Afonso IV of Portugal

Afonso IV (; 8 February 129128 May 1357), called the Brave , was King of Portugal from 1325 until his death in 1357. He was the only legitimate son of King Denis of Portugal and Elizabeth of Aragon.

Early life Afonso, born in Lisbon, was the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne. However, he was not Denis' favourite son, even nearly beginning conflict against him. Instead, the old king preferred his illegitimate son, Afonso Sanches. The notorious rivalry between the half-brothers led to civil war several times. On 7 January 1325, Afonso IV's father died and he became king, whereupon he exiled his rival, Afonso Sanches, to Castile, and stripped him of all the lands and fiefdom given by their father. From Castile, Afonso Sanches orchestrated a series of attempts to usurp the crown. After a few failed attempts at invasion, the brothers signed a peace treaty, arranged by Afonso IV's mother, Elizabeth.

In 1309, Afonso married Beatrice of Castile, daughter of King Sancho IV of Castile and María de Molina. The first-born of this union was a daughter, Maria of Portugal.

King of Portugal and Algarve In 1325 Alfonso XI of Castile entered a child-marriage with Constanza Manuel of Castile, the daughter of one of his regents. Two years later, he had the marriage annulled so he could marry Afonso's daughter, Maria of Portugal. Maria became Queen of Castile in 1328 upon her marriage to Alfonso XI, who soon became involved publicly with a mistress. Afonso died almost immediately after, in Lisbon in May.

Afonso IV's nickname the Brave alludes to his martial exploits. However, his most important accomplishments were the relative peace enjoyed by the country during his long reign and the support he gave to the Portuguese Navy. Afonso granted public funding to raise a proper commercial fleet and ordered the first Portuguese maritime explorations. The conflict with Pedro, and the explorations he initiated, eventually became the foundation of the Portuguese national epic, Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões.

The dramatic circumstances of the relationship between father, son and Inês was used as the basis for the plot of more than twenty operas and ballets. The story with its tragic dénouement is immortalized in several plays and poems in Portuguese, such as Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões (canto iii, stanzas 118–135), and in Spanish, including Nise lastimosa and Nise laureada (1577) by Jerónimo Bermúdez, Reinar despues de morir by Luis Vélez de Guevara, as well as a play by French playwright Henry de Montherlant called La Reine morte (The Dead Queen). Mary Russell Mitford also wrote a drama based on the story entitled Inez de Castro. Inês de Castro is a novel by Maria Pilar Queralt del Hierro in Spanish and Portuguese.

Marriage and descendants On 12 September 1309, Afonso married Beatrice of Castile, daughter of Sancho IV of Castile, and María de Molina, and had four sons and three daughters. Afonso broke the tradition of previous kings and did not have any children out of wedlock.

Maria of Portugal, Queen of Castile (131318 January 1357), was the wife of Alfonso XI of Castile, and mother of the future King Peter of Castile. Due to the affair of her husband with his mistress Eleanor de Guzmán "it was an unfortunate union from the start, contributing to dampening the relations of both kingdoms"; Afonso (1315–1317), died in his infancy. Buried at the disappeared Convento das Donas of the Dominican Order in Santarém; Denis (born 12 February 1317), died a few months after his birth, and was buried in Alcobaça Monastery; Peter I of Portugal (8 April 132018 January 1367), the first surviving male offspring, he succeeded his father. When his wife Constanza died in 1345, Beatrice took care of the education of the two orphans, the infantes Maria and Ferdinand, who later reigned as King Ferdinand I of Portugal; Isabel (21 December 132411 July 1326), buried at the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra; John (23 September 132621 June 1327), buried at the Monastery of São Dinis de Odivelas; Eleanor of Portugal, Queen of Aragon (1328–1348), born in the same year as her sister Maria's wedding, she married King Peter IV of Aragon in November 1347 and died a year after her marriage, succumbing to the Black Death.