Origins The Kingdom of Portugal finds its origins in the
County of Portugal. The Portuguese County was a semi-autonomous county of the
Kingdom of León. Independence from León took place in three stages: • The first on 26 July 1139 when
Afonso Henriques was acclaimed
King of the Portuguese by his troops after the (possibly legendary)
Battle of Ourique. • The second was on 5 October 1143, when
Alfonso VII of León and Castile recognized Afonso Henriques as king through the
Treaty of Zamora. This is generally considered the traditional founding of the kingdom in Portuguese historiography and popular imagination. • The third, in 1179, was the
Papal Bull Manifestis Probatum, in which Portugal's independence was recognized by
Pope Alexander III. Once Portugal was independent, D. Afonso I's descendants, members of the
Portuguese House of Burgundy, would rule Portugal until 1383. Even after the change in royal houses, all the monarchs of Portugal were descended from Afonso I, one way or another, through both legitimate and illegitimate links.
Medieval history Renaissance and early modern history (1415–1777) Modern history (1777–1910) Fall of the Monarchy With the start of the 20th century, Republicanism grew in numbers and support in Lisbon among progressive politicians and the influential press. However a minority with regard to the rest of the country, this height of republicanism would benefit politically from the
Lisbon Regicide on 1 February 1908. While returning from the
Ducal Palace at
Vila Viçosa,
King Charles and the
Prince Royal Luís Filipe were assassinated in the
Terreiro do Paço, in
Lisbon. With the death of the King and his heir, Charles I's second son became monarch as
King Manuel II. Manuel's reign was short-lived however, ending by force with the
5 October 1910 revolution, forcing the deposed king into immediate exile in the
United Kingdom and giving way to the
Portuguese First Republic. On 19 January 1919, the
Monarchy of the North was proclaimed in
Porto, but its inability to gain strong popular support anywhere in the rest the country, coupled with its unorganised structure, led to its swift demise and the re-establishment of republican control in the north a month later. No other monarchist counter-revolution in Portugal has occurred since. After the republican revolution in October 1910, the remaining colonies of the empire became overseas provinces of the
Portuguese Republic until the late 20th century when the last overseas territories of Portugal became independent, most notably in
Portuguese Africa where the provinces of
Angola and
Mozambique achieved independence in 1975. The
Portuguese Empire ended definitively with the handover of
Macau to
China in 1999. == Rulers ==