brother Affonso, the son of King John by Ines Pires, born before the marriage with Philippa of Lancaster, who was jealous of his legitimate brothers, and ultimately proved the evil genius of their destiny. This son was regarded with special favour by his father, who brought about his marriage with Donna Beatrice Pereira, daughter and heiress of the Holy Constable, and created him Count of Barcellos. The latter years of King John “the Great’s” fortunate reign of nearly half a century were marked not only by the discoveries of Prince Henry “the Navigator,” but by the development of Portuguese into a literary language by many talented authors. Mention has been made of the poetry of the Portuguese troubadours, who sang in the reign of Diniz, and of the first Portuguese epic on the battle of the Salado, which foreshadowed the “Lusiads” of Camoens. But a literary language is formed not so much by its poetry as by its prose; the early poetry of Portugal differed but little from that of Gallicia, while its prose developed in an independent direction. The first Portuguese prose work of any length or importance was the famous romance of “Amadis de Gaul,” written by Vasco de Lobeira, who died in 1403. This romance gave rise to a host of imitations, and the taste for romances was further developed by the popularity of the “Prophecies of Merlin,” and the Arthurian tales, the knowledge of which came into Portugal with the English alliance. The king himself encouraged this literary revival; the “Book of the Chase,” one of the best specimens of early Portuguese prose was written for him under his superintendence, and among his sons, Dom Pedro wrote poems, and Dom Edward two excellent prose works, “Instructions in Horsemanship” and “The Faithful Councillor.” More important to notice are the works of the first great Portuguese chroniclers. Chronicles of early events in Portuguese history had been written in monasteries, and have a value of their own, but these works are little better than annals noted down year by year with no pretence to literary form. Next in order stands the anonymous “Chronica da Conquista do Algarves,” which represents the transition from the annalist to the chronicler, and in the reign of John I., under the special patronage of the monarch and his sons, the first great Portuguese chronicler, Fernan Lopes, who has been called the Froissart of Portugal, wrote his chronicles of the reigns of Pedro “the Severe” and Ferdinand “the Handsome,” and Matthew de Pisano, wrote his “Guerra de Ceuta,” a history of the famous expedition of 1415. These men were the forerunners of the great chroniclers of the fifteenth century, Azurara, Ruy de Pina, and Duarte Galvão.