Henry the Navigator: A Life Book

Prince Henry of Portugal (1394-1460) universally referred to as "The Navigator" achieved iconic status as one of the most important figures in the Renaissance history of exploration and discovery. According to a historical tradition established in the 19th century, Henry was responsible for despatching caravels down the African coast and immersing himself in the astronomical and geographical debates that were to prove so crucial to the subsequent development of maritime discovery. In fact, as Peter Russell explains in his exhaustive biography Prince Henry "The Navigator": A Life, this version of Henry was in fact a romantic myth, partly created by English writers keen to emphasise Henry's own English heritage (his mother was Philippa of Lancaster). Carefully reconstructing Henry's life from the sparse archival evidence that remains, Russell discovers "an obstinately enigmatic personality who seems, chameleon-like, to present a range of different images according to the various contexts in which we come across him". What emerges is a much more complex individual, able to lead the momentous Portuguese capture of Ceuta in 1415 with crusading fervour, as well as an astute coloniser of both Madeira and the Canary Islands with an eye for the commercial monopolisation of slaves and precious commodities throughout his new-found territories. Russell also carefully builds up a picture of a prince who "had always done his best to see to it that his public persona, not only in life but also posthumously, was and would be first and always that of a soldier of the Church Militant". Marshalling a lifetime's study of Spain and Portugal, Russell produces a far less likeable, but also much more realistic portrait of one of the key figures in the history of the Age of Discovery. --Jerry BrottonRead More