ENRICO di NAVIGATORE, infante di PORTOGALLO. — Born at Oporto on 24 March 1394, died at Sagres on 13 November 1460.
Grand Master of the Military Order of Christ, he was among the principal instigators of geographical explorations in the
15th century, in which the commercial and political motive was joined by the ethical-religious one of Christianization. Among other things, he established a nautical school. At his prompting, in 1435 the African coast was explored as far as Rio de Oro; in 1441 Cape Blanco was reached; in 1445, Cape Verde. The conquest of Tangier, which he had promoted, failed.
BIBL.: J. N. L. Baker, Histoire des découvertes géographiques et des explorations, French translation, Paris 1940, p. 57 ff. and bibliography cited there.