Henrique o Navegador
(March 4, 1394 - November 13, 1460) Portugal
Prince
Henrique, Duke of Viseu, was an infante (prince) of the Portuguese House of Aviz and an important figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire. He is known in English as Prince Henry the Navigator or the Seafarer. He promoted early Portugese efforts to explore an African route to Asia. He was the third son of John I of Portugal. Henrique reportedly inspired his father's successful conquest (1414-15) of the Muslim port of Ceuta, on the North African coast across the Straits of Gibraltar from the Iberian peninsula, with profound consequences on Henry's worldview: he saw the fruits of the Saharan trade routes that terminated there and became fascinated with Africa.
To this end, at his Vila do Infante ("Prince's Town") at Sagres, Henry gathered around him a school of navigators and map-makers and became the patron of the Portuguese voyages of discovery, which commenced soon after the capture of Ceuta. The school at Sagres achieved several advances in the art of navigation, and their discoveries provided the groundwork for Portugal's colonial expansion in the reign of King John II of Portugal, Henry's great-nephew, in 1481. Thus, Henry had a considerable impact on the course of history, arguably having sparked European interest in colonial exploration - and given Portugal a significant advantage against other nations - that would so transform the world for the next four centuries.
In 1415 he commanded the expedition which captured Ceuta, Portugal's first oversea conquest, and there won his knightly spurs. Three years later he went to the assistance of the town, when it was besieged by a Moorish army, and twice afterwards fought in Africa. He was responsible for a disastrous attack on Tangier in 1437, which caused the captivity and death of his brother Fernando (Blessed Ferdinand), "the Constant Prince", while at the end of his life, in 1458, he took part in the capture of Alcacer.
On the death of his brother, King Duarte, Henry acted as intermediary between his brother Pedro, who claimed the regency, and Queen Leonor, to whom it had been left by her husband, and he greatly promoted the success of Pedro's claim. But when, later on, Pedro's vaulting ambition led him into conflict with King Affonso V, Henry was unable to save him from defeat and death at the battle of Alfarrobeira. It is not, however, as a man of war or of politics that Henry has won fame, but as the initiator of continuous maritime exploration.
According to Harold B. Johnson's "A Question Jaime Cortesão never Dared to Ask: Might Prince Henry 'the Navigator' Have Been Gay?", the prince was gay.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Navigator - Catholic Encyclopedia - et alii
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