Manuel I of Portugal

Manuel I
King of Portugal and the Algarves of either side of the sea in Africa, Lord of Guinea and of Conquest, Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India, etc.
17th century painting of Manuel I
Reign	October 25, 1495—December 13, 1521
Coronation	October 27, 1495 in Alcácer do Sal
Predecessor	John II
Successor	John III
Spouse	Isabella, Princess of Asturias Maria of Aragon Eleanor of Habsburg
among others... Issue
Miguel da Paz, Prince of Asturias and Portugal John III of Portugal Isabella, Holy Roman Empress Beatrice, Duchess of Savoy Infante Luís, Duke of Beja Infante Fernando, Duke of Guarda and Trancoso Infante Cardinal Afonso Henry of Portugal Infante Duarte, Duke of Guimarães Infanta Maria
House	House of Aviz-Beja
Father	Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu
Mother	Infanta Beatrice of Portugal
Born	May 31, 1469(1469-05-31) Alcochete, Kingdom of Portugal
Died	December 13, 1521(1521-12-13) (aged 52) Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal
Burial	Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon, District of Lisbon, Portugal

Coat of Arms of Manuel I, according to the Livro do Armeiro-Mor c. 1509

Manuel I of Portugal, by Henrique Ferreira, 1718

Portuguese royalty
House of Aviz-Beja

Manuel I Children include    Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal and of Asturias    John III    Isabella, Holy Roman Empress    Beatrice, Duchess of Savoy    Louis, Duke of Beja    Ferdinand, Duke of Guarda and Trancoso    Cardinal-Infante Afonso    Henry    Edward, Duke of Guimarães    Maria, Lady of Viseu Grandchildren include    Anthony (illegitimate)    Maria, Duchess of Parma and Piacenza    Catherine, Duchess of Braganza Great-Great-Grandchildren include    John IV John III Children include    Maria Manuela, Princess of Portugal and of Asturias    John Manuel, Prince of Portugal Grandchildren include    Sebastian Sebastian Henry Anthony

Manuel I (Portuguese pronunciation: [mɐnuˈɛɫ]; Archaic Portuguese: Manoel I, English: Emmanuel I), the Fortunate (Port. o Venturoso), 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves (Alcochete, May 31, 1469 – December 13, 1521 in Lisbon) was the son of Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu, (1433 - 1470), by his wife, Infanta Beatriz of Portugal.

Life

His mother was the granddaughter of King John I of Portugal; his father, Prince Fernando, was the second surviving son of King Edward of Portugal, being thus the cadet brother of King Afonso V of Portugal. Manuel succeeded his first cousin King John II of Portugal, who was also his brother-in-law, in 1495.

Manuel grew up among the conspiracies of the aristocratic high nobility against king John II. He watched many people being killed and exiled. His older brother Diogo, the duke of Viseu, had been murdered in 1484 by the king himself.

Thus, when receiving a royal order in 1493 to present himself to the king, Manuel had every reason to worry. Without reason: John II wanted to name him heir to the throne, after the death of his son, Prince Afonso, and the failed attempts to legitimise Jorge, Duke of Coimbra, his illegitimate son. As a result of this stroke of luck he was nicknamed the Fortunate.

Manuel would prove a worthy successor to his cousin King John II, supporting the Portuguese exploration of the Atlantic Ocean and the development of Portuguese commerce. During his reign, the following was achieved:

• 1498 — Vasco da Gama discovers the maritime route to India
• 1500 — Pedro Álvares Cabral discovers Brazil
• 1505 — Francisco de Almeida becomes the first viceroy of India
• 1503-1515 — Afonso de Albuquerque, an admiral, secures the monopoly of the Indian ocean and Persian Gulf maritime routes for Portugal

All these events made Portugal rich on foreign trade whilst formally establishing its empire. Manuel used the wealth to build a number of royal buildings (in the Manueline style) and to attract scientists and artists to his court. Commercial treaties and diplomatic alliances were forged with China and the Persian Empire. The Pope received a monumental embassy from Portugal during his reign, designed to be a show of the newly acquired riches to all Europe.

In Manuel's reign, royal absolutism was the method of government. The Cortes (assembly of the kingdom) only met three times during his reign, always in Lisbon, the king's seat. He reformed the courts of justice and the municipal charters with the crown, modernizing taxes and the concepts of tributes and rights.

Manuel was a very religious man and invested a large amount of Portuguese income to sponsor missionaries in their journeys to the new colonies, such as Francisco Álvares, and the construction of religious buildings, such as the Monastery of Jerónimos. Manuel also endeavoured to promote another crusade, against the Turks.

His relationship with the Portuguese Jews started out well. At the outset of his reign, he released all the Jews who had been made captive during the reign of João II. Unfortunately for the Jews, he decided that he wanted to marry Infanta Isabella of Aragon, then heiress of the future united crown of Spain (widow of his nephew Prince Afonso). Ferdinand and Isabella had expelled the Jews in 1492, and would never marry their daughter to the king of a country that still tolerated their presence.

In December 1496, it was decreed that any Jew who did not convert to Christianity would be expelled from the country. However, those expelled could only leave the country in ships specified by the king. When those who chose expulsion arrived at the port in Lisbon, they were met by clerics and soldiers who used force, coercion, and promises in order to baptize them and prevent them from leaving the country. This period of time technically ended the presence of Jews in Portugal. Afterwards, all converted Jews and their descendants would be referred to as "New Christians", and they were given a grace period of thirty years in which no inquiries into their faith would be allowed; this was later to extended to end in 1534.

A popular riot in 1504 ended in the death of two thousand Jews; the leaders of this riot were executed by Manuel. In recent years, Portugal attempted to atone for the expulsion of the Jews. In a ceremony, Justice Minister José Eduardo Vera Jardim called the expulsion of Portugal's Jews a black piece of our history. The state, he said, owes Jews moral reparation for centuries of brutal persecution.(New York Times, December 6, 1996).

Isabella died in childbirth in 1498, putting a damper on Portuguese ambitions to rule in Spain, which various rulers had had since the reign of Fernando I (1367-1383). Manuel and Isabella's young son Miguel was for a period the heir apparent of Castile and Aragon, but his death in 1500 ended these ambitions. Manuel's next wife, Maria of Aragon, was also a Spanish princess, but not the oldest. This was Joanna of Castile, known as Joanna the Mad.

In 1506 the Pope Julius II gave Manuel I a Golden Rose.

The Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon houses Manuel's tomb. His son João succeeded him as king.

Ancestry

Marriages and descendants

Negotiations for a marriage between Manuel and Elizabeth of York in 1485 were halted by the death of Richard III of England. He went on to marry three times: first to Isabella of Aragon, princess of Spain and widow of the previous Crown Prince of Portugal Afonso of Portugal; then he married another princess of Spain, Maria of Aragon (his first wife's sister); and then married Eleanor of Habsburg (niece of his first two wives) who after Manuel's death married again to Francis I of France.

See also

• Manueline, an architectural style