free also." Such was the result of the famous assembly at Lamego, and the foundation of the Portuguese monarchy. Alonzo continued to signalise himself by his exploits against the Moors, from whom he wrested Lisbon in 1147, after a siege in which both parties displayed the most heroic valour. He next engaged in the war that had broken out among the kings of Spain. Being disabled during an engagement by a fall from his horse which fractured his leg, he was made prisoner by the soldiers of the king of Leon, who obliged him to give up as his ransom almost all the conquests he had made in Galicia. Alonzo was then eighty years old;

Alphonso, but he had still sufficient energy to relieve his son Sancho who was besieged in Santarem by the Moors. This was his last exploit. He died in 1185, at the age of ninety-one, having reigned seventy-three years. Alonzo was of gigantic stature, even seven feet in height according to some authors. His victories and his laws, his Christian life and chivalry, as well as the numerous religious houses he established, are claims on the admiration and the gratitude of the Portuguese, among whom, accordingly, he has long been regarded as a saint.

ALPHONSO II., the Fat, born in 1185, succeeded his father, Sancho I., in 1211. He endeavoured to repress the ambition of the clergy, and to apply a portion of their enormous revenues to purposes of national utility. Having been excommunicated by the pope, he was anxiously negotiating for absolution when death overtook him in 1223, in the 39th year of his age, and 12th of his reign. He framed a code of laws in which it was enacted that capital punishment should not be inflicted until the expiry of twenty days after condemnation.

ALPHONSO III., son of the preceding, succeeded his brother Sancho II. in 1248. He, like his father, was frequently embroiled with the ecclesiastics. He died in 1279.

ALPHONSO IV., in 1325 succeeded his father Dionisio the Liberal, whose death he had hastened by his intrigues and rebellions; and his persecution of Alonzo proved him to be no less unnatural as a brother. To an immoderate love of the chase he sacrificed his duties as a king; and on one occasion, while expatiating on his favourite sport before the council, he was plainly told by the indignant ministers of the wrong he was inflicting on the nation, and that, if he did not amend his life, they would depose him. Alonzo was filled with rage; but suddenly recovering himself, he confessed that their announcement had opened his eyes, and that in future they should find him a very different king. Hostilities with the Castilians and with the Moors occupied many years of his reign: but one bloody act, of which the mass of Camões has perpetuated the memory, has fixed an indelible stain on his character. The murder of Iñez de Castro, who was secretly espoused to his son Don Pedro, recalls the sad history of that young prince, and the troubles in which it involved the kingdom. Alonzo was scarcely reconciled to Don Pedro when he died, in the 77th year of his age, A.D. 1376.

ALPHONSO V., Africano, king of Portugal, was the son of Duarte I., whom he succeeded in 1438, being then but six years old. In 1471 he landed in Africa with a fleet of 300 sail and 30,000 men, and there acquired by his conquests the title of Africano. During this expedition he heard of an ancient tradition that, at Fez, was jealously preserved a sword which should become the spoil of a Christian prince; and supposing that its accomplishment was reserved for himself, he instituted the chivalrous order of The Sword. In returning to Portugal in 1475, his ambition led him into Castile, where two princesses were disputing the succession to Henry IV. Supported by a powerful party, Alonzo caused himself to be proclaimed king of Castile and Leon. Being defeated at Toro by Ferdinand of Aragon, the husband of Isabella of Castile, he applied for assistance to Louis XI. of France; but finding himself deceived by Louis, he became disgusted with the regal state, and forwarded his abdication to his son. A few days after he appeared in Portugal, and was constrained by his son, Juan II., to resume the sceptre, which he continued to wield for two years longer; after which he fell into a deep melancholy, and retired into a monastery at Cintra, where he died of the plague in 1481, aged 49. He was a brave prince, and ruled equitably; and he was the first king of Portugal who possessed a private library.