Customer Reviews

Prince Henry "the Navigator": A Life

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Peter Russell's subject was one about whom, I must confess, I knew very little. I was aware that Prince Henry had initiated exploration of the west coast of Africa and was indirectly responsible for the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Vasco de Gama. These are the facts found in any general survey of Western Civilization. However, the real character and life of Henry is much more interesting and complex.

Mr. Russell opens the story with a typical background concerning Henry's family. He then deals with Henry's horoscope. Despite being on the verge of the Modern World, horoscopes at birth were common at that time. This sets the stage, and to some extent, seems to explain much of Henry's life. Henry is not the "Monastic Prince," dedicated to exploration in the name of disinterested science and the glory of Portugal. Rather, he is a live, flesh and blood, product of the late Middle Ages. He seeks fame and honor as a Christian Crusader against Islam and the forces of darkness, with, like most crusaders, an eye to profit.

Henry did not initiate the Slave trade. It is worthy of note to see how a people, who believed that all men were descended from Adam, could justify the abomination of slavery. "Though in natural law there may be no distinction between a free man and a slave, for the practical working of society natural law in this case had been superceded by man-made law which treats freemen and slaves differently" (p. 249). Looking at our own day I can find instances of where Constitutional Rights have been sacrificed to the "higher good" of expediency. The Orwellian expression that "All men are created equal, but some men are more equal than others" applies.

In our current rush to dispel myths of the past we often leap from one extreme to another. We are quick to turn unvarnished heroes into despicable demons. The fallacy of unmixed blessings is replaced by one of unmixed curses. We sit upon our arrogant, high throne of judgment of those in the past, forgetting that there will be those in future who are apt to sit in judgment of us. Just as the Portuguese and Europeans mistakenly thought what they did was right, so too will future generations see our faults. Let us hope they will be fair and not politically motivated in their judgment.

Mr. Russell has written an excellent biography of the Prince, dispelling numerous myths, without falling into the currently fashionable morass of Political Correctness. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the period of European exploration and discovery.

I was very much looking forward to reading this book, a deep and scholarly portrait of one of the central figures in the history of Western civilization. I found it quite an interesting read, but I must say that I found it a bit disappointing in important ways.

Russell does a good job of looking with a clear eye at Henry's role in the expansion of the Atlantic slave trade as well as reporting on his almost comical crusading misadventures in Morocco. These failures, both moral and military, are an important part of the man's legacy.

But I would have liked to have seen a greater emphasis on, and ultimately respect for, Henry's central historical accomplishment. After all, this is the man who set in motion the Age of Discovery. Russell writes of Henry's maritime and trading initiatives with a tone that is often dripping with contempt and sarcasm. In virtually every area in which he might actually acknowledge the extraordinary events that Henry sponsored, he looks to diminish the vision and the energy that must have been required to sustain the activity. Only in a handful of passages does Russell even grudgingly acknowledge that some of his contemporaries were grateful to, respectful of and even admiring of Henry the man. He seems to take great pleasure at the end in pointing out that Henry died in debt. The more salient observation, it seems to me, is that a single man was able to sponsor such an unprecedented project with the resources that he gained from entrepreneurial trading activity, the resources of his royal family and only marginally overstretch his financial resources. The tragedy, of course, is that Henry's trading profits came heavily from the sales of black African his crews abducted along the way.

In this respect, I suggest that Russell has missed a wonderful opportunity to teach us more than we can find in fragments about an extraordinary, if flawed, man.

This is the definitive English language biography of Prince Henry of Portugal, known as "The Navigator." The author, a retired former director of Portuguese studies at Oxford, has researched his subject as thoroughly as the source material allows. As is the case with other exhaustively researched biographies, this one makes its subject appear less heroic than legend implies. Though Henry did sponsor the early Portuguese exploration of the West African coast, his motives were commercial and religious rather than scientific. Russell, describing Henry's failures as well as his successes, concludes that the Prince was essentially a man of the late middle ages, not the Renaissance. Nonetheless, Henry initiated the astonishing adventure of a small country extending its reach around the world.

Sir Peter Russell, late Professor of Spanish in Oxford University, has written a marvelously detailed biography of Prince Henry, commonly known as "The Navigator." Russell manages deftly to destroy most of the nonsense propagated about Henry by idolotrous biographers in the past, especially those who wrote during the period of the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal. The Salazar regime made Prince Henry into a national icon and loaded him down with numerous virtues he never had, such as scientific expertise, astronomical knowledge, etc., etc. At the same time scarcely a mention was made of his role as the founding father of the Afro-Atlantic slave trade and other far from admirable characteristics, such as his military incompetence and fraternal disloyalty. Russell's portrait puts paid to all the previous puffery. [One of his most delicious remarks is to the effect that "in Henryspeak" conversion and enslavement were "interchangable terms."] The books is based upon at least 40 years of research and is the most detailed biography ever of this late medieval figure. It is must reading for all students of European expansion and for those who wish to understand the modern world. A masterpiece!

