The Portuguese House of Burgundy ( pt, Casa de Borgonha) or the Afonsine Dynasty (''Dinastia Afonsina'') was a Portuguese

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

that ruled 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 kno ...

from its founding until the 1383–85 Portuguese Interregnum. The house was founded by Henry of Burgundy, who became

Count of Portugal The County of Portugal ( pt, Condado de Portugal, Condado Portucalense, Condado de Portucale; in documents of the period the name used was Portugalia) refers to two successive medieval counties in the region around Braga and Porto, today corresp ...

in 1096. His son,

Afonso Henriques Afonso I of PortugalOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', depending on the Spanish or French inf ...

, was proclaimed

King of Portugal This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution. Through the n ...

following his victory at the

Battle of Ourique The Battle of Ourique ( ar, معركة أوريكه) was a battle that took place on 25 July 1139, in which the forces of Portuguese count Afonso Henriques (of the House of Burgundy) defeated those led by the Almoravid governor of Córdoba, Muha ...

in 1139. Burgundian monarchs would rule Portugal through much of its early formation, including the formalization of the

Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and ...

under King Dinis I, the first

Portuguese parliament The Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese: ''Assembleia da República'', ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament (Portuguese: ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliament ...

, under King Afonso II, and the conquest of the

Kingdom of the Algarve The Kingdom of the Algarve (Portuguese: ''Reino do Algarve'', from the Arabic ''Gharb al-Andalus'' ), after 1471 Kingdom of the Algarves (Portuguese: ''Reino dos Algarves''), was a nominal kingdom within the Kingdom of Portugal, located in the sou ...

, under King Afonso III. Numerous princes of the house took up thrones across Europe, such as Ferdinand I, Count of Flanders and

Peter I, Count of Urgell Peter I ( pt, Pedro, ) (23 February 1187 - 2 June 1258) was the second son of King Sancho I of Portugal and his wife Dulce, infanta of Aragon, and would eventually become Count of Urgell and Lord of the Balearic Islands. Biography Peter was bo ...

. Similarly, many princesses became royal consorts, including Berengaria, Queen of Denmark, Leonor, Queen of Aragon, and Teresa, Duchess of Burgundy, among others.

History

Origins

Henry, Count of Portugal Henry (Portuguese: ''Henrique'', French: ''Henri''; c. 10661112), Count of Portugal, was the first member of the Capetian House of Burgundy to rule Portugal and the father of the country's first king, Afonso Henriques. Biographical sketch Fam ...

, a grandson in the senior line of

Robert I, Duke of Burgundy Robert I (1011 – 21 March 1076), known as Robert the Old and " fro, Tête-Hardi, lit=the Headstrong", was Duke of Burgundy from 1032 to his death. Robert was the son of King Robert II of France and Constance of Arles. His brother was Henry I ...

, had joined the

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 Nasrid ...

in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

in the late 11th century. After conquering parts of Galicia and northern Portugal on behalf of

Alfonso VI of León Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

, he married Alfonso's illegitimate daughter,

Teresa Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; french: Thérèse) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or re ...

, and was given the County of Portugal as a fief under the

Kingdom of León The Kingdom of León; es, Reino de León; gl, Reino de León; pt, Reino de Leão; la, Regnum Legionense; mwl, Reino de Lhion was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when t ...

. His son,

, became King of Portugal after defeating his mother in the

Battle of São Mamede The Battle of São Mamede ( pt, Batalha de São Mamede, ) took place on 24 June 1128 near Guimarães and is considered the seminal event for the foundation of the Kingdom of Portugal and the battle that ensured Portugal's Independence. Portugues ...

in 1128. It was only in 1179 that

Pope Alexander III Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland ( it, Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a con ...

recognized Portugal as an independent state,António Henrique R. de Oliveira Marques, ''History of Portugal: From Lusitania to Empire'', (Columbia University Press, 1972), 43. recognition, at the time, needed for total acceptance of the kingdom in the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

world. On his mother's side, Afonso I of Portugal is connected to the

Jiménez dynasty The Jiménez dynasty, alternatively called the Jimena, the Sancha, the Banu Sancho, the Abarca or the Banu Abarca,Alberto Cañada Juste, "¿Quién fue Sancho Abarca?, ''Príncipe de Viana'', 73: 79-132. was a medieval ruling family from the 9th c ...

, and through

Sancha of León Sancha of León (8 November 1067) was a princess and queen of León. She was married to Ferdinand I, the Count of Castile who later became King of León after having killed Sancha's brother in battle. She and her husband commissioned the Crucifi ...

