The Story of the Nations: PortugalStephens, H. Morse (Henry Morse)
History
The Story of the Nations: Portugal
Stephens, H. Morse (Henry Morse)
Portugal -- History
But this quiet enjoyment of peace and love was not long allowed to the
beautiful ruler of Portugal. Her half-sister Urraca, the Queen of
Castile, Leon, and Gallicia, had been hitherto too much engaged in
fighting with her second husband, Alfonso I. of Aragon, to pay any
attention to her; but she too was a warrior princess, and in 1121 she
ordered Theresa to surrender the city of Tuy. Theresa refused, and
Urraca led an army against her, which defeated the Portuguese at Tuy,
and eventually the queen took the Countess of Portugal prisoner after a
long siege of the castle of Lanhoso. It seemed as if the nascent
independence of Portugal was about to be crushed, but Bishop Gelmires
came to the assistance of Theresa, who had done so much for his friends
and relatives, the De Travas, and threatened to attack Urraca unless she
made peace with her half-sister. Urraca was forced to comply, and the
treaty of peace which was then signed marks another stage in the growth
of the independence of Portugal, for in it Donna Theresa is styled
Infanta, and treated as the equal of Queen Urraca, who further promised
to cede to her the cities and districts of Toro, Zamora, and Salamanca.
For the next few years the careers of the half-sisters were singularly
similar. Queen Urraca showered favours on her lover, Don Pedro de Lara,
until her young son, Alfonso Raimundes, assisted by Bishop Gelmires,
revolted against her; while Donna Theresa, with equal blindness, devoted
herself to her love for Don Fernando Peres de Trava, and thus aroused
the hatred of her boy-son Affonso Henriques and of Paio Mendes, who in
1121 had succeeded Mauricio Burdino as Archbishop of Braga. Her quarrel
with Paio Mendes commenced in the year after he became archbishop, and
well illustrates the attitude of the Portuguese bishops. As long as
Theresa had remained the living symbol of Portuguese unity and
independence the bishops had followed her, but as soon as she showed her
love for a Gallician nobleman they turned against her. Paio Mendes was
quite ready to lead the malcontents, for he was the brother of Count
Sueiro Mendes of Oporto, surnamed the Great, who was the head of the
purely Portuguese, as opposed to the mixed Portuguese and Gallician,
nobility. In 1122 Archbishop Paio protested against the gift of so many
important posts to Don Fernando, and the proud countess immediately cast
him into prison. She was obliged in a few days to release him, for fear
of a papal interdict; but she had made a bitter enemy, who was soon to
have an opportunity for revenge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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