Everything about Alphonso Iii Of Portugal totally explained
Afonso III (in
Portuguese; rare
English alternatives:
Alphonzo or
Alphonse), or
Affonso (Archaic Portuguese),
Alfonso or
Alphonso (
Portuguese-Galician) or
Alphonsus (
Latin), the
Bolognian (
Port. o Bolonhês) or the
Brave (
Port. o Bravo), the fifth
King of Portugal (
May 5 1210 in
Coimbra –
February 16 1279 in
Alcobaça,
Coimbra or
Lisbon) and the first to use the title
King of Portugal and the Algarve, since
1249. He was the second son of King
Afonso II of Portugal and his wife,
Urraca, princess of Castile; he succeeded his brother, King
Sancho II of Portugal on
4 January,
1248.
As the second son of King
Afonso II of Portugal, Afonso wasn't expected to inherit the throne, which was destined to go to his elder brother Sancho. He lived mostly in
France, where he married Matilda, the heiress of
Boulogne, in
1238, thereby becoming
Count of Boulogne. In
1246, conflicts between his brother, the king, and the church became unbearable.
Pope Innocent IV then ordered Sancho II to be removed from the throne and be replaced by the Count of Boulogne. Afonso, of course, didn't refuse the papal order and marched to Portugal. Since Sancho wasn't a popular king, the order wasn't hard to enforce; he was exiled to
Castile and Afonso III became king in
1248 after his brother's death. To ascend the throne, he abdicated from the county of Boulogne and later (
1253) divorced Matilda.
Determined not to commit the same mistakes as his brother, Afonso III paid special attention to what the middle class, composed of merchants and small land owners, had to say. In
1254, in the city of
Leiria, he held the first session of the
Cortes, a general assembly comprising the nobility, the middle class and representatives of all
municipalities. He also made laws intended to restrain the upper classes from abusing the least favoured part of the population. Remembered as a notable administrator, Afonso III founded several towns, granted the title of city to many others and reorganized public administration.
Secure on the throne, Afonso III then proceeded to make war with the
Muslim communities that still thrived in the south. In his reign the
Algarve became part of the kingdom, following the capture of
Faro—Portugal thus becoming the first Iberian kingdom to complete its
Reconquista.
Following his success against the Moors, Afonso III had to deal with a political situation arising from the borders with Castile. The neighbouring kingdom considered that the newly acquired lands of the Algarve should be Castilian, not Portuguese, which led to a series of wars between the two kingdoms. Finally, in
1267, a treaty was signed in
Badajoz, determining that the southern border between Castile and Portugal should be the River
Guadiana, as it's today.
Ancestors
Marriages and descendants
Afonso's first wife was
Matilda II of Boulogne, daughter of
Renaud, Count of Dammartin, and
Ida of Boulogne. She had two sons (Roberto and an unnamed one), but both died young. He divorced Matilda in
1253 and, in the same year, married
Beatrix of Castile, illegitimate daughter of
Alfonso X,
King of Castile, and
Maria de Guzman.
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