Manuel I "the Fortunate" King of Portugal ¹⁶⁹⁵

   Cause of his death was Plague.

  General Notes:

Manuel I of Portugal (pron. IPA /m?.nu.'??/; Archaic Portuguese: Manoel I, English: Emanuel I), the Fortunate (Port. o Venturoso), 14th king of Portugal, was born in Alcochete in May 31, 1469 and died in Lisbon in December 13, 1521. He was the son of Prince Fernando of Portugal, duke of Viseu, by his wife, Brites of Aveiro, princess of Portugal. His mother was the granddaughter of King John I of Portugal; his father was son of King Duarte of Portugal. Manuel succeeded his first cousin John II of Portugal who was also his brother-in-law in 1495.

Manuel grew up among the conspiracies of the aristocratic high nobility against king John II. He watched many people being killed and exiled, including his older brother Diego, the duke of Viseu, murdered by the king himself. Thus, when receiving a royal order in 1493 to present himself to the king, Manuel had every reason to worry. Without reason: John II wanted to name him heir to the throne, after the death of his son prince Afonso of Portugal and the failed attempts to legitimise George, Duke of Coimbra, his illegitimate son. This lucky event granted him the nickname the Fortunate.

Manuel would prove a worthy successor of John II, supporting the Portuguese exploration of the Atlantic Ocean and the development of Portuguese commerce. During his kingdom, the following was achieved:

1498 - Vasco da Gama discovers the maritime route to India
1500 - Pedro Álvares Cabral discovers Brazil
1505 - Francisco de Almeida becomes the first viceroy of India

Afonso de Albuquerque, an admiral, secures the Indian ocean and Persian Gulf maritime routes monopoly for Portugal
All these events made Portugal rich on foreign trade whilst formally establishing its empire. Manuel used the wealth to build a number of royal buildings (in the manueline style) and to attract scientists and artists to his court. Commercial treatises and diplomatic alliances were forged with China and the Persian Empire. The Pope received a monumental embassy from Portugal during his reign, designed to be a show of the newly acquired riches to all Europe.

In Manuel's reign, the state internal life tended to absolute power of the king. The cortes (kingdom's assembly) only met three times during his reign, always in Lisbon, the king's address. He reformed the courts of justice and the towns agreements with the crown, modernizing the taxes and the concepts of tributes and rights.

Manuel was a very religious man and invested an important amount of the Portuguese income to sponsor missionaries in their way to the new colonies, such as Francisco Alvarez, and the construction of religious buildings, like the Monastery of Jerónimos. Manuel also endeavoured to promote another crusade, against the Turks. His relationship with the Jews started out well. At the outset of his reign, he released all the Jews who had been made captive during the reign of João II. Unfortunately for the Jews, he decided that he wanted to marry princess Isabella of Aragon, then heiress of the future united crown of Spain (widow of his distanced nephew Afonso of Portugal). Ferdinand and Isabel had expelled the Jews in 1492, and would never marry their daughter to the king of a country that still tolerated their existence. In December 1496, it was decreed that any Jew who did convert to Christianity would be expelled from the country. However, those expelled could only leave the country in ships specified by the king. When those who chose expulsion arrived at the port in Lisbon, they were met by clerics and soldiers who used force, coersion, and promises in order to baptize them and prevent them from leaving the country. This period of time technically ended the presence of Jews in Portugal. Afterwards, all converted Jews and their descendents would be referred to as "New Christians", and they were given a grace period of thirty years in which no inquiries into their faith would be allowed; this was later to extended to end in 1534. A popular riot in 1504 would end in the death of two thousand Jews; the leaders of this riot were executed by Manuel.

Isabella died in childbirth in 1498, putting an end to the Portuguese ambitions to rule in Spain, which had been an ambition of various rulers since the rule of Fernando I (1367-1383). Manuel and Isabella's young son Miguel was for a period the heir apparent of Castile and Aragon, but his death in 1500 put the final end to the Portuguese ambitions to rule in Spain. Manuel's next wife, Maria of Aragon, was also a Spanish princess, but not the oldest. This was Joan of Castile, the mad queen.

The Monastery of Jerónimos in Lisbon houses Manuel's tomb. His son João succeeded him as king.

Manuel's marriages and descendents
Manuel married three times: first to Isabella of Aragon, princess of Spain and widow of the previous Crown Prince of Portugal Afonso of Portugal; then he married another princess of Spain, Maria of Aragon; and then married Eleanor of Habsburg who after Manuel's death married again to Francis I of France. ¹⁶⁹⁶

  Life Events:

1. Acceded: King of Portugal, 1495-1521. ¹⁶⁹⁶

Manuel married Isabella of Aragon in 1497.¹⁶⁹⁶ (Isabella of Aragon was born on 2 Oct 1470 ¹⁶⁹⁶ and died on 28 Aug 1498 ¹⁶⁹⁶.). The cause of her death was Childbirth.

Manuel next married Maria of Aragon on 30 Oct 1500.¹⁶⁹⁶ (Maria of Aragon was born on 29 Jun 1482 ¹⁶⁹⁶ and died on 7 Mar 1517 in Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal ¹⁶⁹⁶.)

Manuel next married Eleonore of Austria on 16 Jul 1518.¹⁶⁹⁶ (Eleonore of Austria was born on 15 Nov 1498 in Louvain, Brabant, Belgium ¹⁶⁹⁶ and died on 25 Feb 1558 ¹⁶⁹⁶.)