D. Afonso Henriques
| Afonso I | |
|---|---|
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| King of Portugal | |
| Reign | 26 July 1139 – 6 December 1185 |
| Acclamation | 26 July 1139 |
| Successor | Sancho I |
| Count of Portugal | |
| Reign | 12 May 1112 – 25 July 1139 |
| Predecessor | Henry |
| Regent | Teresa of León (1112–1126) |
| Born | 1109 Coimbra, Guimarães or Viseu, Portugal |
| Died | 6 December 1185 (aged 76) Coimbra, Portugal |
| Burial | Santa Cruz Monastery, Coimbra, Portugal |
| Spouse | Mafalda of Savoy |
| Issue among others ... |
Urraca, Queen of León Sancho I Teresa, Countess of Flanders |
| House | Burgundy |
| Father | Henry, Count of Portugal |
| Mother | Teresa of León |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Afonso I (25 July 1109 – 6 December 1185), nicknamed "the Conqueror" (Portuguese: O Conquistador), "the Founder" (O Fundador) or "the Great" (O Grande) by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali [in Arabic البرتقالي] ("the Portuguese") and Ibn-Arrink [in Arabic ابن الرَّنك or ابن الرَنْق] ("son of Henry", "Henriques") by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal. He achieved the independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia, the County of Portugal, from Galicia's overlord, the King of León, in 1139, establishing a new kingdom and doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued until his death, in 1185, after forty-six years of wars against the Moors.
Afonso I was born in Coimbra, Guimarães or Viseu. He was the son of Henry of Burgundy and Theresa, the natural daughter of King Alfonso VI of León and Castile. The pair reigned jointly as Count and Countess of Portugal until Henry's death, after which Theresa reigned alone. Afonso was slightly more than two years old when his father, Count Henry, died on 22 May 1112 during the siege of Astorga. In an effort to pursue a larger share in the Leonese inheritance, his mother Theresa joined forces with Fernando Pérez de Trava, the most powerful count in Galicia.
The Portuguese nobility disliked the alliance between Galicia and Portugal and rallied around the infant Afonso. The Archbishop of Braga was also concerned with the dominance of Galicia, apprehensive of the ecclesiastical pretensions of his new rival the Galician Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Diego Gelmírez, who had claimed an alleged discovery of relics of Saint James in his town, as a way to gain power and riches over the other cathedrals in the Iberian Peninsula. In 1122, Afonso turned fourteen, the adult age in the 12th century. He made himself a knight on his own account in the Cathedral of Zamora, raised an army, and proceeded to take control of his mother's lands.
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