Peter of Portugal

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Peter von Portugal KG (born December 9, 1392 ; † May 20, 1449 ) was Prince of Portugal from the House of Avis and first Duke of Coimbra . He ruled Portugal as Prince Regent from 1439 to 1449.

Life

Peter, Duke of Coimbra, Regent of Portugal

Peter was born on December 9, 1392, the third son of John I of Portugal and his wife Philippa of Lancaster . He was thus a brother of the Portuguese King Edward I , as well as of Henry the Navigator .

In his youth he wanted to get to know the world and went on a ten-year journey to the "seven ends of the world" ("viagem pelas sete partidas do mundo"), where he met many of those in power at the time. He left Lisbon in 1418 and first went to Valladolid , where he met the King of Castile (his cousin). Then he went to Hungary , where he was received by King Sigismund . For this he fought in the Hussite War in Bohemia . In 1424 he traveled to Cyprus and from there to Palestine . In Rome , he was by Pope Martin V received. His journey continued to Flanders and then to the island of Patmos, where he met Sultan Murad II of the Ottomans . He then visited Constantinople , Alexandria , Cairo , traveled from there to Paris , Denmark and finally to London , where he was received by King Henry IV .

Back in Flanders, he arranged the wedding of his sister Elisabeth to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy . Peter stayed in Flanders for two years, mainly in Bruges . In Venice he was received by the Doge , who gave him a copy of Marco Polo's travelogue “ Il Milione ” . Peter passed this book on to his brother Heinrich the Navigator, along with a map of the world (mapa mundi) received from Emperor Sigismund, to whom these documents may have been very helpful in planning his expeditions. He finally traveled back to Portugal via Rome, where he was again received by the Pope, and in 1428 he returned to Coimbra.

In 1438 his brother, the Portuguese King Edward I, died of the plague . This was followed by his son Alfons V , the nephew of Peter of Portugal, who was still a minor at the time of his father's death, so that a regency was necessary.

The coat of arms of the Duke of Coimbra

In this case, Edward I had appointed his widow as regent in his will. However, Peter managed to oust them from the reign after a short time and he succeeded in getting his reign twice approved by the Cortes. During his ten-year reign he strengthened the central royal power at the expense of the nobility.

Even after Alfons was declared of legal age in 1446, Peter did not want to give up the reign and initially strengthened his position by the fact that he succeeded in marrying his own daughter to the young king. The king then allied himself with the Duke of Braganza , who led the aristocratic opposition in the country against the centralization tendencies in Portuguese politics promoted by Prince Regent Peter. The king's mother also supported him against Peter and brought him the support of Aragon . With this assistance, Alfonso V finally succeeded in defeating his uncle and father-in-law in the battle of Alfarrobeira in 1449, in which Peter fell.

family

In 1429 Peter of Portugal married Elisabeth (Isabel) of Aragón (* 1409; † 1443), daughter of Count James II of Urgell , with whom he had the following children:

monument

His statue can be seen in the Padrão dos Descobrimentos near Lisbon.

See also

personal data
SURNAME Peter of Portugal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prince of Portugal and first Duke of Coimbra
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1392
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1449