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Portucale - Letter from the Algarve by Frances Ruddick
• 18 Apr 2008 •
 PERHAPS, if you’ve heard people saying Portucale rather than Portugal, you assumed they had a speech impediment? Maybe when you’ve seen it written down, you thought the author could not spell?
Let me explain why the name Portucale is of such historic significance to this country. In a nutshell, there were two cities – Portus and Cale – later they became united into a county – Portucale - eventually expanding to become Portugal.
In order to be more linguistically accurate I ought to elaborate; Portugal originated as two Latin place names used in Roman times.
On either side of Portugal’s mighty River Douro –where Porto stands today - two separate cities developed. On one side of the river there was Portus (meaning harbour) and on the opposite bank, the city of Cale. Although the Roman empire ended, the legacy of the cities of Portus and Cale remained.
The River Douro was such a massive obstacle that when Moors from Morocco overran the rest of Iberia, they were unable to settle permanently in the land north of its mouth. The strip became known as Portucale and when Count Henriques of Burgundy brought along an army to help to protect it, the grateful king gave him his daughter’s hand in marriage.
There was however a catch, since the dowry that came with Princess Teresa was Portucale. It was what you might call a backhanded wedding gift, since Count Henriques needed to fund a private army in order to defend it. His astute father-in-law meanwhile could relieve himself of the financial burden, knowing that it was safe in family hands. Even more advantageously for King Afonso, Portucale remained part of the Kingdom of Leon and Castile.
Afonso Henrique – somewhat unimaginatively named after his grandfather and his father – made his own useful ally through marriage to the daughter of Count Amadeus of Savoy. After his father’s death he went on to pronounce himself King of Portucale.
Some historians claim that this happened after he successfully defeated the Moors in Ourique. Fearing his mother’s loyalty to her family bloodline, Dom Afonso Henriques, King of Portucale, locked her away in a castle. The act of an ambitious self-instated monarch rather than a loving son
No longer satisfied to be part of the Kingdom of Leon and Castile, he declared himself across Europe to be head of a new Christian nation, ready to engage in battle against the Moors.
During this time his cousin, St Bernard, wrote a letter to King Afonso Henriques. It is almost 850 years old but still survives today. It addresses him as, ‘the illustrious King of Portugal.’ The slight alteration of the spelling of Portugal suggests St Bernard might have been dyslexic! |  Return to Top
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