The Kingdom of the Algarve ( Portuguese: ''Reino do Algarve'', from the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

Gharb al-Andalus Gharb al-Andalus ( ar, غرب الأندلس, trans. ''gharb al-ʼandalus''; "west of al-Andalus"), or just al-Gharb ( ar, الغرب, trans. ''al-gharb''; "the west"), was the name given by the Muslims of Iberia to the region of southern mode ...

'' ), after 1471 Kingdom of the Algarves ( Portuguese: ''Reino dos Algarves''), was a nominal kingdom within the

Kingdom of Portugal The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kn ...

, located in the southernmost region of continental Portugal. It was a dominion of the Portuguese Crown and supposedly a kingdom apart from Portugal, though in fact the "Algarvian kingdom" had no institutions, special privileges, or autonomy. The Algarve was politically very similar to the rest of the Portuguese provinces, and "King of the Algarve" was just an honorific title, based on the Algarve's history as the last area of Portugal to be conquered from the

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct o ...

during the Portuguese

Reconquista The ' ( Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Na ...

. The title ''King of Silves'' was first used by

Sancho I of Portugal Sancho I of Portugal (), nicknamed "the Populator" ( pt, "o Povoador"), King of Portugal (Coimbra, 11 November 115426 March 1211) was the second but only surviving legitimate son and fifth child of Afonso I of Portugal by his wife, Maud of Savo ...

after the first conquest of the Algarvian city of Silves in 1189. At the time of his grandson,

Afonso III of Portugal Afonso III (; rare English alternatives: ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse''), or ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese), ''Alfonso'' or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin), the Boulonnais ( Port. ''o Bolonhês''), King of Portugal ( ...

(1210 – 1279), the rest of the Algarve had finally been conquered, so "King of Portugal and the Algarve" then became a part of the titles and honours of the Portuguese Crown.

History

Reconquista

During the

, Portuguese and Castilian conquests went south, to retake lands that had been conquered by Muslim armies in the 8th century. Portugal conquered and secured much of its southern borders during the reigns of King

Sancho II of Portugal Sancho II (; 8 September 1209 – 4 January 1248), nicknamed the Cowled or the Capuched ( pt, o Capelo), alternatively, the Pious ( pt, o Piedoso), was King of Portugal from 1223 to 1248. He was succeeded on the Portuguese throne by his br ...

and King

First conquest

In 1189, King

conquered Silves, one of the most prosperous cities in Al-Andalus, aligned at the time with the

Almohad Caliphate The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire fo ...

. Portuguese control over Silves would be short, with the

Almohads The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire fo ...

conquering the city again in 1191 in a massive counter-attack led by Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur the Almohad Caliph in person.

The conquest of the Algarve

With the decline of the Almohads, the southern

taifa The ''taifas'' (singular ''taifa'', from ar, طائفة ''ṭā'ifa'', plural طوائف ''ṭawā'if'', a party, band or faction) were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), r ...

city-states united under a single Emir, Mûsâ Ibn Muhammad Ibn Nassir Ibn Mahfûz, former governor of Niebla, and known among the Christians as ''Aben Mafom''. Ibn Mafûz, King of Niebla and Emir of the Algarve, trying to counter the achievements of the Portuguese in their territories, declared himself a

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. ...

Alfonso X of Castile Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, es, el Sabio; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Kingdom of Galicia, Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the April 1257 Imperial election, election of 1257, ...

(who thus titled himself the King of the Algarve). Through his vassals, Alfonso X hoped to claim dominion over the Algarve not yet conquered by the Portuguese. The Emir's vow of vassalage to Castille however did not stop the knights of the

Order of Santiago The Order of Santiago (; es, Orden de Santiago ), is a religious and military order founded in the 12th century. It owes its name to the Patron Saint of Spain, "Santiago" (St. James the Greater). Its initial objective was to protect the pilgri ...