Prince Henry 'the Navigator' provides the reader an intricately detailed account of the life of this crusader, geographical visionary, and aggressive entrepreneur. Seeking an end around the Saharan caravan trade, Henry pushed maritime exploration down Africa's Atlantic coast into a region shrouded in myth and mystery. Ostensibly claiming a crusader's fervor for the conversion of the barbarous, Henry initiated the Afro-Atlantic slave trade, charted Africa's western shoreline, commercially developed the Azores, battled desperately for control of the Canaries, and, as time and events allowed, launched invasions of Morocco with varying degrees of success.

Henry thrust medieval Europe into the Atlantic providing the impetus for empires to come. Like any mortal, he was imprisoned by the consciousness of his times, yet unfettered in his drive to explore the unknown. Both flawed and famous, P.E. Russell's Prince Henry is placed firmly within the chronological context. He can be detested for his commerce in flesh, his cynical exploitation of faith, and his innate impulse to conquer, but he would then be measured not by the standards of his day, but of our own. In settling this score, Russell admirably adheres to objectivity.

Despite spotty source material, P.E. Russell has presented a comprehensive, entirely readable account of Henry the Navigator. This is a solid and satisfying book which easily merits a rating of 4 stars.

Mr. Russell's book is superb in many ways: the prose is very elegant, even to a French speaking reader, the author's erudition is impressive and any amateur historian will find here a fascinating introduction to a side of European history which he or she is most unlikely to have been familiar with prior to acquiring Mr. Russell's book. That "the navigator" hardly ever set foot on a ship of any kind, I must confess I didn't know! His cupidity, pettiness in certain ways and magnanimity in other are very intriguing. The context is beautifully described. In other words, here is a splendid book by a very gifted historian. One word of caution, though: this is not an easy read! Don't take Mr. Russell's book to the beach after a stressful few months at the office. It takes a relaxed and attentive mind to really enjoy the book. I read it whilst in a yoga camp on a carrot juice fast. Both were perfect!

A fascinating book for history buffs and professionals, although maybe hard going for the general reader. It's wrong to criticize an author for not writing a different book, and this is a biography rather than a history of maritime technology but I felt shortchanged in the scientific history department. Why were the Portuguese able to make these voyages at this particular time? He mentions the caravels as better able to sail close to the wind than were purely square-rigged ships but does not say when and where they were developed or what the evidence is that this was a major development. Did anyone in Portugal possess any kind of sextant? Did the King really have "a court astrologer" ? Did Henry have access to the Majorcan maps? I'd like to have known more about these, and how they were circulated.
Sir Peter's main message is debunking. He wants to show that Henry was a narrow-minded incompetent, literally Quixotic, medieval bigot and not a scientifically curious Renaissance man. He holds no punches about his involvement in the slave trade.
Without endorsing post-mortem psychanalysis it seems strange that the author so resolutely withholds comment on Henry's celibacy and relationship with his adopted heir, while freely speculating about his motives in other areas.
I was puzzled about the fate of Henry's brother Don Pedro. Regent of Portugal. The table at the front shows that he was killed in 1449, and on page 357 of my paperback edition we are told that Henry contributed to his death, but no details are given. Did I miss something?

In 1385, when Henry the Navigator was born, Europe was a Eurasian backwater--fragmented and poor, inferior to China in marine technology, and far behind the Islamic world in geographic scope and cultural achievement. Two centuries afterward, Europeans dominated the world. Henry was one of the individuals at the root of this turnaround.

As Peter Russell's biography is at pains to point out, Henry himself had no such grandiose vision. As a younger son of King John I of Portugal, he helped lead an attack on the Moroccan port of Ceuta in 1415, and was given responsibility for governing and supplying the enclave afterward. In the course of this work he seems to have devloped an appreciation for the special capabilities of Portuguese sailing caravels, and to have seen how they might be used to promote Portuguese expansion overseas.

Beginning in the 1420's, Henry sent out a series of state sponsored voyages of exploration and commerce. As Russell relates, his motives were not always clear and were sometimes contradictory. At various times his captains sought uninhabited land to colonize, pagans to convert and enslave, allies to fight against Islamic North Africa, and new markets in which to trade. At times Henry seemed to relish fighting for its own sake, since the medieval culture in which he had been steeped required worthy enemies against whom to perform chivalric deeds of valor.

In the 1430's Henry's captains began charting the coast of Africa south of Morocco, which had previously been unknown to Europeans. By his death in 1460 they had reached as far as Sierra Leone and had established profitable trading relationships with many of the kingdoms of West Africa--with slaves, sadly, as one of the principal commodities. After Henry's death the project continued until Portuguese ships had rounded Africa and reached India and the Far East. Henry took time off from these endeavors to sponsor further (unsuccessful) attacks against Morocco and to intrigue against his fellow Christians in Castile and Aragon.

