History of Portugal (711-1112)

History of Portugal


caption=Henry of Burgundy,
Count of Portugal.

The History of Portugal from the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 to the death of Henry of Burgundy, first count of the Second County of Portugal in 1112 is a 400-year period in which the national identity of the Portuguese people was formed and the basis for the Portuguese independence was created. This period starts with the fall of the Visigothic kingdom after Tariq ibn-Ziyad's invasion of Iberia and the establishment of the Umayyad control in the territory. During this period of Muslim presence several scientific improvements were made, namely agricultural and astronomical. These areas would be vital for Portugal's 15th century expansion. In parallel to the Muslim occupation, the Christian "Reconquista" started quickly after the invasion, by the hands of Pelayo. Amid several steps back and forward, the Christian kingdoms of Asturias, and later León, Navarre, Aragon, Galicia and Castile managed to increasingly control larger parts of the peninsula, starting from the North.

In what is today's Portuguese territory, the lands between the rivers Minho and Douro were conquered early in the "Reconquista". A vassal county of the Kingdom of Asturias emerged around the city of Portucale (today's Porto), under Count Vímara Peres. Further south, another border county was formed when more land was conquered from the moors: the County of Coimbra led by Hermenegildo Guterres. During this period, the two counties would suffer multiple attacks, with the County of Portucale being 200 years later reincorporated in the shortlived Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal, and then again into León. The County of Coimbra was shortly after reconquered by the Moors, and then recreated under count Sisnando Davides. Both territories would later be incorporated under Raymond of Burgundy's County of Galicia. Meanwhile, in the south of today's Portugal, the Umayyad control remained until the emergence of the Taifa kingdoms.

After the arrival of Henry of Burgundy, cousin of Raymond, the territories of the former counties of Portucale and Coimbra were given to him, forming the Second County of Portugal. Count Henry continued the "Reconquista" in western Iberia and expanded his county's dominions. He was also involved in several intrigues inside the Leonese court, together with his cousin Raymond and his wife Urraca of Castile, in order to assure Portuguese independence and ascension to the throne by Raymond. When he died in 1112, the population of the County of Portugal, including the powerful families, were favourable of independence, a feat that his son Afonso Henriques would accomplish years later.

Muslim invasion

After a small civil war in the already christianized Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania, King Roderic ("Rodrigo" in Portuguese and Spanish) had a strong position in the peninsula. His opponents, exiled in Ceuta, asked Musa ibn Nusair, Umayyad Muslim governor and general, for help. The initially skeptical general sent an experimental expedition mainly consisting of Moors from North and West Africa, led by Tariq ibn Ziyad, thus initiating the Muslim conquest of Iberia. Tariq utterly defeated Roderic's Visigothic army in the Battle of Guadalete, and soon after captured Toledo and Córdoba. With Tariq's success, Musa joined the expedition and established himself as governor of the new territories.

By 714 Évora, Santarém and Coimbra had been conquered, and two years later Lisbon was in Muslim control. By 718 most of today's Portuguese territory was under Umayyad rule. The Umayyads were eventually stopped in Poitiers but the Muslim presence in Iberia would last until 1492 with the fall of the Kingdom of Granada.

Early "Reconquista"

The Emirate and the Caliphate

The splitting of Asturias

The first County of Portugal

The County of Coimbra

The Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal

The taifas

Portugal under Raymond of Burgundy

The second County of Portugal

Moorish and Muslim influences

Architecture

Arts

ciences

ee also

References