Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- List of Maps
- Preface
- Maps
- Introduction: The Geographical Setting
- 1 Hunter-Gatherers to Iron Age Farmers
- 2 The Roman Experience
- 3 The Germanic Kingdoms
- 4 Gharb al-Andalus
- 5 The Medieval Kingdom
- 6 The Fourteenth Century
- 7 The Making of Avis Portugal
- 8 The Golden Age
- 9 The Tarnished Age
- 10 Habsburg Portugal
- 11 Restoration and Reconstruction
- 12 The Age of Gold and Baroque Splendour
- 13 The Age of Pombal
- 14 The Late Eighteenth Century: Finale of the Old Regime
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - The Medieval Kingdom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- List of Maps
- Preface
- Maps
- Introduction: The Geographical Setting
- 1 Hunter-Gatherers to Iron Age Farmers
- 2 The Roman Experience
- 3 The Germanic Kingdoms
- 4 Gharb al-Andalus
- 5 The Medieval Kingdom
- 6 The Fourteenth Century
- 7 The Making of Avis Portugal
- 8 The Golden Age
- 9 The Tarnished Age
- 10 Habsburg Portugal
- 11 Restoration and Reconstruction
- 12 The Age of Gold and Baroque Splendour
- 13 The Age of Pombal
- 14 The Late Eighteenth Century: Finale of the Old Regime
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THE CONDADO PORTUCALENSE
Portugal's emergence as an independent kingdom during the twelfth century, and its attainment of more or less its present borders by the mid-thirteenth century, seem from a long-term perspective somewhat surprising. Geographically-speaking Portugal is not a particularly coherent expanse of territory, consisting as it does of markedly different northern and southern regions which have more in common with neighbouring parts of Spain than they do with each other. Nor had ‘Portugal’ ever been a recognised political entity before. There was no language common and exclusive to its people, no awareness of a distinctive shared tradition. It is difficult to identify any convincing long-term reason to explain Portugal's rather sudden appearance. On the other hand, the formation of the kingdom does make sense in the context of certain medium- to short-term political developments closely linked to the twelfth-century Reconquest – and to these we must now turn.
As the territory under Christian rule expanded, so the problems faced by the kings of Leon-Castile in trying to control outlying regions like Portucale and Coimbra became more acute. The counts of these two entities, which were still frontier regions exposed to Muslim attacks, acquired important and self-enhancing military functions which helped them consolidate their personal power. They also accumulated vast estates and lucrative perquisites of office and took care to entrench their families through strategic marriages, and by arranging whenever possible for succession by adult male relatives rather than minors or women.
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- Information
- A History of Portugal and the Portuguese EmpireFrom Beginnings to 1807, pp. 70 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009