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Dom Pedro 2

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Infante D. Pedro, Duke of Coimbra KG (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpedɾu]; English: Peter), (9 December 1392 – 20 May 1449) was a Portuguese *infante* (prince) of the House of Aviz, son of King John I of Portugal and his wife Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt. In Portugal, he is better known as Infante D. Pedro das Sete Partidas [do Mundo], "of the Seven Parts [of the World]" because of his travels. Possibly the best-travelled prince of his time, he was regent between 1439 and 1448. He was also 1st Lord of Montemor-o-Velho, Aveiro, Tentúgal, Cernache, Pereira, Condeixa and Lousã.

Early life

On 14 August 1415, he accompanied his father and brothers Edward and Henry for the Battle of Ceuta in Morocco. His mother had died the previous month, giving each of her sons on her deathbed an arming sword she had ordered forged for them. Peter refused to be knighted before showing valour in battle, and he was knighted along with his brothers the following day; he was also created Duke of Coimbra. His younger brother Henry was made Duke of Viseu. These were the first dukedoms created in Portugal.From the time he was born, Peter was one of John I's favourite sons. Along with his siblings, he received an exceptional education rarely seen in those times for the children of royalty. Close to his brothers Edward, the future king of Portugal, and John, Lord of Reguengos de Monsaraz, Peter grew up in a calm environment free of intrigues.

On finishing a translation of Seneca's De Beneficiis in 1418, he initiated extensive travels throughout Europe, which would keep him away from Portugal for the next ten years. After meeting with John II of Castile in Valladolid, he continued to Hungary, where he met with the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, and entered his service. He fought with the Imperial armies against the Turks and in the Hussite Wars in Bohemia and was awarded the march of Treviso in Northern Italy in 1422. In 1424 he left the Holy Roman Empire, meeting first with Murad II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, on the island of Patmos, and then continuing to Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire; the hopeless position of the city against the Ottoman onslaught did not fail to impress him. From Constantinople he travelled to the Holy Land via Alexandria and Cairo.

European travels

In 1425, Peter travelled to France and England and visited the universities of Paris and Oxford before arriving in Flanders in 1426, where he spent the next two years at the Burgundian court. After the death of the second wife of Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1425, Peter recommended his sister Isabella to him as a wife. Philip sent a delegation to Portugal in 1428–29 that included Jan van Eyck, who painted two portraits of the Infanta. Philip and Isabella eventually married on 7 January 1430, and one of their sons became Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy.

In 1427, Peter wrote a famous letter to his older brother, later King Edward, on "the proper administration of the kingdoms", from Bruges. Later that year, King Henry VI of England (his first cousin once removed) made him a Knight of the Garter (as were already his father and older brother Edward).

In 1428, Peter visited his marquisate of Treviso and the nearby Republic of Venice, where he was presented with a copy of the book of Marco Polo by the doge. He later gave that book, as well as maps of the Venetian trade routes in the Orient, to his younger brother Prince Henry the Navigator. One of the maps was created by the famous Venetian cartographer Albertinus de Virga in 1411 and possibly shows North America before it was officially discovered. This map was found in the Alcobaça Monastery which was the main library of the Portuguese Royal family. From Venice he traveled to Rome, where he was received by Pope Martin V, and from there he continued to Barcelona, where he negotiated the marriage of his brother Edward with Eleanor of Aragon as well as his own future marriage with Isabella of Urgell, before finally returning to Portugal.

Effigy of Peter, Duke of Coimbra, in the Monument of the Discoveries, in Lisbon, Portugal.

In 1433, he completed his famous six-volume work, the Tratado da Virtuosa Benfeitoria.

Regent

When Peter's brother King Edward I of Portugal died in 1438, Peter's nephew Afonso V ascended the throne as an infant. At first, the choice for regent was the Queen mother Eleanor of Aragon. This choice was not popular among many Portuguese, because Eleanor was Aragonese. In a meeting of the Portuguese Cortes summoned by Peter's brother John, Lord of Reguengos de Monsaraz, Peter was appointed regent of the kingdom during the minority of his nephew Afonso V, a choice that pleased both the people and the fast-growing bourgeoisie.

