Henry, King of Portugal

HENRY, King of Portugal. - B. in 1512, d. in 1580. Son of Emmanuel I, at the age of 14 he chose the ecclesiastical career, whose ranks he ascended rapidly, endowed as he was with sincere faith and a good humanistic culture. At the age of 20, in 1532, he was named archbishop of Braga (later also of Evora, of Lisbon and of Coimbra); ten years later he became a cardinal; in 1547 he assumed the office of supreme inquisitor; in 1550, on the death of Paul III, he was considered among the papabili; Julius III made him perpetual legate a latere in Portugal. H. availed himself of his influence to extend and strengthen the activity of the Jesuits; at the disposal of one of them, namely Maffei, he placed the documents necessary for a history of the conquest of the East Indies, to which the history of the Portuguese missions was closely connected.

On the death of his brother John III, he was with the latter's widow on the Council that was to govern the Kingdom until the majority of the young Sebastian. In 1562, the more or less voluntary withdrawal of the old queen from
the regency left H. - until 1568 - sole tutor of the
boy. When the latter died without heirs at Alcazar-Québir
(4 Aug. 1578) H. succeeded him (28 Aug.), taking up the heavy
inheritance at a particularly difficult moment because
the struggle for the succession to the throne immediately opened. Since
among the claimants the most dangerous was Philip II, H., yielding to the entreaties of the Portuguese, who were most hostile to Spain,
asked Gregory XIII for a dispensation to marry, which
the latter refused (Aug. 1579), also because of the pressures of the Spanish king (Pastor, IX, p. 257). The intrigues that hemmed him in,
the nuances of Philip II, his scant political capacity brought it about that H. died (31 Jan.) without
having taken any decision whatsoever regarding the succession.