Alfonso IV of Portugal, Called the Brave

ALFONSO IV, king of PORTUGAL, called the BRAVE. — Nephew of his predecessor and son of Don Dionisio, he ascended the throne in 1291. He was unpopular because of his haughty character, which in his youth had led him to rebel against his father and later, as king, to acts of great cruelty toward his family and the people. Together with his son-in-law Alfonso XI of Castile, he defeated the Saracens in the battle of Salado (1340). Ecclesiastical policy did not undergo the changes through which it had passed under the preceding kings; but he wished to demand from the clergy perfect discipline and strict conformity to the laws promulgated in the Decretals, under penalty of punishment by the royal authority, notwithstanding their status as ecclesiastics. He died in 1357.