Sebastian of Portugal
Encyclopedia : S : SE : SEB : Sebastian of Portugal
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Sebastian I "the Desired" (in Portuguese, Sebastião I, pron. IPA /sɨβɐʃ'tiɐ̃ũ/, o Desejado; born in Lisbon, January 20, 1554; died at Alcazarquivir, August 4, 1578) was the sixteenth king of Portugal and Algarves. He was the son of Prince John of Portugal and his wife, Joan of Habsburg, and was the grandson of John III.
Sebastian became heir to the throne on the death of his father in 1554 (two weeks before his birth), and succeeded to the throne three years later. As Sebastian was still an infant, the regency was handled first by his Spanish grandmother, Catherine of Habsburg, and then by his great uncle, Cardinal Henry of Evora. This period saw continued Portuguese colonial expansion in Angola, Mozambique, and Malacca, as well as the annexation of Macau (in 1557).
Sebastian was a fragile boy, a result of marriages within the same family for many generations. For example, he only had four great-grandparents (instead of the normal eight), three of whom were descendants of King John I, one of them through both parents. There were cases of madness in the family, perhaps the most famous example of which was that of his great-grandmother, Queen Joanna of Castile, "the Mad".
The young king grew up under the guidance and heavy influence of the Jesuits. He was a mystic who spent long periods either hunting or fasting. He also convinced himself that he was to be a great captain for Jesus in a glorious crusade against the expansion of Turkish power in North Africa. In fact, during the last years of John III, Potuguese troops withdrew from their fortresses in Morocco and this withdraw made possible for the Turkish Empire to make conquering advances against that territory. This would open a second front on the everlasting conflict between the Turks and the Christians.
Almost immediately upon attaining his majority, and despite having no son and heir, Sebastian began plans for a great crusade against Fez. His plans were backed by the anti-turkish Moroccan factions. Sebastian's uncle, Philip II of Spain refused to be party to the plan, though he promissed to send an expeditionary force that never showed up, and postponed Sebastian's imminent marriage to a Spanish princess. The Portuguese army, mostly consisting of foreign mercenaries, crossed into Morocco in 1578, and, against the advice of his commanders, Sebastian marched deep inland to join his Moroccan allies. At Alcazarquivir (Field of the Three Kings) the Portuguese army was routed by Ahmed Mohammed of Fez, and Sebastian was almost certainly killed in battle. Despite the warnings and pleas of several of his subjects for him to flee and escape the battle, he just rode into the enemy lines where he was last seen battling wildly. His body was never found, so for the Portuguese people, he just disappeared.
He then passed into legend as a great Portuguese patriot, the "sleeping king" who would return to help Portugal in its darkest hour; similar to the British King Arthur or the German Frederick Barbarossa. During the time of Spain's occupation of Portugal, between 1580 and 1640, four different pretenders claimed to be the returned King Sebastian; the last of these pretenders, who was in fact an Italian, was hanged in 1619. Even as late as the 19th century, Sebastianist peasants in the Brazilian sertão believed that the king would return to help them in their rebellion against the "godless" Brazilian republic.
Sebastian was succeeded as king by his uncle Henry.
Ancestors
| Sebastian of Portugal | Father: João, Crown Prince of Portugal | Father's father: John III of Portugal | Father's father's father: Manuel I of Portugal |
| Father's father's mother: Maria of Aragon | |||
| Father's mother: Catarina of Spain | Father's mother's father: Philip I of Castile | ||
| Father's mother's mother: Joanna of Castile | |||
| Mother: Joan of Habsburg | Mother's father: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor | Mother's father's father: Philip I of Castile | |
| Mother's father's mother: Joanna of Castile | |||
| Mother's mother: Isabella of Portugal | Mother's mother's father: Manuel I of Portugal | ||
| Mother's mother's mother: Maria of Aragon |
See also
John III
|width="30%" align="center" rowspan=""|Succeeded by:
Henry
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