Henry I of Portugal

Henry ( ; 31 January 1512 – 31 January 1580), dubbed the Chaste and the Cardinal-King , was King of Portugal and an inquisitor and cardinal of the Catholic Church, who ruled Portugal between 1578 and 1580. As a clergyman, he was bound to celibacy, and as such, had no children to succeed him, and thus put an end to the reigning House of Aviz. His death led to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and ultimately to the 60-year Iberian Union that saw Portugal share a monarch with Habsburg Spain. The next independent monarch of Portugal would be John IV, who restored the throne after 60 years of Spanish rule. He was the only cardinal to have served as a monarch.

Life Born in Lisbon, Henry was the fifth son of King Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon.

Cardinal As the younger brother of King John III of Portugal and a younger son in the Royal Family, Henry was not expected to succeed to the Portuguese throne. Early in his life, Henry took Holy Orders to promote Portuguese interests within the Catholic Church, then dominated by Spain. In 1523, at the age of eleven, the Infante received his first ecclesiastical benefice. He rose rapidly through the Church hierarchy, becoming in quick succession Archbishop of Braga, Archbishop of Évora, and Grand Inquisitor before being made a cardinal on 16 December 1545, with titular custodianship of Santi Quattro Coronati. From 1564 to 1570 he was Archbishop of Lisbon. Henry, more than anyone, endeavoured to bring the Jesuits to Portugal to encourage their activity in the colonial empire. Death and succession The Cardinal-King died in the Royal Palace of Almeirim, on his 68th birthday, without having appointed a successor, leaving only a regency to care for the kingdom. One of the closest dynastic claimants was King Philip II of Spain who, in June 1580, sent the Duke of Alba to claim Portugal by force. Lisbon soon fell, and Philip was elected king of Portugal at the Portuguese Cortes of Tomar in 1581— on the condition that the kingdom and its overseas territories would retain their autonomy. Ancestry