The glory attaching to the name of Prince Henry does not rest merely on the achievements effected during his own lifetime, but on the subsequent results to which his genius and perseverance had lent the primary inspiration. To him the human race is indebted, in large measure, for the maritime exploration, within one century (1420-1522), of more than half the globe, and especially of the great waterways from Europe to Asia both by east and by west. His own life only sufficed for the accomplishment of a small portion of his task. The complete opening out of the African or south-east route to the Indies needed nearly forty years of somewhat intermittent labour after his death (1460-1498), and the prince’s share has often been forgotten in that of pioneers who were really his executors—Diogo Cam, Bartholomew Diaz or Vasco da Gama. Less directly, other sides of his activity may be considered as fulfilled by the Portuguese penetration of inland Africa, especially of Abyssinia, the land of the “Prester John” for whom Dom Henry sought, and even by the finding of a western route to Asia through the discoveries of Columbus, Balboa and Magellan.
See Alguns documentos do archivo nacional da Torre do Tombo acerca das navegações ... portuguezas (Lisbon, 1892); Alves, Dom Henrique o Infante (Oporto, 1894); Archivo dos Açores (Ponta Delgada, 1878-1894); Gomes Eannes de Azurara, Chronica do descobrimento e conquista de Guiné, ed. Carreira and Santarem (Paris, 1841; Eng. trans. by Raymond Beazley and Edgar Prestage, Hakluyt Society, London, 1896-1899); João de Barros, Decadas da Asia (Lisbon, 1652); Raymond Beazley, Prince Henry the Navigator (London, 1895), and introduction to Azurara, vol. ii., in Hakluyt Soc. trans. (see above); Antonio Cordeiro, Historia Insultana (Lisbon, 1717); Freire (Candido Lusitano), Vida do Infante D. Henrique (Lisbon, 1858); “Diogo Gomez,” in Dr Schmeller’s Über Valentim Fernandez Alemão, vol. iv. pt. iii., in the publications of the 1st class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Munich, 1845); R. H. Major, The Life of Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator (London, 1868); Jules Mees, Henri le Navigateur et l’académie ... de Sagres (Brussels, 1901), and Histoire de la découverte des îles Açores (Ghent, 1901); Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de situ orbis (Lisbon, 1892); Sophus Ruge, “Prinz Heinrich der Seefahrer,” in vol. 65 of Globus, p. 153 (Brunswick, 1894); Gustav de Veer, Prinz Heinrich der Seefahrer (Danzig, 1863); H. E. Wauwerman, Henri le Navigateur et l’académie portugaise de Sagres (Antwerp and Brussels, 1890).
(C. R. B.)
HENRY OF ALMAIN (1235-1271), so called from his father’s German connexions, was the son of Richard, earl of Cornwall and king of the Romans. As a nephew of both Henry III. and Simon de Montfort he wavered between the two at the beginning of the Barons’ War, but finally took the royalist side and was among the prisoners taken by Montfort at Lewes (1264). In 1268 he took the cross with his cousin Edward, who, however, sent him back from Sicily to pacify the unruly province of Gascony. Henry took the land route with the kings of France and Sicily. While attending mass at Viterbo (13 March 1271) he was attacked by Guy and Simon de Montfort, sons of Earl Simon, and foully murdered. This revenge was the more outrageous since Henry had personally exerted himself on behalf of the Montforts after Evesham. The deed is mentioned by Dante, who put Guy de Montfort in the seventh circle of hell.
See W. H. Blaauw’s The Barons’ War (ed. 1871); Ch. Bémont’s Simon de Montfort (1884).
HENRY OF BLOIS, bishop of Winchester (1101-1171), was the son of Stephen, count of Blois, by Adela, daughter of William I., and brother of King Stephen. He was educated at Cluny, and consistently exerted himself for the principles of Cluniac reform. If these involved high claims of independence and power for the Church, they also asserted a high standard of devotion and discipline. Henry was brought to England by Henry I. and made abbot of Glastonbury. In 1129 he was given the bishopric of Winchester and allowed to hold his abbey in conjunction with it. His hopes of the see of Canterbury were disappointed, but he obtained in 1139 a legatine commission which gave him a higher rank than the primate. In fact as well as in theory he became the master of the Church in England. He even contemplated the erection of a new province, with Winchester as its centre, which was to be independent of Canterbury. Owing both to local and to general causes the power of the Church in England has never been higher than in the reign of Stephen (1135-1154), Henry as its leader and a legate of the pope was the real “lord of England,” as the chronicles call him. Indeed, one of the ecclesiastical councils over which he presided formally declared that the election of the king in England was the special privilege of the clergy. Stephen owed his crown to Henry (1135), but they quarrelled when Stephen refused to give Henry the primacy; and the bishop took up the cause of Roger of Salisbury (1139). After the battle of Lincoln (1141) Henry declared for Matilda; but finding his advice treated with contempt, rejoined his brother’s side, and his successful defence of Winchester against the empress (Aug.-Sept. 1141) was the turning-point of the civil war. The expiration of his legatine commission of 1144 deprived him of much of his power. He spent the rest of Stephen’s reign in trying to procure its renewal. But his efforts were unsuccessful, though he made a personal visit to Rome. At the accession of Henry II. (1154) he retired from the world and spent the rest of his life in works of charity and penitence. He died in 1171. Henry seems to have been a man of high character, great courage, resolution and ability. Like most great bishops of his age he had a passion for architecture. He built, among other castles, that of Farnham; and he began the hospital of St Cross at Winchester.
Authorities.—Original: William of Malmesbury, De gestis regum; the Gesta Stephani. Modern: Sir James Ramsay, Foundations of England, vol. ii.; Kate Norgate’s Angevin Kings; Kitchin’s Winchester.