Sebastian of Portugal
Sebastian I "the Desired" (in
Portuguese,
Sebastião I,
pron. IPA //,
o Desejado; born in
Lisbon,
January 20,
1554; presumed to have died at
Alcazarquivir,
August 4,
1578) was the sixteenth
king of Portugal and Algarves. He was the son of Prince
João of Portugal and his wife,
Joan of Habsburg, and was the grandson of
João III.
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Sebastian of Portugal |
Sebastian was born shortly after 8 AM the morning of January 20, 1554, Saint Sebastian's day and he took his name from that fact. Shortly after his birth a doctor, Fernando Abarca Maldonado, who had come to Portugal in the entourage of his mother and who probably had helped deliver him, cast his horoscope. Among other things, Maldonado predicted that Sebastian would be very attracted to women, marry and have many children, all of which proved to be utterly and completely wrong. He became heir to the throne on the death of his father in
1554 (two weeks before his birth), and succeeded to the throne three years later after the death of King João III, his grandfather. Since Sebastian was still an infant, the
regency was handled first by his Spanish grandmother,
Catarina of Spain, and then by his great uncle, Cardinal
Enrique of Evora. This period saw continued
Portuguese colonial expansion in
Angola,
Mozambique, and
Malacca, as well as the annexation of
Macau (in
1557).
Sebastian was a bright and lively boy, some say fragile, and the product of marriages within the same family for many generations. For example, he only had four great-grandparents (instead of the normal eight), three of whom were descendants of King
João I, one of them through both parents. There were cases of madness in the family, perhaps the most famous example of which was that of his great-grandmother, Queen
Joanna of Castile, "the Mad".
The young king grew up under the guidance and heavy influence of the
Jesuits. Recent research by Johnson of the University of Virginia and an authority on Portuguese history (see Bibliography below) indicates that he contracted gonorrhea at age ten, most likely through sexual abuse by his tutor and confessor, the Jesuit Padre
LuÃs Gonçalves da Câmara, a malady that tormented him throughout his short life.
Contemporary accounts (Johnson, Dois Estudos,
passim) suggest Sebastian was
homosexual, given to "cruising" at night for sex in the woods near his palace in Sintra and also on the beach along the river Tagus opposite Lisbon. Contemporaries commented on his avoidance of women, whom he would not permit to touch him, and he persistently evaded all marriage matches that were arranged for him. Very likely as a result of his physical and emotional problems, and to reassure himself about his masculinity, he became obsessed with jousting and horseback riding at which he spent much of his time. There is also good evidence that he was suicidal, constantly taking risks that put his life in danger. This death wish may well have underlain his determination to involve himself in a civil war in Morocco.
The court over which Sebastian presided was notably decadent. The courtiers, according to Francisco Manuel de Melo, made no attempt to hide their physical relationships with their pages and most of them intentionally spoke in an exaggerated and effeminate manner.
Upon attaining his majority in 1568, and despite having no son and heir, Sebastian began plans for a great crusade against the kingdom of
Fez, taking advantage of an ongoing succession struggle there. His plans were backed by the anti-Turkish Moroccan factions. Sebastian's uncle,
Philip II of Spain refused to be party to the plan, though he promised to send an expeditionary force that never showed up. The Portuguese army, mostly consisting of foreign mercenaries, crossed into
Morocco in
1578, and, against the advice of his commanders, Sebastian marched deep inland to join his Moroccan allies. At
Alcazarquivir (Field of the Three Kings) the Portuguese army was routed by
Ahmed Mohammed of Fez, and Sebastian was almost certainly killed in battle. Despite the warnings and pleas of several of his subjects for him to flee and escape, he rode headlong into the enemy lines where he was last seen battling wildly. Whether his body was ever found is uncertain, but Philip II of Spain claimed to have buried his remains in the Jerónimos monastery outside Lisbon after he ascended to the Portuguese throne in 1580. Uncertainty over Sebastian's fate led many Portuguese to believe he survived the battle and would return to claim his throne [see
Sebastianism].
He then passed into legend as a great Portuguese patriot, the "
sleeping king" who would return to help Portugal in its darkest hour; similar to the British
King Arthur or the German
Frederick Barbarossa. During the time of
Spain's occupation of Portugal, between
1580 and
1640, four different pretenders claimed to be the returned King Sebastian; the last of these pretenders, who was in fact an
Italian, was hanged in
1619. Even as late as the
19th century, Sebastianist peasants in the Brazilian
sertão believed that the king would return to help them in their
rebellion against the "godless"
Brazilian republic.
Sebastian was succeeded as king by his great uncle
Enrique, brother of his grandfather, King João III.
* J. M. Queirós Veloso, D. Sebastião, 1554â€"1578 (Lisbon, 1935). The fullest and best account of the reign. Veloso determined that Sebastian contracted a venereal disease, but hesitated to investigate the circumstances. That has been done by Prof. Johnson of the U. of Virginia in the book cited below.
* António Villacorta Baños-Garcia, Don Sebastián, rey de Portugal (Barcelona, 2001). Acceptable but deficient with regard to Sebastian and his illness and his personality.
* Harold B. Johnson, Dois Estudos Polémicos (Tucson, 2004), 47â€"99. Presents the evidence of Sebastian's sexual abuse and homosexuality.
Sebastian's ancestors in three generations`