Inside the Portuguese aristocracy, however, especially among nobles around Peter's half-brother Afonso, Count of Barcelos, Eleanor of Aragon was preferred, and there were doubts about Peter's political ability. A "war of influences" started, and a few years later, Afonso of Barcelos managed to become young King Afonso V's favourite uncle.

In 1443, in a gesture of reconciliation, Peter created his half-brother Afonso Duke of Braganza, and relations between the two seemed to return to normality. But, in 1445, the new duke of Braganza took offence because Isabella of Coimbra, Peter's daughter was the choice for Afonso V's wife, and not one of his granddaughters. Indifferent to the intrigues, Peter continued his regency and the country prospered under his influence. It is during this period that the first subsidies for the exploration of the Atlantic Ocean were implemented under the auspices of Peter's brother Henry the Navigator.

Alleged Rebellion

On 9 June 1448, Afonso V came of age and Peter returned control of the country to the king. Influenced by Afonso, the Duke of Braganza, Afonso V nullified all of Peter's edicts, including the ones that concentrated power in the figure of the king.

The following year, under accusations that years later would prove false, Afonso V declared Peter a rebel. The situation became unsustainable and a civil war began. It did not last long, because Peter died on 20 May 1449 during the Battle of Alfarrobeira, near Alverca. The exact conditions of his death are debatable: some say it was in combat, while others say he was assassinated by one of his own men.

With the death of Peter, Portugal fell under control of Afonso, Duke of Braganza, with a growing influence over the destiny of the country. However, Peter's regency would never be forgotten, and Peter was cited many times by his grandson King John II of Portugal as his main influence. The cruel persecution of the Braganzas by John II was perhaps the response to the conspiracies that caused the fall of one of the major princes of the Ínclita Geração.

Marriage and issue

The Duke of Coimbra's arms.

In 1429 Peter married Isabella of Urgell, daughter of James II, Count of Urgell, and candidate to the throne of the Crown of Aragon at the Compromise of Caspe. The couple had the following children:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter,_Duke_of_Coimbra

Knowledge Web Content (see main node)

NAME:

Pedro, lst Duke of Coimbra

ACHIEVEMENTS:

Ruled Portugal as Regent. Encouraged maritime exploration

NICKNAME/ALIAS:

Dom Pedro

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:

9 December 1392, Lisbon, Portugal

DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:

20 May 1449, Alfarrobeira, Portugal. Aged 57

DISCIPLINE:

Regent

FIELD:

Monarchy

LANGUAGE:

Portuguese

PARENTS:

Father: King John I of Portugal

Mother: Philippa of Lancaster

SIBLINGS:

4 brothers: Duarte, Henry, Fernando, John

1 sister: Isabel

SPOUSE:

Isabel of Urgel

CHILDREN:

4 sons, 3 daughters

EDUCATION:

Private tutors

MAJOR WORK:

None

LIFE AND TIMES:

Pedro was brought up in his father’s court in Lisbon where he was imbued with the chivalrous ideals of the times and a strong Christian faith. While still in his teens he was sent to the Alentejo to recruit, equip and train forces for the  Portuguese expedition to take Ceuta in north Africa from the Muslims.  After the successful expedition, Pedro was knighted by his father and created Duke of Coimbra.  

He did not take part in the expedition of 1418 to settle an uprising in Ceuta and over the next few years little is known of his life.

He encouraged his younger brother, Henry the Navigator*, in his plans for maritime exploration although Pedro did not approve of  establishing Portuguese rule in places such as the Canary islands where Castile, a fellow Christian country, had a prior claim.