, to the

Astur-Leonese dynasty The Asturian or Astur-Leonese dynasty (Spanish ''dinastía asturiana'' or ''astur-leonesa''), known in Arabic as the Banī Adhfūnsh ("sons of Alfonso"), was the ruling family of the kingdom of Asturias and León from 739 until 1037. Under their r ...

, making him a descendant of

Pelagius of Asturias Pelagius (; ; ; ; ''c''. 685 – 737) was a Hispano-Visigoth nobleman who founded the Kingdom of Asturias in 718. Pelagius is credited with initiating the ''Reconquista'', the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, and estab ...

. As the

Chronicle of Alfonso III The ''Chronicle of Alfonso III'' ( la, Chronica Adefonsi tertii regis) is a chronicle composed in the early tenth century on the order of King Alfonso III of León with the goal of showing the continuity between Visigothic Spain and the later Chris ...

identifies Pelagius as a grandson of

Chindasuinth Chindasuinth (also spelled Chindaswinth, Chindaswind, Chindasuinto, Chindasvindo, or Khindaswinth (Latin: Chintasvintus, Cindasvintus; 563 – 30 September 653) was Visigothic King of Hispania, from 642 until his death in 653. He succeeded Tulga, ...

, this would make Afonso I the descendant of

Liuvigild Liuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or ''Leovigildo'' (Spanish and Portuguese), ( 519 – 586) was a Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania from 568 to 586. Known for his Codex Revisus or Code of Leovigild, a law allowing equal rights between the ...

. Liuvigild was King of the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...

in the 6th Century a.C. (see Visigothic dynasty), who conquered the Suebi Kingdom, thus controlling most of the Iberian Peninsula (and all of what would be Portugal, - see

Visigothic Kingdom The Visigothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of the Goths ( la, Regnum Gothorum), was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic peoples, Germanic su ...

). On his father's side, Afonso I of Portugal is connected to the

Capetian dynasty The Capetian dynasty (; french: Capétiens), also known as the House of France, is a dynasty of Frankish origin, and a branch of the Robertians. It is among the largest and oldest royal houses in Europe and the world, and consists of Hugh Cape ...

, a branch of the

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

Robertians The Robertians (sometimes called the Robertines in modern scholarship) are the proposed Frankish family which was ancestral to the Capetian dynasty, and thus to the royal families of France and of many other countries. The Capetians appear first i ...

that goes back to

Robert II, Count of Hesbaye Robert II (Rodbert, Chrodobert) (died 12 July 807) was a Frankish nobleman who was count of Worms and of Rheingau and count of Hesbaye around the year 800. It has been proposed that he is the father of Robert III of Worms, and the earliest-known ...

in the 9th a.C.

Kings of Portugal

The kings that succeeded Afonso I continued the

of the

against 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 or ...

Afonso III 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 ( ...

conquered the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

and adopted the title of ''King of Portugal and the Algarve''. The borders of Portugal were defined in the Treaty of Alcanizes (1297) when king Dinis I, son of Afonso III, started developing the kingdom's land.

Demise

In 1383 Beatrice, princess of Portugal and heir to the throne married

John I of Castile John I ( es, Juan I; 24 August 1358 – 9 October 1390) was King of Castile and León from 1379 until 1390. He was the son of Henry II and of his wife Juana Manuel of Castile. Biography His first marriage, to Eleanor of Aragon on 18 June 1375, ...

. When Ferdinand I (her father) died during the same year the kingdom entered a period of anarchy called the 1383-1385 Crisis, threatened with a possible annexation by Castile. This period ended in 1385 with the victory of the Portuguese in the

Battle of Aljubarrota The Battle of Aljubarrota (; see Aljubarrota) was fought between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile on 14 August 1385. Forces commanded by King John I of Portugal and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira, with the support of English ...

and a new dynasty began with John I, Master of Aviz (illegitimate son of Peter I), thus called the

House of Aviz The House of Aviz (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Casa de Avis''), also known as the Joanine Dynasty (''Dinastia Joanina''), was a dynasty of Portuguese people, Portuguese origin which flourished during the Portuguese Renaissance, Renaissance ...

Burgundian monarchs

Ferdinand I of Portugal - Chronique d' Angleterre (Volume III) (late 15th C), f

Symbols

Coats of arms

Family tree of the Portuguese House of Burgundy

Footnotes

External links

(Portuguese) The Portuguese monarchs of Burgundy and their history
{{Royal houses of Portugal 1139 establishments in Europe 1383 disestablishments in Europe 14th-century disestablishments in Portugal 12th-century establishments in Portugal gl:Dinastía de Borgoña