ALFONSO, or ALONZO. This name, so famous in the annals of the Spanish Peninsula, has been borne by no fewer than two-and-twenty of its sovereigns, viz., by eleven of Leon and Castile, five of Leon, and six of Portugal.—(La Coronica General de Espana, by Morales; Catalogo Real y Genealogico de Espana, by Rod. Mendez Silva; History of Spain, by Mariana.)
1st. Leon and Castile.—ALPHONSO I., surnamed the Catholic, was the son of Pedro, Duke of Biscay, and a lineal descendant, it is said, of King Recaredo. On the death of Favila the son of Pelayo, in 739, Alonzo, who had married Ormisinda, the daughter of the latter, was proclaimed king of Asturias. He conducted in person a war against the Moors, which lasted almost throughout his reign; extended his territories by the conquest of many important places; and united to his crown the kingdom of Leon. He was a prince of an excellent understanding, equally skilled in the arts of peace and of war, and fortunate in all his undertakings. He died at Cangas in 757, at the age of 74; and was succeeded by his son Fruela, who founded the city of Oviedo in Asturias.
ALPHONSO II., surnamed the Chaste, son of King Fruela who was assassinated in 768, was but a child at his father's death. He was invested with regal authority by King Silon in 774; on whose demise in 783 he became sole monarch. He was afterwards dethroned by his uncle Mauregatus, assisted by the Moors, and retired into Biscay, where he had numerous friends. Mauregatus reigned five years, and was succeeded by Bermudo, who, two years afterwards, took Alonzo as his partner in the throne. Alonzo engaged in war against the Moors, and obtained a great victory over them at Ledas. Bermudo reigned only six and a half years. Alonzo, taking advantage of the dissensions among the Moors, captured the city of Lisbon. After this event, a great rebellion among his subjects obliged Alonzo to fly into Galicia; but with the assistance of Theudius, he was soon re-instated in his dominions. Charlemagne was invited into Spain by Alonzo; and it was in this reign that the famous battle of Roncesvalles was fought. The city of Oviedo was greatly adorned by Alonzo, who was the first sovereign who made it the capital of the kingdom. Here he died in 843, aged 85, having reigned 52½ years. Some historians have erroneously ascribed his surname of Chaste to his having refused to concede the tribute of a hundred virgins to the Moors: but this story is fabulous, that epithet having been derived from his observing an absolute continence towards the queen, his wife, in fulfilment of a vow. He left his throne to Don Ramiro, the son of King Bermudo.
ALPHONSO III., the Great, was 18 years of age on the death of his father Ordoño, in 862. In the first year of his reign the title of King of Galicia was usurped by Fruela, son of King Bermudo, and Alonzo retired to Alava, which was part of his own dominions; but the tyranny of Fruela soon after occasioned his assassination, and Alonzo returned to Asturias. Shortly afterwards, his four brothers, jealous at his elevation, conspired against his life; but they were seized, deprived of their eyes, and cast into prison. Alonzo then commenced those wars against the Moors by which he acquired the epithet of Great. He built Sublan-
cia, and Cea, near Leon; also the cities of Porto, Viseo, Alphonsos, Chaves, Oca, and Zamora; besides taking from the Moors Coimbra, Sinancas, Dueñas, and all the territory of Campos. But fresh conspiracies arrested his victorious career. The malcontents, at the head of whom was his own son Don Garcia, charged him with overtaxing the people for the support of his wars. Alonzo then attacked Don Garcia, and having vanquished him, cast him into prison. Ximena the queen, who was of the blood royal of France, espoused the cause of the insurgents; and Hernandez earl of Castile, the father-in-law of Garcia, united with her other two sons for the deliverance of Don Garcia. The people adopted their cause, and a war ensued which lasted two years; when the king, despairing of any other means to restore peace, abdicated the throne, A.D. 910. But Alonzo could not relinquish the sword with the sceptre. In the true spirit of the age, he undertook, as the lieutenant of his son, an expedition against the Moors, and acquired fresh laurels in this campaign. In the same year, 911, he died at Zambría, after a reign of 48 years, and having added to his dominions a part of Portugal and of Old Castile. He is the reputed author of Annals of Spain, which embrace that period from the time of Wamba, towards the end of the seventh century, to that of Ordoño. Alonzo was tall and of a pleasing countenance, affable, and gentle, and exceedingly liberal to the poor.
