Portuguese portraits

by Aubrey F. G. Bell

Of their three children two sons died in infancy; the daughter, Beatriz, was married to the Count of Barcellos, son of King João I, and through her Nun’ Alvarez was the ancestor of that line of kings which was still reigning in 1910.

It was a life too quiet for the times, and a few years later Nuno was ordered to Portalegre to defend with his brothers the frontier against the Spanish. As they marched from Villa Viçosa to Elvas, Nuno, the wish father of the thought in his keenness to encounter the enemy, mistook the glint of the morning sun on the lances of their own footmen, who had been sent on ahead, for the enemy advancing and gave the alarm. To his vexation there was no fighting, and when he challenged the son of the Master of Santiago to combat, ten against ten, the king forbade the encounter, and the Earl of Cambridge, then at the Portuguese Court, to whom Nun’ Alvarez appealed, pleaded for him in vain.

In 1382 a powerful Spanish fleet besieged Lisbon. The defence of the city was entrusted to Nun’ Alvarez and his brothers. It was in late summer, quando l’uva imbruna, and parties from the fleet would land to gather grapes and other fruit. Nun’ Alvarez saw his opportunity and, leaving the city one night with some fifty horse and foot, lay in ambush in the vines by the bridge of Alcantara. The first boatload of twenty Spaniards to land was driven headlong into the sea, but a larger force came ashore and the Portuguese, seeing themselves outnumbered five to one, fled.

Nun’ Alvarez, left alone, spurred his horse to a gallop and dashed into the midst of the enemy. His excellent armour stood him in good stead, but his lance was shattered, his horse cut down, and one of his spurs caught in the saddle as he fell. Thus disabled he still fought on, and then for very shame his followers turned to assist him. The first to come up was a Lisbon priest, afterwards Canon of Lisbon Cathedral.

Nun’ Alvarez, hearing a few months later that the King was to engage the enemy between Elvas and Badajoz, proposed to his elder brother Pedr’ Alvarez, who had succeeded their father as Prior of Crato, that they should have a hand in the fighting. Pedro, who had orders to defend Lisbon and intended to obey them, refused, and, having previous acquaintance of Nuno’s methods, gave instructions that no armed persons should be allowed to leave the city. Nuno with a few attendants dashed past the guard at the gate and rode post-haste to Elvas. He was well received by the king, but again there was no fighting. Peace and the betrothal of Beatrice were celebrated in a banquet at Elvas. King Ferdinand was too ill to attend, but King Juan was present.

Nun’ Alvarez, in his bitterness at seeing Portugal given over to Castille, for once forgot his manners. He and his brother Fernão, going in more leisurely than the rest, found all the tables crowded, and, unable to obtain a place, he pushed away the support from one of the tables, which went crashing to the ground, and calmly went out. King Juan remarked that he who so acted had a heart for greater things, but, in the words of the old chronicle, had they been Castilians he might have spoken differently.

After King Ferdinand’s death Nun’ Alvarez, brooding over his country’s wrongs, keenly took the part of the young Master of Avis. He was not present at the murder of the Queen’s favourite, the Count Andeiro, but he approved the act, and when news of it reached him at Santarem he hastened to Lisbon to the Master of Avis.

It was at Santarem one evening as he sauntered along the banks of the Tagus after supper that he chanced to pass the door of an armourer and sent for his sword to be sharpened. The alfageme refused any payment till he should return as Count of Ourem. Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! The story adds that Nun’ Alvarez, returning Conde de Ourem to Santarem after the battle of Aljubarrota, found the armourer in prison as a friend of Castille and his property confiscated, and was able, by protecting him, to pay his debt.

Nun’ Alvarez now became one of the Prince of Avis’ Council, his most loyal and most trusted counsellor to the end of their lives. His first important command was in Alentejo, and after delaying in order to take part in a fight with eight Spanish ships in the Tagus he set out at the head of his two hundred horsemen. Henceforth Evora, the ancient walled city in the wide plain of Alentejo, was his headquarters. He instilled confidence into his men and increased his army, although it rarely exceeded five hundred horse and as many thousand foot, and was often very much below that number.

The war continued with varying success. At one time Nun’ Alvarez advanced to Badajoz, at another the Spanish were at Viana, but a couple of leagues from Evora across the flowered charneca. But Nun’ Alvarez seized town after town and more than once defeated the enemy in the open field. Monsaraz was taken by a wile, for some cows were driven temptingly beneath the walls and when the commander sallied out to seize them the Portuguese rushed in through the open gate. Nun’ Alvarez’ favourite method was to ride all night across the charneca and appear unexpectedly before a town in the early dawn, so that the enemy called him “Dawn Nuno,” Nuno Madrugada.