Afonso V, King

(r. 1446-1481)

   Born in 1432, the son of King D. Duarte I and D. Leonor of Aragon, Afonso was only six years old when his father died suddenly and a succession crisis and consequent civil strife began. His mother fled into exile in Castile, where she died in 1445. He attained his majority in 1446. In the 1450s, King Afonso presided over more Portuguese expansion in Morocco by the capture of more Moroccan cities, but progress down the western African coast was delayed by the king's intervention in Iberian royal politics in Castile. His ambitions in Spain were thwarted after his loss of the battle of Toro to Castilian forces in 1476. In the 1470s, the king encouraged Portuguese exploration, trade, and colonization in western Africa, including settlement in the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe in the Bight of Biafra. The king died in 1481, and as a member of the Aviz dynasty, he became known in the history of Portugal as "O Africano" ("the African") and had one of the longest reigns in Portuguese history.