ALFON`SO earliest king of Portugal, was the son of Henry of Burgundy, conqueror and count of Portugal. He was born in 1110 A. D. , and being only 2 years of age at his father's death, the management of affairs fell into the hands of his ambitious and disso lute mother, Theresa of Castile, from whom he was compelled forcibly to seize it on attain ing his majority. He then entered on a war with Castile, whose supremacy he did not recognize, and, leaguing himself with Navarre, made several conquests in Galicia, after which be proceeded to attack the Moors, whose invasions he had already begun to check by building the fortress of Leiria. A battle was fought in the plains of Ourique, July 23, 1139, when victory declared for the Portuguese, after a bloody struggle, in which, it is said, not less than 200,000 Moors perished. From that day, A. assumed the title of king, which the pope confirmed. On the 25th of Oct., 1147, he took Lisbon, by
the help of English fleet of crusaders ; and in 1158, after a siege of 2 months, made himself master of Alcazar-de-Sal and Evora. In 1171, he took by assault the fortress of Santarem from the Saracens, and annihilated the garrison ; and at the same place he defeated the Almohadian ruler, Jusuf-ben-Jakub, in 1184. He invited to his land the knights-templars and knights of St. John, and established the orders of Avis and of St. Michael. The Portuguese style him el conquistador (the conqueror). But he was also a legislator, establishing the cortes of Lamego, and promulgating a code of laws relating to the order of succession, the privileges of the nobility, the administration of justice, etc. He (lied at Coimbra, Dec. 6, 1185.