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Call for papers #37

Comradery and Appeasement: King Afonso V and the Portuguese Nobility in the 1450s

Dr. Ivana Elbl, Trent University

Dom João II is said to have complained bitterly that his father Dom Afonso
V had left him the king of roads of Portugal, having given almost
everything else away, mostly to the members of the burgeoning
nobility. Dom Afonso’s record of enhancing the economic standing of his
noble subjects and providing them with ample opportunities for acting out
their ambitions in a socially acceptable matter gained him the cherished
sobriquets: “the African” and the “Chivalric King.” In many ways, Afonso V
embodied the medieval ideal of a king a “primus inter pares”. There is
little doubt that Afonso valued his friendship with his natural peers,
appreciated their good opinion of him, and believed it to be his duty to
“satisfy” them.

Many contemporaries and historians have pointed out the dire consequences
of Afonso’s notion of kingship and his particular ruling style for the late
medieval Portugal: Lawlessness, the emasculation of the power of Crown,
mortgaging of its revenues, and expensive military adventures the country
could ill afford. All these problems are exquisitely reflected in the
capitulations of the povo presented at the frequent meetings of the Cortes
during Afonso’s long reign, in particular the conduct of the nobility and
the King’s failure to bring it under control. The 1450s were particularly
difficult in terms of the disorder perpetuated by the nobles, the Crown’s
inability to control them, and the King;’s overspending in an effort to
appease them.

However, such problems were common to most western European countries of
the time. Did Afonso’s personal disposition and circumstances play any
significant role in either creating or perpetuating the problems? Was his
approach a manifestation of his immaturity and political naivité? Or was
the young king’s comradery with the nobles and his policy of appeasement an
expression of more subtle considerations, stemming from an awareness of
deep-seated difficulties that could only become worse if tackled a more
direct manner? Informed by the social networks theory, the paper considers
these questions in the light of contemporary narrative sources, Cortes
capitulations, and the chancery records of the royal grants to the nobility.