ALPHONSO IV., called the Monk, King of Leon, began to reign in 924. On the death of his wife, about six years afterwards, he resigned the crown to his brother Don Ramiro, and retired into a cloister: but soon growing weary of the monastic life, he made an attempt to resume the sceptre. Upon this, King Ramiro besieged him in Leon; and having taken him captive, he put out his eyes, and threw him into a dungeon, where he ended his days.
ALPHONSO V., succeeded his father King Bermudo in 999, being then but five years of age. Gonzalez earl of Galicia, and his wife, were appointed by the late king to be the guardians of his minority; and, on arriving at manhood, he espoused their daughter Donna Elvira. Alonzo made war on the Moors, and lost his life at the siege of Viseo, A.D. 1028. He rebuilt, at his own cost, the city of Leon, which had been ruined by the Moors. During this reign the Moorish kingdom was subdivided into several small principalities. Alonzo was succeeded by his only son, Don Bermudo.
ALPHONSO VI., surnamed the Valiant, was the son of Fernando the Great, king of Castile and Leon. On the death of his father in 1065, the kingdom was divided among his three sons. Sancho, the eldest, received as his portion Castile; to Alonzo was given the kingdom of Leon, the territory of Campos, part of Asturias, and some towns in Galicia; and Garcia, the youngest brother, received a part of Galicia and of Portugal. Peace was not long maintained between the three brothers. Sancho made war on Alonzo, and defeated him in a bloody battle at Piantaca. Alonzo recruited his army, and defeated Sancho on the banks of the river Carion; but an attack being made on his camp during the night, Alonzo was taken captive, and compelled to abdicate, A.D. 1071. Escaping from the monastery where he was confined, he found refuge with Almonen the Moorish king of Toledo, who lodged him in a superb palace, gave him a retinue of Christians, and assigned him a pension. Sancho took possession of Leon, and advanced into Galicia against Garcia, whose kingdom was in an uproar. The two brothers met at Santarem, where the Galicians were defeated with great slaughter, and Garcia himself captured and thrown into prison. Sancho being assassinated in 1073, Alonzo was reinstated in his dominions, after he had made a solemn declaration that he was guiltless of his brother's death. This Alphonso, solemn oath was administered to him by the famous Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, commonly called the Cid, whose exploits have rendered his name illustrious in the annals of chivalry. Don Garcia, on receiving his freedom, was making efforts to re-instate himself on his throne; when Alonzo, under the pretext of assisting him, obtained possession of his person, and immured him in a dungeon, where he died ten years after. He then turned his arms against the Moors, and committed great ravages in their territories, taking much spoil. No less treacherous than he had proved himself unnatural, Alonzo, after feigning some scruples of conscience, devastated the territories of Hiaya Aldribil king of Toledo, whose father had befriended him in his adversity; and, assisted by many strangers, he invested his capital, which, after a siege of five years, A.D. 1085, was taken from the Saracens, in whose possession it had been for about 370 years. Alonzo prosecuted the war against the Moors, taking many of their towns; and being sovereign of a great part of Spain, and king of Aragon, he now assumed the imperial title. This prince was married six times. His third wife was Zayda, the daughter of Ben-Abed the Moorish king of Seville, Alonzo having invited the Almoravides from Africa to assist his father-in-law in his project of reducing all Mahometan Spain under his sway, the Almoravide king sent over a large force under the command of Hali Ben-Axa; but that chief soon finding occasion of quarrel with the Moorish king, a battle ensued in which Ben-Abed perished, and Hali took possession of his kingdom, A.D. 1091. The other Moorish princes were quickly subdued or submitted to him; and Alonzo had the mortification to see such of them as were tributary to himself throw off their allegiance, at the same time that he lost those towns which he had received as the portion of Zayda. The army he sent to oppose the victorious Moors was routed near Rhoda; and another mighty force which he gathered for that purpose was defeated at Cacalla near Badajoz with great slaughter. Many strangers now flocked to his assistance from all parts, especially from France under Raymond of Bourgogne and Raymond of Toulouse, upon which the Moors prudently retired without coming to an engagement.