In 1425 he embarked on a tour of the other courts of  Europe. He was thirty-two years old and his main purpose was to improve his knowledge of international affairs. His elder brother was not in good health and had not yet married.  Pedro, and many others, thought it extremely likely that he might one day become king of Portugal.

He sailed to England, his mother’s native land, and stayed three months before returning to the continent and making a stay at Bruges. During 1426 he visited Cologne to worship at the shrine of the Holy Three Kings and in the winter of that year travelled to Hungary and Rumania where he spent two years.

During this time he sought out scholars and religious men and also fought under Sigismund, the King of the Romans, against the Ottoman Turks who were encroaching on Christian kingdoms in eastern Europe. Pedro intended to visit the Christian sites in Palestine but cut his travels short on hearing that his elder brother, Duarte, was about to marry.

Pedro left Venice in spring 1428 and on his return to Portugal gave Henry a translation of  Marco Polo’s* account of his travels to the Orient which he had obtained in Italy. On his way home Pedro met Isabel of Urgel in Vallodolid in Spain and in 1429 they married. Duarte not only got married, he also had two sons, events which pushed Pedro rather a long way down the line of succession. After being received in European courts as an important and honoured guest, and a putative heir to the Portuguese throne, Pedro was disconcerted to see his ambitions thwarted.

In 1433 Duarte succeeded to the throne but when he died in 1438 Pedro made his move. Duarte’s foreign wife, Leonor, who was Aragonese, had been named regent and guardian of her infant sons. Pedro, supported by many of the population, particularly among the lower orders for whom he was a heroic figure, challenged Leonor and succeeded in taking her place. In 1439 he became Regent and by order of the Portuguese parliament took over the tutelage of the heir to the throne, Alfonso V. Pedro’s most dangerous enemy was the Count of Barcelos, his illegitimate elder half-brother, whom he attempted to mollify by creating Duke of Braganza.

During his regency Pedro participated energetically in the administration and government of the country, maintained his foreign contacts and encouraged Henry in his research and overseas exploration. But the Braganzas harrassed him at every opportunity.

Barcelos had hoped to marry his granddaughter to Alfonso V but in 1447 it was Pedro’s daughter who married the young king.  In the same year, Alfonso began governing the country for himself and quickly became a tool of the Braganza faction. Pedro withdrew to Coimbra and became the target of slanderous attempts to discredit him with the king. He also became estranged from his brother Henry who attempted to mediate between the two factions but eventually settled on loyalty to the monarch.

Pedro did manage to enlist the help of the knight Alvaro Vaz who had a reputation for heroism and Christian virtue all over Europe. Alvaro appeared at court and challenged Pedro’s enemies to personal combat,  whereupon the Braganzas promptly moved the court to Cintra where Alfonso could not be influenced by Alvaro.

They attempted to provoke Pedro into taking arms by removing his son from his position as Constable of the realm and demanding he surrender the arms he kept at Coimbra. Pedro wrote to the king and they intercepted his letters. Eventually Pedro, with Alvaro Vaz, and 6,000 troops carrying banners emblazoned with the words ‘Loyalty’, ‘Justice and Vengeance’, marched on Lisbon. He probably hoped to meet the king, still only fifteen years old, and then to reason with him.

He stopped to pray at the Abbey of Batalha where his father was buried and where his own tomb was prepared, before meeting a royal army of 30,000 at Alfarrobeira on 20 May 1449. He was killed almost immediately by a crossbow bolt. Alvara Vaz was also killed.

Europe was horrified at Pedro’s death and Alfonso was forced to send a justification for his actions to the Pope and several Christian princes. Nevertheless, he was blamed and Pedro became an honored figure in Europe. Within six years his reputation was also re-established in Portugal.

ASSESSMENT: His support for his brother, Henry the Navigator, helped to develop Portuguese seamanship and the early dominance of Portugal in trade with the east.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None

ONELINER: Dom Pedro, Regent of Portugal

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Rogers, Francis M, The Travels of the Infante Dom Pedro of Portugal, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1961