Commemoration of the Foundation of Portugal | Opinion
From Guimarães the countryside was dyed
Co’ the blood of the war gut
Where the mother, who so little seemed
To his son he denied love and the earth.
With him placed in the field, it was already seen;
you don’t see pride how much you make mistakes
Against God, against maternal love;
But in her the sensual was greater.”
Lusíadas: Canto III, 31
“It was from 1166 (1128 of the Christian era): in the month of June, feast of S. João Batista, the illustrious Infante Afonso fought with them, unworthy foreigners of the nation, combat in the field of S. Mamede, near the castle of Guimarães. He overcame them and trapped them in their escape…” (In Crónica dos Godos, 12th century doc. on fins).
On a purely municipal holiday, the people of Guimarães celebrate another anniversary of the Battle of S. Mamede, considered the first act of the Foundation of Portugal, since the defeat of Infante Afonso would represent the loss, without remission, of the national cause.
In previous writings, the figure of D. Afonso Henriques as a soldier and politician, analyzing the various attempts for his canonization: “pio, beato e santo”. Now, on this anniversary basis, I want to remember him in the field of diplomacy, with the Roman Curia.
The Vatican was the first state to recognize Portugal as an independent nation. This is due to D. Afonso Henriques and his diplomacy. In fact, in addition to being an excellent military and political figure, D. Afonso Henriques was also an excellent diplomat. In an attempt at vassalage to try to avoid Pope Inocê, the first steps towards a vassalage attempted to Pope Inocê to promote in 1143, in 1143, in the hands of Card Inocê Guido de Vico, committing Portuguese territory to S. Pedro and to the Roman Church.
Documenting this act of enfeudation, I envy the Pope the letter clefs Regni Coelorum, promising an annual of four ounces, but putting as a condition of “enjoying” protection, for himself the kingdom and not a papal recognition and any one of them recognize the category of spiritual or temporal, except the Pope. In achieving papal recognition of the kingdom’s independence, D. Afonso Henriques had the precious help of the Archbishop of Braga, D. João Peculiar, considered by some authors as his Minister of Foreign Affairs.
D. Afonso Henriques simultaneously promoted a national Church dependent on the primacy of Braga, not of Toledo At that time, the Roman Curia gave D. Afonso Henriques the title of “dux”. Only in 1 pontificate9, in the pontificate of Alexander III, is a real existence of D. Afonso Henriques7, is a real existence of D. Afonso Henriques recognized by the bull Manifestis Probatum, on May 23 of that year. By this diploma, Pope Inocência III, “considering D. Afonso Henriques “a person provided with prudence and endowed with justice and suitable for a government of a people, accepts him, and his successors, under the papal protection and of S. Peter, with all the resources of the kingdom that, with Celestial help,
In conclusion, it will be said, in the search for a day for which you are the Foundation of Portugal, that date can only be the 24th of June, as has been insistently defended by the Grand Order Afonsina, Association based in Guimarães.
The author writes according to the new orthographic agreement