, under the command of the Grand-Master Paio Peres Correia, from conquering most of the region city by city, between 1242 and 1249, including Silves. In March 1249, King

captured Faro, the last Muslim stronghold in Algarve, ending the Portuguese Reconquista. The entitlement of Afonso III of Portugal as ''King of Portugal and the Algarve'' would serve as a reaction to Alfonso X of Castile's claim to the Algarve, and was designed to demonstrate the rights of the Portuguese monarch in the region concerned. The issue between the sovereigns of Castille and Portugal was eventually settled by the Treaty of Badajoz (1267), where King Alfonso X gave up his claims of the Algarve, making his grandson Dinis the heir to the throne of the Algarve, which dictated the terms of its incorporation into the Portuguese crown. The treaty, though, allowed the use of the title of ''King of the Algarve'' by King Alfonso X and his descendants, since King Alfonso X had acquired the territories of ''Al-Gharb Al-Andalus'' on the other side of the

Guadiana river The Guadiana River (, also , , ), or Odiana, is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from the e ...

. The kings of Castile, and then Spain, would add the title to their repertoire of titles until the ascent of Queen Isabel II of Spain to the throne.

Age of Discovery

During the

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafari ...

, many voyages started from the Algarve, mainly those funded by

Prince Henry the Navigator ''Dom'' Henrique of Portugal, Duke of Viseu (4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator ( pt, Infante Dom Henrique, o Navegador), was a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and in the 15t ...

(Infante D. Henrique). Prince Henry also set up his school of navigation at

Sagres Point Sagres Point (', , from the Latin ''Promontorium Sacrum'' ‘Holy Promontory’) is a windswept shelf-like promontory located in the southwest Algarve region of southern Portugal. Only 4 km to the west and 3 km to the north lies Cape S ...

, though the idea of a real school building and campus is highly disputed. Most of the voyages set sail from

Lagos Lagos ( Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 f ...

The Algarves of either side of the sea in Africa

The name of the Algarvian Kingdom suffered some minor changes due to the Portuguese North African conquests, which were considered an extension of the kingdom of the Algarve. John I of Portugal added to the title of "King of Portugal and the Algarve", the title "Lord of Ceuta", and his grandson

Afonso V of Portugal Afonso V () (15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Afri ...

, in turn, styled himself "Lord of Ceuta and Alcacer-Ceguer in Africa" (after 1458). The 1471 conquest of Asilah, Tangiers and Larache, together with North African previous holdings, led to the creation of the title "the Algarves from either side of the sea in Africa" (Algarve d’além-mar), leaving the European Algarve to become "the Algarve behind the sea" (Algarve d’aquém-mar). Thus, it was not until 1471 that "the Kingdom of the Algarve" led to "the Kingdom of the Algarves", due to the increase of Portuguese possessions in Northern Africa, which were made as possessions of the Kingdom of the Algarve. The Portuguese monarchs therefore adopted the title that they would use until the fall of the monarchy in 1910: "Kings of Portugal and the Algarves of either side of the sea in Africa". The title would continue to be used even after the abandonment of the last North African holding in Mazagan ( Portuguese: ''Mazagão''; lost by Portugal in 1769).

19th-century conflicts

During the 19th century, a serious clash between pro-constitutionalism liberals and pro-absolutism antiliberals, caused the a civil war in Portugal (1828-1834), and in Algarve an exodus of people from the Algarvian inlands to the coastal cities. José Joaquim Sousa Reis, an antiliberal known as Remexido, fought in the inlands and attacked the coastal cities, bringing the urban population into turmoil. The turmoil of the Algarve intensified in the years between 1834 and 1838, when the Algarve saw battles on a level it had never seen before. On November 26, 1836, Miguel I of Portugal, already defeated and living in exile, named Remexido ''Governor of the Kingdom of the Algarve'' and ''Acting Commander in Chief of all the Royalist Troops, Regular and Irregular Armies, and the Operations in the South''. Remexido, however, was captured near São Marcos da Serra and shot in Faro on August 2, 1838, after being subjected to a

summary trial Summary, in law, forms many compounds as an adjective meaning "short, concise": *Summary abatement, the abatement of a nuisance without judicial proceeding, even without notice or hearing, often by a destruction of the offending thing or structure. ...

References

{{coord missing, Portugal Kingdom of Portugal History of the Algarve History of Ceuta

Kingdom the Algarve Kingdom the Algarve Kingdom the Algarve States and territories established in the 1180s States and territories disestablished in 1910 1189 establishments in Europe 12th-century establishments in Portugal 1910 disestablishments in Portugal 1st millennium in Portugal