In the year 1093 appeared Peter the Hermit preaching the first crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem from the Saracens. About this time the king married his three daughters; of whom Teresa, illegitimate, was given to Henry of Lorraine, with the title of Earl of Portugal, which he held as a fief of the crown of Castile. This was the origin of the kingdom of Portugal, which title was afterwards assumed, and continued in the line of this prince above 400 years. Alonzo died at Toledo in 1109, after a reign of 43 years, aged seventy-nine. It is worthy of notice, that in 1077, when Gregory VII. declared in a bull that Spain had anciently been tributary to the Holy See, Alonzo consented to pay a tribute, which was abolished by his successors.
Alphonso VIII. The same as Alonzo I. of Aragon.
Alphonso VIII. (Raymond). This prince, born in 1106, was proclaimed king by the states of Galicia met at Compostella; and his mother Uraca, on account of his youth, was associated with him in the government. The contentions that arose from this arrangement were only terminated by the death of Uraca in 1126; after which, Alonzo strove to repress the internal dissensions of his kingdom, and by salutary laws to ameliorate the condition of the country. He then made war on the Moors; and, elated with success, he assembled the cortes at Leon, and was solemnly crowned emperor of Spain. He married Eleanor the daughter of Henry II. of England, a princess of great personal attractions. Her jointure consisted of a part of Castile, Burgos, Medina del Campo, with many other towns, and half of all that should be taken from the Moors. Another expedition which Alonzo undertook against the Moors in Africa, was signalled by the brilliant victory of Jaen in 1157; but in returning homewards he died, in the fifty-first year of his age, and 31st of his reign. This prince is distinguished in history for his rigid observance of the rights and privileges of his subjects. His daughter Constance was married to Louis VII. le Jeune, king of France; which was the first alliance by marriage between those two crowns. After the example of his predecessors, Alonzo divided the kingdom between his two sons. In 1156 he instituted the order of Saint Julian, which afterwards became so celebrated under the name of Alcantara. See Alcantara.
Alphonso IX., the Noble, son of Sancho II., was only three years of age on the death of his father in 1158. His minority was disturbed by the contention of two powerful houses for the regency; but when he had attained the age of fifteen he was proclaimed by the cortes assembled at Burgos, and commenced his reign by making war on those Christian kings of Spain who had league together to dispossess him of his heritage. After repulsing them, he turned his arms against the Moors; and at Alarco, in 1195, sustained one of the most disastrous defeats recorded in the annals of Spain. This disaster encouraged the kings of Leon and Navarre to renew their hostilities. About this time occurred a tragic event illustrative of the fierce spirit of the age. A young Jewess, whose beauty had enthralled the king, was accused as the author of all the public calamities; and the nobles, undaunted by the presence of their sovereign, plunged their daggers into her bosom before his eyes. This outrage aroused Alonzo from inactivity, and he soon repaired the defeat at Alarco by the splendid victory of Tolosa. He died soon after, in 1214. This prince was an encourager of literature, and founded the university of Palencia, the first in Christian Spain.
It ought to be observed that the kingdoms of Castile and Leon were at this time separate: the prince of whom we shall presently speak reigned over the first; and over the latter reigned another Alonzo, also the ninth of the name. He waged war successfully against the Moors, and was the founder of the celebrated university of Salamanca. He died in 1230, having reigned 42 years.
