ALFONSO IV, RE DI PORTOGALLO, DETTO IL BRAVO

ALFONSO IV, king of PORTUGAL, called the Brave. — Nephew of the preceding 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 relatives and the people. With his son-in-law Alfonso XI of Castile he defeated the Saracens at the Battle of Salado (1340). Ecclesiastical policy did not undergo the fluctuations that had marked the reigns of his predecessors; yet he insisted that the clergy maintain perfect discipline and strict conformity to the laws issued in the Decretals, under penalty of punishment by royal authority, despite their status as ecclesiastics. He died in 1357.