Battle of Ourique

The Battle of Ourique was uncurled very probably in the fields of Ourique, in the current Low Alentejo (south of Portugal) in 1139 - significantly, in accordance with the tradition, in the Santiago's day, the popular legend had become protector of the fight against the mouros; one of the popular names of the saint, was necessarily Matamouros. It was stopped in one of the incursions that the Christians made in land of mouros to apprehend cattle, slaves and other remains. In it if they had confrotted the Christian troops, commanded for D. Alfonso Henriques, and the Muslen, in sufficiently bigger number. Unexpectedly, a mouro army left it to them the meeting and, although the numerical inferiority, the Christians had been successful. The Christian victory was so great that D. Alfonso Henriques decided to autoproclaim King of Portugal (or it was acclaimed by its troops still in the battlefield), having its started chancellery to use the intitulação Rex Portugallensis (King of the Portucalenses or Rei of the Portuguese) to break 1140 - becoming fact king, even so the confirmation of the heading of swears for the Sé Saint dates only of May of 1179. The ideia of on miracle to this battle appears for the first time in century XIV, much later of the battle. Ourique serves, from then on, of argument politician to justify the independence of the Kingdom of Portugal: the personal intervention of God was the test of the existence of an independent Portugal for divine e, therefore, perpetual will. The legend tells that, in that day, consecrated Santiago, the Portuguese sovereign had a vision of Jesus Christ and the angels, guaranteeing to it it victory in combat. However, this detail was interposed later in the narrative, practically being copied of the narrative of the Battle Da Ponte Mílvio, opposing Maxêncio the Constantino the Great one, according to which God would have appeared to this last one saying IN HOC SIGN VINCES (Latin, “With this signal will be successful! ”). This historical event in such a way marked the imaginary Portuguese, who if finds portraied in the blazon of weapons of the nation: five escudetes (each one with five besantes), representing the five mouros kings loosers in the battle. [to edit] the place of the fight It does not have consensus enters the scholars concerning the accurate place where if it stopped the battle of Ourique. The oldest description of the battle appears in the Crónica of the Godos under the entrance of the events of the Hispanic Age of 1177 (1139 of the Christian Age). Centuries later, one of the first authors to open the controversy on the authenticity of the narratives was Alexander Herculano when, when affirming that “Ourique does not pass of a legend”, it was accused with anticlericalsim. Contemporarily, other historians, between them Jose Hermano Hail, had come back to approach and to reinterpretar this question. Between the considered theories, they cite themselves: Hypothesis of Ourique (Baixo-Alentejo), long ago known as “Field of Ourique”: more or less equidistant between Évora and Silves, it is the traditionally supported hypothesis. To the time, the Almorávida power was in spalling in the Iberian peninsula, and the corresponding territory to the Portugal modern, still in Muslim hands, met distributed in, at least, four taifas, hosted respectively in Santarém, Évora, You hiss, and Badajoz. In this scene, a razia of infant D. Alfonso Enriques whom the south so happened in a zone as the Low Alentejo, would not be, of, all improbable, a time that was during the periods of bigger discord enters the Muslen who the Christian borders more progressed for the South. In this direction, the razia that its son, infant D. Sancho, made in 1178 Seville, is found registered well, demonstrating in the practical one, the possibility of if covering a so significant distance in hostile territory. Hypothesis of Vila Chã de Ourique (c. 15 km of the Cartaxo), in the Ribatejo; its localization was occidental person excessively to attract the interest and the forces of the emir of the Badajoz, strongest of the four supramentioned. Hypothesis of Field of Ourique (c. 7 km of Leiria), in the Boundary: as in the case of Vila Chã, its localization was next excessively to the coast to attract in the same way the interest and the forces of the emir of Badajoz; Hypothesis of Field of Ourique (Lisbon): Imaginary gift in the popular one, without any recital. Hypothesis of Aurélia (possibly, the Colmenar modern de Oreja, next the Madrid and Toledo): It has who defends a confusion between Ourique (Aurik) and Aurélia (Aureja, with the “inhaled j” as in Castilian), increasing the doubt on the localization of the battle. It is possible that it had had a plan waked up between Alfonso Enriques and the king of Lion and Castile, Alfonso VII; although inimistados two years before in in the battle Cerneja, the war to the common enemy (the Islão) constituía a strong reason the sufficient to excite an agreement between both the Christian sovereigns, in the direction of this last power to attack the ortaleza of Aurélia. To prevent to be surrounded by the Muslim enemy, Alfonso VII would have asked for to cousin D. Alfonso Enriques whom a diversionista maneuver provided, that would pass for this Portuguese incursion in the Alentejo, and that al-Andalus would force the emirs of taifas of the Gharb to fight it in self-defense. With this, Alfonso VII waited to have its free rear to attack Aurélia, confident in a fast surrender, given the impossibility of reply of the enemy, busy with the maneuver of the Portuguese. In any way, as consequência, when the Cardinal Guido de Vico, emissary of the Pope, congregated D. Alfonso Enriques and Alfonso VII in Zamora (1143), to try to convince them that the animosity between both favored the infidels, the Portuguese sovereign wrote Pope Inocêncio II, complaining for itself and its descendants, the status of “censual”, that is, dependent only of Rome, invoking for this end the “miracle of Ourique”, what he will occur only in 1179. However, in that meeting, for the firmed treated one then (Treated to Zamora), Alfonso VII considered D. Alfonso Enriques as equal: it was affirmed independence of Portugal. In this battle it fought and it was commanded Knight the future Grain-Master of the Order of the Templários, Dom Gualdim Parents, founder of the cities To take and Pigeon house.