Alphonso X., surnamed El Sabio, the Wise or the Learned, succeeded his father Fernando the Good, king of Castile, in the year 1252. He obtained the appellation of wise, not for his political knowledge as a king, but for his scientific and literary accomplishments. In consequence of the general opinion of his princely qualities, and his uncommon generosity, he ascended the throne with universal approbation. The ill-concerted projects of his ambition, however, disturbed the prosperity of his reign. Pretending a better right than Henry III. of England to the territory of Gascony, he directed his first attempt towards its acquisition. The arms of England, however, proved too formidable; and he was compelled to renounce his claim, on condition that Henry's son, afterwards King Edward I., should marry his sister Eleonora. At an expense which drained his treasures, and obliged him to debase his coin, he prepared for an expedition against the Moors in Barbary; but his maternal right to the duchy of Suhia, which he was called to defend, diverted him from it. Thus he formed a connection with the German princes, and became a competitor, with Richard Earl of Cornwall, for the imperial crown, a contest in which they both expended immense sums of money. The claims of several of the princes of the blood gave exercise to his military talents, and he was successful both in opposing and defeating them. He formed the romantic design of visiting Italy in the year 1268; but the states firmly remonstrating, he was obliged to relinquish it. But although he abandoned the design, it produced such discontent among the common Alphonso, people, and conspiracy among the nobles, that it required considerable exertion before the king could allay the ferment. Alonzo being still desirous to ascend the imperial throne, made another attempt after the death of Richard Earl of Cornwall, and even after Rodolph of Hapsburg was actually elected emperor of Germany; and for that purpose took a journey to Beaucaire, to obtain an interview with the pope, in order to prevent him from confirming the election. The Moors, ever ready to draw the sword against him, took this opportunity of entering his dominions for the purpose of ravaging them. This ambitious journey, undertaken at so vast an expense, and productive of so much confusion in his kingdom, proved unsuccessful; for the pope would not realise his claim, or alter the former election. But his excessive ambition was soon punished by domestic calamity; for his eldest son died in this interval, and his second son Don Sanchez, having obtained great reputation in opposing the infidels, to the prejudice of his brother's children, laid claim to the crown. This claim was admitted by the states of the kingdom; but Philip king of France, supporting the cause of the children, whose mother was his sister Blanche of France, involved Alonzo in a war; which occasioned the retreat of his own queen Yolande or Violante to the court of her father, the king of Aragon. While thus harassed with dissensions, he proclaimed war against France, and by the authority of the pope renewed the war with the Moors, which proved so unfortunate, that he reluctantly concluded a truce with them, and engaged in a contest with the king of Granada.
These various measures exhausted his treasure; taxes were multiplied, and the affairs of the kingdom were in such confusion, that he was under the disagreeable necessity of calling an assembly of the states, which was held at Seville in the year 1281, where, on the king's proposal, the states consented to give a currency to copper money. In consequence of the intrigues of Don Sanchez his son, another assembly of the states was held at Valladolid, A.D. 1282, which deprived Alonzo of the regal dignity, and appointed Sanchez regent. Reduced to almost insurmountable difficulties, Alonzo solemnly cursed and disinherited his son, and by his last will, in the year 1283, confirmed the act of exclusion, and appointed for the succession the infants de la Cerda, and, upon the failure of their heirs, the kings of France; and at the same time supplicated the assistance of the king of Morocco against the power of his son. At the commencement of the next year, when Alonzo received information from Salamanca that Sanchez was dangerously ill, his heart relented. He pardoned his son, revoked his curses, and then died, on the 4th of April 1284, in the eighty-first year of his age. His remains were interred in the cathedral of Seville; and he left behind him the character of a learned man, but a weak king. Alonzo has been charged with irreligion and impiety, chiefly on account of a well-known but differently interpreted saying of his, that "if he had been of God's privy council when he created the world, he could have advised him better."
To this prince science is indebted for the set of astronomical observations known as the Alphonsine Tables, which were drawn up under his auspices by certain Jews of Toledo. In the palace of Segovia a chamber is still shown as the observatory of Alonzo. He was also distinguished as a poet and a legislator. In the Escorial is preserved a curious manuscript containing some hymns of his composition; and he was the principal compiler of that code of laws which is still extant under the title of Las Siete Partidas.
Alphonso XI, the Avenger. This prince was an infant when he succeeded his father Ferdinand IV. in 1312. During his long minority the kingdom was cruelly distracted by intestine warfare. Assuming the reins of government in his fifteenth year, he strove to repress the turbulent spirit of Alphonso, the nobility, and to put down that system of brigandage to which it had given rise. His inflexible severity towards all such offenders procured for him the title of the Avenger. As commander of the allied armies of Catholic Spain, on the 29th Oct. 1340 he gained a complete victory over the kings of Morocco and Granada, who had besieged Tarifa. The slaughter was immense, and the booty so rich that the value of gold is said to have fallen one sixteenth. In 1342 Alonzo laid siege to Algeciras, where cannons were employed for the first time in Europe by the Moors in defence of their walls. This siege had lasted two years, when the Moors capitulated on condition of a truce between the two nations for ten years; but the king of Castile broke his word a few years after by besieging Gibraltar, where he died of the plague on the 26th March 1350, aged 40. He was the father of Pedro the Cruel, who succeeded him. From this reign dates the institution of regidores or jurats, to whom was committed the administration of the communes; and these regidores became the exclusive electors of the cortes, in which the people ceased to have a voice.