Russell, however, emphasizes Henry's medieval mindset so much that he almost misses what was unique about Henry's life and work. No other ruler of his time thought to direct state resources to maritime expansion. No other prince required his captains to keep such careful charts and records so that discovery might be cumulative. No one else, a century before Columbus, saw the potential for improved sailing ships to revolutionize commerce and warfare.

Nevertheless, for all its flaws, this is a ground-breaking and carefully researched biography, marked by judicious evaluation of source material. One only wishes that Russell had not been so anxious to debunk his subject as to make him seem like just another medieval grandee, rather than the remarkable innovator which he was.

Peter Russell has written an excellent book on one of Europe's most complex historical "star" personalities. The bottom line is that Prince Henry had a heart driven, albeit somewhat twisted, ambition that dramatically changed how the world was viewed forever.

By the way, good reveiw Mr. Putnam. Only one problem, it is not "Portuguese and Europeans", but "other Europeans". The Portuguese, if you would like to check are: Roman, Celtic, Swabian, Visigoth and Arab for the most part, just like most other Southern EUROPEAN peoples. Thank you.

As a boy given a Eurocentric education, I was enamored with the great explorers of the world - Columbus, Cabot, Magellan, Drake, et al. Prince Henry the Navigator was among the "et al", but I don't recall much of what I learned about him as a boy other than that he was a genius of open seas navigation who pushed Portuguese seafarers beyond the bounds of the known pre-Columbian flat earth. Now, a half century later, Sir Peter Russell tells me that that was partly myth.

Perhaps the greatest misimpression about Henry (b. 1394, d. 1460) was that he was a skilled seaman. In truth, while he was a sponsor of Portuguese exploration down the western coast of Africa and an avid student of navigational science, he did not personally participate in any voyages of exploration and discovery. Still, he is an historical figure of considerable if not overriding importance and one who merits the sort of knowledgeable and well-written study that Russell has given us.

Among other things, Henry was an ardent Crusader against the Muslim infidel (it is primarily due to Henry's zeal along these lines that Portugal ended up with possessions and colonies in Northwest Africa), he was thoroughly imbued with and practiced the ethos of chivalry, he was an early champion of organized and crown-sponsored oceanic discovery, and he was a driving force behind the model of commercial exploitation of discovered/conquered lands that evolved into European colonialism. He also promoted and profited from slave-trading.

It is primarily because of his role in the expansion of slave-trading that Henry's current stature in history is as much villain as hero. And the rationale by which he, as a devout Christian, justified slave raiding and trading is scarcely believable at this remove. "The Prince * * * thought of his role in turning Portugal into a major slave-trading country as an evangelizing achievement of which he could be proud, and one which would make a major contribution to his posthumous fame in history as a tireless battler to bring the Christian message to infidels and pagans." For Henry, conversion and enslavement were essentially interchangeable terms. "[A]ny `inconveniences' the converted slave might have to endure in this life being as nothing when compared with the certainty of eternal salvation that conversion brings with it." Russell believes that Henry actually believed this malarkey. But lest we overheap opprobrium on Henry, it should be noted that he and the Portuguese did not initiate the Atlantic slave trade: before the first Portuguese slave-raiding expedition landed with its human cargo in Lagos in 1444, Genoese, Catalan, and Castilian merchants had long been in the habit of buying in the Atlantic ports of Morocco black slaves imported from the Sudan by trans-Saharan caravans.

PRINCE HENRY `THE NAVIGATOR' is solid history. It also, in its magisterial way, is very British history. But even for British history, it is very well-written. Here is one example from early in the book: "A more certain contributory cause of the Prince's future relentless pursuit of personal fame was his status as a third son; from an early age he seems to have made it plain to those around him that he was unlikely to turn out to be a man content to settle for the subordinate role that this accident of birth seemed to have assigned to him."

At one point, Russell describes Henry as "a thoroughly traditional late-medieval Christian of his time". That sort of person is now quite alien. Much of the value of this book inheres in its explication of just what is entailed by "a thoroughly traditional late-medieval Christian" of the early 15th Century. PRINCE HENRY `THE NAVIGATOR' is not only a biography of a notable figure from history, it also is a profile of an age. I cannot pretend that it in any way is "essential reading", but no reader would be poorer for the experience.

P.S.: Javier Marías dedicated his magnum opus, the three-volume novel "Your Face Tomorrow", to Sir Peter Russell. Russell, who when he wrote PRINCE HENRY (in his 80s) was the most distinguished scholar in the English-speaking world on matters of Iberian history, had been a mentor of sorts to Marías. Russell also was the thinly disguised model for Sir Peter Wheeler, who is the wise elderly mentor to the protagonist Jaime Deza in "Your Face Tomorrow".

P.S.S.: The quote used as the title for this review is from Shakespeare's "King Henry the Fourth, Part I". Russell used it as an epigraph to the book and it does encapsulate the complexity of Prince Henry, something this review cannot begin to approximate.