After a reign, which ranks among the most glorious in Portuguese history, made famous by maritime discoveries and literary advancement, leaving behind him sons worthy and able to guide the people along the road of civilization to wealth and prosperity, John I., rightly surnamed “the Great,” died at his palace at Lisbon on August 14, 1433, having survived his wife Philippa of Lancaster nearly twenty years. Contrary to the expectation of his subjects, the reign of King Edward was but short, and it is marked only by a signal disaster. His own great qualities, and the promise he had given of being both a good and a great king when assisting his father, combined to raise the highest hopes, which were destined to be cruelly shattered. On ascending the throne he believed himself strong enough to take a step, intended to check the perpetuation of power in the hands of the feudal nobility, which had often been discussed between his father, his brother Dom Pedro, João das Regras, and himself, and in 1434 he summoned a full Cortes at Evora. He there propounded the “Lei Mental” or the provision, which was assumed to have been in the mind of King John when he made his extensive grants of land to the nobility, namely, that they could only descend in the direct male line of the original grantee, and should revert to the Crown on failure of such heirs. The law was carried by the influence of the king’s brothers, in spite of the natural opposition of the nobility, who never forgave the supporters of the measure. In other matters Edward simply followed the example of his father. He continued the English alliance, ratified the treaty of Windsor, and was made a Knight of the Garter in his father’s room; he maintained an attitude of prudent neutrality towards Castile; he encouraged the literary movement, represented by Fernan Lopes, and took an intelligent interest in the schemes and plans of his brother, Dom Henry.