2d. Aragon.—Alphonso I., surnamed the Fighter, king of Navarre and Aragon, was the second son of Don Sancho Ramirez, and succeeded his brother Pedro I. in 1104. At that period Aragon was exhausted by the interminable wars which its successive sovereigns had waged against the Moors. The power of the Almoravides, which the exertions of the Cid were unable to check, menaced all Christian Spain; and the only prince that still was able to oppose them was the aged Alonzo VI., king of Leon. It was in this juncture of affairs that Alonzo I. by many years of peace had gathered strength to pursue that headlong career which afterwards caused him to be surnamed the Fighter. Very shortly after his marriage with Uraca the daughter of Alonzo VI. of Leon, some misunderstanding alienated his affections from that princess. The haughty Castilian nobles, indignant at her treatment, rescued her from the fortress where she was confined, and bore her away in triumph. In the meantime Alonzo was occupied with his schemes of aggrandizement. The capture of Tudela from the Arabs was the prelude to his invasion of the kingdom of Saragossa in 1110. In dissolving his marriage with Uraca, he attempted to retain the greater part of her dowry; but she had a powerful friend in her brother-in-law Henry Count of Portugal, whose army already menaced Navarre. This obliged him eventually to renounce all pretensions to the states of Leon and Castile, and to recognise, as king of Galicia, Alonzo Raymond the son of Uraca, A.D. 1113. His marriage was dissolved by a council of Castilian bishops, and their decision was ratified by the pope. At this period commenced the struggle between the Aragonese and Almoravides. The army of the governor of Granada was cut to pieces near Saragossa, and Alonzo obtained another victory over a large army sent by Ali of Morocco under the command of his ablest generals to avenge Ben Mezdeli. In this short campaign Alonzo displayed extraordinary ability. No longer concealing his designs upon Saragossa, he obliged Amad Dola to surrender that city, from which point he commenced his attempts to subdue the kingdom (A.D. 1118). This hard-earned acquisition was the means of involving him in interminable troubles. In 1120 his territories were menaced by a large force sent against him by Ali; but engaging the enemy near Daroca, he left 20,000 Almoravides dead on the field. This victory placed Daroca and Calatayud in his power. Three years afterwards, while the king of Morocco was fully occupied at home by the rise of a dangerous sect of Almoravides (see Abdul-Mumen and Almohades), Alonzo seized the opportunity to invade the territory of Valencia. The brilliant victory he obtained at Alcaraz seemed to open up the Alphonso way for the conquest of all eastern Spain. In 1125 he undertook a new expedition against Granada. The spoil taken from the Andalucians was dearly bought by the Christians; but it was not upon Alonzo that the Moors made their reprisals. They invaded Estremadura, and defeated the Castilians near Badajoz. The king of Aragon, so far from rendering his neighbours any assistance, determined to take advantage of the critical position of Alonzo Raymond, as well as of the troubles which the death of Uraca had occasioned in several parts of his dominions. But, when on the point of battle with the king of Leon upon his own territory, Alonzo agreed to an accommodation, and resolved to turn his arms in another direction. He imagined the time was arrived for achieving with ease the conquest of Saragossa. Two cities, Mequinensa and Fraga, still held out. He reduced the first, and put the garrison to the sword on account of their devotion to the Almoravides. He then laid siege to Fraga; where, during a sally from the town, he received a mortal wound. Alonzo had been victorious in 29 battles, and his arms had never received a check until this day, when he beheld, whilst dying, the utter destruction of his followers. The camp of the Christians with its rich spoils indemnified the Moors for the losses they had sustained at his hand. His ancient rival, Alonzo Raymond, hastened to avenge his defeat, and to succour the remnant of his army.
Alphonso II. began to reign in 1162, and was almost constantly at war with Raymond V. Count of Toulouse. He was a patron of the troubadours, and wrote some poems in the Provençal language. He died in 1196.
Alphonso III. ascended the throne in 1285. His short reign was remarkable for the establishment of the most liberal political constitution of that age, the justiza being invested with the right of citing the king himself to appear before the cortes, and with the power of deposing him if he infringed the privileges of the subject. Alonzo vainly endeavoured to avoid taking the oaths of adherence to the articles to which his predecessors had subscribed, by absenting himself from the solemn ceremony of coronation; but the nobles obliged him to appear according to custom. Under this reign also were united the cortes of Valencia, Catalonia, and Aragon, which each sovereign on his elevation engaged by oath never to disunite. Alonzo died in 1291, aged 26.
