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Henry the Navigator, fifteenth-century Portuguese prince and explorer, is a legendary, almost mythical figure in late medieval history. Considered along with Columbus to be one of the progenitors of modernity, Prince Henry challenged the scientific assumptions of his age and was responsible for liberating Europeans from geographical restraints that had bound them since the Roman Empire's collapse. In this enthralling account of Henry's life--the first biography of "The Navigator" in more than a century--Peter Russell reaps the harvest of a lifelong study of Prince Henry. Making full use of documentary evidence only recently available, Russell reevaluates Henry and his role in Portuguese and European history. Examining the full range of Prince Henry's activities, Russell discusses the explorer's image as an imperialist and as a maritime, mathematical, and navigational pioneer. He considers Henry's voyages of discovery in the African Atlantic, their economic and cultural consequences, and the difficult questions they generated regarding international law and papal jurisdiction. Russell demonstrates the degree to which Henry was motivated by the predictions of his astrologer--an aspect of his career little known until now--and explains how this innovator, though firmly rooted in medieval ways of thinking and behaving, set in motion a current of change that altered European history.… (more)
User reviews
Prince Henry "the Navigator" might also be called Prince Henry "the Neocon," but a book published in the millennial year, before 9-11 and the Iraq War and the whole confused mess of U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century, understandably makes no allusion at all to such contemporary issues. Henry was a rabid crusader whose impulsive, militaristic policy toward Morocco created numerous foreign-policy problems for Portugal, including the death of his younger brother in Moroccan captivity; and his intransigent hostility toward Castille dashed his hopes to lead a crusade against then-Muslim Grenada.
Henry's African explorations were initially inspired by a desire for gold and then developed into a very profitable slave trade, but somehow there's no sense from Peter Russell's book just how "deliberate" versus "accidental" Henry's economic conquests were. Was his primary interest exploration, with the economic profits as a useful sideline? Was his primary interest economic profit, with the benefits of his exploratory labors accidentally accruing to Portugal's New World and African empires? Or was he inspired primarily be his crusading ambitions? Peter Russell sees a mix of motives, which is understandable in light of the limited evidence available as to Henry's private life and beliefs; but Russell seems not quite "up to" bringing Henry's character alive beyond the documentary evidence, sometimes limited, that is available.
Overall, Henry was not the "Navigator" or nineteenth-century historians (the Germans first gave him that name, the Brits picked it up and ran with it), nor was he a pre-Enlightenment Renaissance man-of-science-and-rationality. Henry, as Russell shows, was a late medieval crusader knight who just happened to be forward thinking enough and, this is important, desirous of fame enough to find ways to seek fame and money. And if that meant exploring and trading in the Atlantic and along the African coast, so be it. Of course, crusading and reconquest was his other goal, and exploring and trading fit into this too. If you can get around Islam and find the Christian Prester John in Ethiopia, you could attack Islam from the rear. So. Thus the twin moving factors of Henry's life, fight Islam and explore/trade, could be boiled down to "fight Islam," and, if we want to go one step further, it could be boiled down to: seek fame and fortune. Russell does a fine job of ferreting out and explaining Henry's motivations and can even explain them when they seem contradictory.
The exploration of the Atlantic is, for most readers, why they would pick up this book. They won't be disappointed. You will find here a great store of information on the boats heading south and west, the exploration of the African coast, the encounters with African peoples, etc. This is perhaps the best book in that regard, unless you want to sit down and read (assuming you can find) the volumes of Monumenta Henricina.
Two issues. There is but one map and a somewhat confusing family tree. The book could have stood to have a map of Portugal and separate one for the discoveries, each more detailed and helpful. The images were nice, but I would have liked to have had a discussion on the possibility that the portrait of Henry we've grown accustomed to, the one from the polyptych of S. Vicente de Fora, is not Henry. Only a doubt is mentioned in a caption. (See Wikipedia for what I'm talking about.)