D. Dinis
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

Son of Afonso III of Portugal and Beatriz of Castile, Dom Denis was born in Lisbon, on the 9th of October 1261. Although little is known of his childhood, we do know, however, that as soon as 1265, accompanied by his mother and a military escort, he visits his grandfather Alfonso X in Seville, a trip related with the Algarve question, whose resolution implicated sending Portuguese reinforcements to the war effort in Andalucia. In 1278 he receives his own house, and the next year, following the death of his father, ascends to the throne. From 1279, then, and up to 1325, date of his death, King Denis ensures one of the longest and most brilliant Portuguese reigns, partly benefiting from the peace assured by the end of the christian reconquest wars in the Western side of the Iberian peninsula.The first and last years of his rule were not, however, devoid of conflicts. Right after his coronation, and at the same time that serious disagreements with his mother arose (the widow-queen would seek a more active political role, and ended up moving away to Castile, joining her father), he also had to face the rebellion of his brother, Dom Afonso, Lord of Portalegre and Arronches, a conflict that went on, between prolonged truces, from 1281 to 1299. Having married, also in 1281, with Isabel of Aragon, Dom Denis was in the meantime, during those years, acquiring a growing prestige, healing old quarrels with the clergy (from which resulted the signing of the Concordata with the Holy See in 1289), founding the first Portuguese university (1288-90) and establishing very favorable territorial limits with Castile (like in the important treaty of Alcanices, sign in 1297). This peninsula-wide prestige is visible in the role of mediator he was called to perform in the following years in the complex political chess of the neighboring kingdoms, even requiring, in 1304, a prolonged trip to the kingdom of Aragon (Tarrazona). In internal affairs, prolonging his father’s centralizing policies and seeking to limit the abuses of the nobility, as soon as 1284 he orders a new round of inquiries that extend until 1304, generating no small amount of controversy and disputes, and also accumulating tensions among the nobility, tensions which partially explain the difficult final years of his reign, where he had to face the rebellion of his firstborn, Prince-heir Dom Afonso (future Afonso IV). In fact, the prince, alleging the favoritism that the King visibly displayed towards his bastard son Afonso Sanches, and gathering around him a vast number of dissatisfied nobles, starts in 1321 an open war against his father, in which Queen Isabel played an important role as moderator, but nevertheless would only cease, after important concessions from the ruler, in 1324, a year before the king’s death in January 7th of 1325. Besides two legitimate offspring (Afonso and Constance, that would go on to marry Afonso IX of Castile), King Denis also had at least six illegitimate children from several affairs, among whom it’s fair to highlight two of them, both troubadours, the already mentioned Afonso Sanches (son of Aldonça Gomes da Telha) and Pedro, count of Barcelos (son of Gracia Anes), whose biographies are also included in this database.