Alphonso IV. ascended the throne in 1327. Almost the whole of his reign, which lasted ten years, was occupied in war with the Genoese.
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 Caesar'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., Enríquez, son of Henri de 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 1255 succeeded his father Dionisio the Liberal, whose death he hastened by his intrigues and rebellions; and his persecution of Alonzo Sancho 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 Inez 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.
Alphonso VI. was the son of that Duke of Braganza who succeeded to the crown as the representative of the ancient dynasty of Portugal. He succeeded his father in 1565; and in 1667 was compelled to abdicate the throne, of which his vices had rendered him unworthy.
Alphonsus a Sancta Maria, or Alfonso de Cartagena, a celebrated Spanish historian, was born in 1396, and died in 1496. He succeeded his father as Bishop of Burgos. He was the author of several works, the principal of which is a History of Spain from the earliest times down to the year 1496, printed at Granada in 1545, fol.
Alpini, Prospero, in Latin Prosper Alpinus, a celebrated physician and botanist, was born at Marostica, in the republic of Venice, in November 1553. In his early years his inclination led him to the profession of arms, and he served some time in the Milanese. By the encouragement and persuasion of his father, who was a physician, he retired from the army, and devoted his attention to literature. To prosecute his studies with more advantage, he went to the university of Padua, where he was soon after elected deputy to the rector, and syndic to the students. He continued his medical studies with zeal and success; and after having acquired the necessary qualifications, he was admitted to the degree of doctor of physic in 1578. Soon after this he left the university, and settled as a physician in Campo San Pietro, a small town in the Paduan territory, at the invitation of its citizens.
In the course of his studies he had paid particular attention to plants, and had become an enthusiast in botanical science; but the sphere of his present practice was too limited to afford him much opportunity of prosecuting his favourite study. He wished particularly to extend his knowledge of exotic plants; and considered that the only means of attaining this was to study their economy and habits in their native soil. To gratify this laudable curiosity an opportunity soon presented itself. George Eno, the consul for the Venetian republic in Egypt, appointed Alpini his physician. They sailed from Venice in September 1580, and, after experiencing a tedious and dangerous voyage, arrived at Grand Cairo in the following year. Alpini spent three years in Egypt, and, by his industry and assiduity, greatly improved his botanical knowledge, having travelled along the banks of the Nile, visited every place, and consulted every person from whom he expected any new information. From a practice in the management of date-trees, which he observed in this country, Alpini seems to have deduced the doctrine of the sexual difference of plants, which was adopted as the foundation of the celebrated system of Linnæus. He says, that "the female date-trees, or palms, do not bear fruit unless the branches of the male and female plants are mixed together; or, as is generally done, unless the dust found in the male sheath, or male flowers, is sprinkled over the female flowers."
When Alpini returned to Venice in 1586, he was appointed physician to Andrea Doria, prince of Meli; and during his residence at Genoa, he was esteemed the first physician of his age. The Venetians were unwilling that the Genoese state should number among its citizens a person of such distinguished merit and reputation; and in the year 1593 he was recalled to fill the botanical chair in the university of Padua, with a salary of 200 florins, which was afterwards augmented to 750. He discharged the duties of his professorship for many years with great reputation, till his declining health interrupted his labours. He died in 1617, in the 64th year of his age, and was succeeded as botanical professor by one of his sons. Alpini wrote the following works in Latin:—1. De Medicina Ægyptiorum libri iv. Venice, 1591, 4to; 2. De Plantis Ægypti liber, Venice, 1592, 4to; 3. De Balsamo Dialogus, Venice, 1592, 4to; ALP
4. De Pressagienda Vita et Morte Ægrotantium libri vii. Venice, 1601, 4to; 5. De Medicina Methodica libri xiii. Padua, 1611, folio; 6. De Rhapontico Disputatio, Padua, 1612, 4to. Of all these works there have been various editions given to the world; and, besides these, two posthumous treatises were published by his son: 1. De Plantis Exoticis libri ii. Venice, 1627, 4to; 2. Historiae Naturalis Ægypti libri iv. Lugd. Bat. 1635, 4to. Several other works of Alpini remain in manuscript.