, founder of the House of Aviz.
Origins The founder of the House of Aviz, King
John I of Portugal, was born in 1357 as the illegitimate child of King
Pedro I of Portugal, a member of the
Portuguese House of Burgundy, and
Teresa Lourenço, daughter of a Lisbon merchant. In 1364, at 7 years old, John was made Grand Master of the
Order of Aviz, henceforth becoming known as John of Aviz.
Rise to the throne The House of Aviz was established as a result of the dynastic crisis following the 1383 death of Ferdinand I. Ferdinand's widow
Leonor Telles was disliked by both the nobility and the commoners for having left her first husband and for having had their marriage annulled in order to marry King Ferdinand. Ferdinand's designated heir was their only surviving child
Beatrice, married to
John I of Castile who claimed the throne in the name of his wife, on 14 August 1385, where he defeated John I of Castile. A formal peace between Portugal and Castile would not be signed until 1411. To mark his victory, John founded the Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória, known as the "
Batalha Monastery" ("Battle Monastery"), whose chapel became the burial place of the princes of the new dynasty of Aviz. The descendants of King John I were still also Masters of Aviz, though at times that title passed to one descendant of John and the Crown of Portugal to another. The title of Grand Master of the Order of Aviz was permanently incorporated into the Portuguese Crown toward the end of rule by the House of Aviz, in 1551.
Age of Discoveries , famed leader of the
Age of Discoveries and prince of the House of Aviz. The House of Aviz would rule Portugal until its fall in the 1580 to the
Philippine Dynasty. after he had ordered the
Duke of Alba to take Portugal by force. This period of Portuguese history saw the ascent of Portugal to the status of a European and world power. The conquest of
Ceuta in 1415 was its first venture in colonial expansion, followed by a great outpouring of national energy and capital investment in the exploration of
Africa,
Asia and
Brazil with the founding of colonies to exploit their resources commercially. The period also includes the zenith of the
Portuguese Empire during the reign of Manuel I and the beginning of its decline during
John III's reign.
Fall of the Aviz John III was succeeded in 1557 by his grandson
Sebastian I of Portugal, who died, aged 24 and childless, in the
Battle of Alcácer Quibir. Sebastian was succeeded by his great-uncle
Henry, aged 66, who, as a Catholic Cardinal, also had no children. The Cardinal-King Henry died two years later, and a
succession crisis occurred when pretenders to the throne including
Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, Philip II of Spain, and
António, Prior of Crato claimed the right to inherit it. at the
Battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578 led to the
Portuguese succession crisis of 1580. António, Prior of Crato, was acclaimed king in several cities around the country in 1580, twenty days before Philip II of Spain invaded Portugal and defeated the supporters of António in the
Battle of Alcântara. Although António had been proclaimed king, and was still regarded as rightful king in some of the Azores Islands until 1583, his legitimacy as a monarch is still disputed by historians. Only a small minority of historians (even in Portugal) accept the period of twenty days between Anthony's acclamation and the Battle of Alcântara as his reign. In Portugal he generally considered not as a national king, but as a patriot who led armed resistance to the Philippine domination. Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão, writing in 1956 and counting António as a king, dates the end of the dynasty's rule of Portugal as occurring in 1581–1582. The
Cortes of Tomar had acclaimed Philip II of Spain as Philip I of Portugal in 1581, subsequently António's forces were utterly defeated at sea by
Álvaro de Bazán at the
Battle of Ponta Delgada off
São Miguel Island in the Azores, on 26 July 1582. António then retreated to
Terceira, where he supervised the raising of levies for defense, but in November he left
Angra do Heroísmo en route to
France to persuade the French to furnish more troops, Philip had despatched Santa Cruz with an overwhelming force which left Lisbon on 23 June, and reaching sight of São Miguel some time after 7 July, finally reduced the Azores to subjection. The
Cortes in Tomar acknowledged Philip II of Spain as King Philip I of Portugal on 16 April 1581 after this Spanish military intervention. From 1581, the House of Aviz had ceased to rule any portion of continental Portugal;
António, Prior of Crato held out in the
Azores into 1582 as
António I of Portugal; the last of his allies in the islands finally surrendered in 1583. The House of Aviz was succeeded in Portugal by Philip's personal union of the Crowns of Portugal and Spain. In Portuguese history this is variously referred to as the Philippine Dynasty, the House of Habsburg, or the House of Austria. Portugal and Spain would share a common monarch until 1640, upon the proclamation of the
Duke of Braganza as
John IV of Portugal. ==Aviz monarchs==