Click
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HENRY’S SCHOOL OF
NAVIGATION AT SAGRES (Sacred Rock)
Chapter 3
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Like a finger pointing out to sea, the Promontory of Sagres (aerial view of campus) at the southwest extremity of Portugal, where Prince Henry founded the School of Navigation.
Even before Prince Henry was born, (1394), Portugal had already shown a maritime vocation due to its long shore line (500 miles) and natural bays. King Dinis had founded the Portuguese Navy in 1317. The same Monarch ordered to be sown the large Leiria pine forest so that the kingdom could be supplied with enough wood for naval construction. He also founded Coimbra University in 1290, and nationalized the Order of Templars converting them into the Portuguese Order of Christ. These developments created the setting which led Portugal to conduct her sea explorations.
The greatest desire of all the noble Princes of Portugal, as in the rest of Europe, was to receive the rites of knighthood on the battlefield. King John I once planned a tournament with pennants and fanfare to be held in Lisbon (circa 1412). Here, his three sons, Dom Duarte (later King), Dom Pedro (the Traveler) and Dom Henrique (the Navigator,) were to be knighted after participating in mock warfare begun at the end of a pompous ceremony. But, the young Princes preferred to fight in real combat rather than take part in ‘festas” or accept invitations to socialize. To satisfy the wishes of his Sons, who insisted on proving themselves in battle, King John I proposed an alternative. He suggested the idea of a strong attack on Granada, the Moorish Kingdom bordering Algarve, which was a perpetual affront to the Christians.
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MAP IN THREE DIMENSIONS: King John I and his three sons (Duarte, Pedro, and Henry) are shown a full scale model of the city of Ceuta. The king had previously sent a ship to Ceuta to gather information . Upon returning, the spies built a complete model of Ceuta by using sand for the peninsula, beans for the buildings, and thread to represent the city walls.
The King’s advisors, and his young and restless sons finally persuaded him to conquer instead, the Moorish City of Ceuta near Gibraltar, which was the principal haunt of pirates and a constant hindrance to commerce between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
The preparations for the armada to Ceuta took three years to complete (1412-1415) There was a general mobilization. In spite of all the ongoing naval construction and military preparations the destination of the armada was kept a secret. On August 21, 1415, with a fleet of two hundred vessels and twenty thousand men, the Portuguese captured Ceuta, a City “rich and opulent, full of every luxury in precious markets”.
Thus, the young Princes became Knights in Africa. The news of the capture of Ceuta caused a tremendous sensation throughout the Christian world. But more important, it gave Prince Henry the inspiration to create a School of Navigation aimed at obtaining directly from India, the ivory, spices, and riches he had seen in Ceuta.
Upon returning from Ceuta, Prince Henry decided to collect methodically, all the valuable information concerning the mysteries of the Moslem world. For this, he “brought to Lisbon many Jews and Moors with the knowledge of the remote provinces, and the coasts and seas contiguous to them”. In the meantime, Infante Dom Pedro had traveled throughout Europe collecting nautical information and establishing diplomatic contacts which proved to be quite beneficial to the discoveries.
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From 1415 until his death in 1460 — married to the idea of sea exploration — Prince Henry invited and attracted to his School of Navigation, situated first in Lisbon, and later in Sagres, the foremost scholars in mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and those that were experts regarding the compass, the astrolabe, water currents, and the winds. Pooling together and applying all this theoretical knowledge, the most important practical accomplishment of Prince Henry’s School of Navigation was the invention of the caravel. The acquisition of the caravel eliminated the problem of feeding the large crew in the galley-type ships and allowed navigators to make long voyages across the high seas. By reducing the size of the crew considerably, more food could be stored and longer voyages made Possible. The caravel was the first ship used by man that could tack against the wind.
Prince Henry spent his entire fortune to maintain his school. He exhausted the coffers of the rich Order of Christ, but never diminish ed in his perseverance while urging his captains to explore further into the unknown seas. The Villa do Infante (Prince Henry’s Town) was specially built as the campus of the School of Navigation. The style of campus buildings is characteristic of Northern Portugal where Prince Henry was born and does not follow the Algarve architecture.
With the return of Gil Eanes in 1434, after having passed the Cape of Bojador, or Fearsome Cape, the cold reasoning and scientific know edge of Prince Henry had finally triumphed. Gone were the superstitions and legends of 1)oilmg oceans and (lark sinister seas with monsters which haunted humanity for centuries.
When Prince Henry died, his sailors had already reached the Gulf of Guinea near the Equator. By this time they had sailed beyond the site of the North Star. which had guided their ships in the North Atlantic, but they encountered the constellation of the Southern Cross where the South Star served to orient their course through the South Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope.
Never before in the history of mankind had a civilization gone through so man large scale changes as during the period of the discoveries. Europe was brought into contact, for the first time, with strange civilizations, new races, and unknown islands. Huge Continents, vast oceans, and even constellations never seen before by the Europeans were discovered.
Very few men had such an impact on the history of the world as Prince Henry. He had the foresight to form his Nautical School at Sagres and make it the scientific center of the world, thereby launching:... "Humanity’s first systematic work in the science of exploration"
Continental Portugal During The Discoveries
VIANA. (Viana do Castelo). A city involved in the explorations, and today a fishing center.
BARCELOS. A noble city where the house of Manuel Pinheiro (1448) is today a National Monument. The Mirandęs type of red bulls is bred in this region.
BRAGA. The religious center before Portugal’s independence; birthplace of the Portuguese Order of Templars.
GUIMARĂES. The first capital of Portugal.
PORTO (OPORTO). The city of port wine, where Prince Henry was born. It gave its name to Portugal, and launched the first expedition to conquer Ceuta (1415).
AVEIRO. A city greatly involved in cod fishing off Newfoundland even to this day.
VISEU. Prince Henry was duke of Viseu.
COIMBRA. The University City of Portugal. The University was founded in 1290 by King Dinis.
PINHAL DE LEIRIA. Leiria pine forest, ordered sown by King Dinis to supply wood for naval construction.
TOMAR. Permanent headquarters of the Portuguese Order of Christ, which furnished the funds and navigators for the discoveries.
LISBOA (LISBON). The capital, became the Cape Kennedy of the Discoveries from which all the caravels departed for the unknown lands and seas.
SETUBAL A commercial fishing city from the time of the discoveries to this (lay.
ALGARVE Province where most of the preparations for the discoveries took place (luring Prince Henry’s lifetime. SAGRES Promontory of Sagres, where Prince Henry founded his nautical School and a town named after him. It is the southernmost part of Portugal.
LAGOS The nearest port to the school of navigation.
FARO. The capital of the province of Algarve.
TAVIRA. The hometown of the Corte Real Family in Algarve.
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This map shows the extension of Portuguese exploration at the time of Prince Henry's death in 1460
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MONUMENT TO THE “TRIPEIROS” (tripe-eaters). The people of Oporto volunteered to eat the entrails (guts) of cattle so that the war fleet of 1415 could take the supply of salt-preserved meat on their voyage to Ceuta. Since then the people of Oporto have been called the “gut-eaters”, or “tripeiros.”
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Prince Henry observing his plans with cartographers.
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The house in Oporto where Prince Henry was born on march 4, 1394