Prince Henry the Navigator

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Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) The son of King John of Portugal and his English wife (Philippa of Lancaster) Prince Henry founded an observatory and center for the study of navigation, cartography, and astronomy. Portugal’s highly profitable trade routes along the western coast of Africa were developed under his patronage. The pioneering efforts in the slave trade also began under Prince Henry. Portugal quickly took advantage of Pope Nicholas V’s 1455 Bull Romanus Pontifex which gave the Portuguese king permission to engage in the slave trade, which was already thriving. Ostensibly the logic of Pope Nicholas was that the Portuguese endeavors had already brought large numbers of souls to the Catholic faith. It was hoped “by the help of divine mercy, that if such progress be continued with them, either those peoples will be converted to the faith or at least the souls of many of them will be gained for Christ." Portugal used many of its slaves in the early years on sugar plantations that Prince Henry had established on the island of Madeira, but slavery was also common in Portugal itself, where black slaves were used as domestics and as laborers.

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