Travel – Portugal – Batalha

This is an excerpt from my book Travels through History : Portugal currently on sale at a discount.

On 13th August 1385, the Battle of Aljubarrota decided the future of Portugal as an independent country. Until the forces of Joao of Avis triumphed on that day, it seemed likely that the kingdom of Castile would absorb Portugal. 

On October 22, 1383, King Fernando, the last legitimate descendant of Henry of Burgundy, the founder of Portugal, died in Lisbon aged thirty-eight. This monarch’s attempt to support the Lancastrian claim to the Castilian throne had ended in disaster. Part of the price of peace had been an agreement that Fernando’s daughter, Beatriz, would marry a son of Juan I of Castile. Upon becoming a widower, Juan had violated this agreement by taking Beatriz for himself. 

In December 1383, King Juan attempted to claim his wife’s inheritance. The Portuguese might have accepted this claim had Juan not signalled his intention of uniting Portugal to Castile by adding the arms of Portugal to his own without consulting them. Talk about arrogance. It outraged the populace of Lisbon, who rose against this threat to the kingdom’s autonomy. This revolt found its leader in Joao, Master of the military order of Avis, a bastard son of Fernando’s father, Pedro. Juan invaded Portugal and laid siege to Lisbon, however because of an outbreak of pestilence, which left many of Juan’s chief officers dead, he broke off the siege. 

By March 1385, the Cortes of Coimbra had persuaded Joao to lay claim to the throne and on 5th April 5th, the Cortes acclaimed him King of Portugal. Juan I’s response was to assemble another army under new commanders. Ties of alliance bound Castile with France, and they provided Juan with a contingent of soldiers. In response to this French threat, Joao sought alliance with England, France’s opponent in the Hundred Years War.

A group of one hundred English and Welsh archers, battle-hardened from the early confrontations of the Hundred Years War, arrived to fight on the Portuguese side. The Portuguese army found a position they could defend near Aljubarrota.  When he found the Portuguese army in position, their men at arms covered by archers and javelin throwers, Juan I hesitated to order an assault; but the French commanders and the younger Spanish officers demanded action. 

Shamed into action, Juan ordered an assault. This was a mistake. On the other side, Joao made a vow to build a superb church in honour of the Virgin Mary, if she were to grant him the victory. The French troops advanced on foot against the centre of the Portuguese position, where Joao I himself and his best knights awaited. The French assault failed, as arrows and javelins rained onto them from three sides. About half of their troops fell dead, and the Portuguese captured others, later killed in contravention of the laws of chivalry of the time. The assault showed the French had still not learned the lessons from the battles of Poitiers and Crecy earlier in the century.

Juan I arrived on the battlefield with three contingents of horsemen, leaving his infantry and crossbow men behind. Unaware of the first assault’s fate, he ordered another attack. This attack lost much of its impetus because of rising ground on both flanks, which funnelled the soldiers toward the Portuguese centre, again under converging fire from arrows and javelins. The Portuguese were under the cosh and returned all their fighters to the line, but they prevailed once again. Juan I, despairing of victory, fled the field, taking refuge in Santarem before boarding a ship for Seville.