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Editorial Review Product Description
Henry the Navigator is a legendary, almost mythical, figure in late medieval history. Together with Columbus he was considered one of the progenitors of 'modernity', a man who dared to challenge the scientific assumptions of his age and by so doing was responsible for liberating Europeans from the geographical constraints which had bound them since the collapse of the Roman Empire. His image as imperialist and, above all, maritime, mathematical, and navigational pioneer has been slow to die. Yet there has been no English life of this 'hero of both science and of action' since Beazley's of 1895. This book, therefore, represents the first re-evaluation of his life in over a century. Peter Russell has made use of much recently published documentary evidence to provide an eloquent, sophisticated and highly readable account of Henry's life.While full attention is given to all aspects of his voyages of discovery in the African Atlantic, including their economic and cultural consequences and the difficult questions of international law and papal jurisdiction, Russell also examines in detail the other spheres of activity which contributed to his fame, or sometimes brought it into question. He demonstrates the degree to which Henry's actions were motivated by the predictions of his astrologer an aspect of his career that has been neglected in the past and explains how it was that a man who was anything but 'modern' could have taken the first steps which were to change the political and demographic landscape not only of Europe but of much of the world. This is not a biography in the traditional sense. Too few of Henry's writings survive to provide the kind of material necessary to describe in any detail the emotional or daily life of the man. It is rather a history of Henry's actions, of the world in which they took place and the impact that they had upon the Europe of his time. ... Read more Customer Reviews (15) 
"And all the courses of my life do show / I am not in the roll of common men."
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.
Prince Henry, the Navigator:Crusader-Knight & Maritime Exploration
Sir Peter Russell's excellent biography of Prince Henry, the Navigator (1394-1460) provides the reader with multiple insights into a complex historical figure's role in Portuguese maritime exploration.The author draws his information from archival material, contemporary accounts of the Prince's ventures, as well as modern scholarship.A good deal of the text is a thoughtful and critical analysis of contemporary chronicles, as well as a broader perspective on Mediterranean statecraft, knowledge geography of north Africa (both the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts) that served as the Prince's sphere of activity. The reader gains an understanding of relationships between Portugal and other Iberian kingdoms, especially the rivalry with Castile, as well as negotiations with the papacy in the "Conciliar Era," and the years subsequent to the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. This study places Prince Henry within historical context, and within his family relationships, which are critical to an appraisal of his historical role.
Prince Henry is best understood as a medieval knight, infused with Christian chivalric crusading ideal, concepts likely learned from his English mother, Philippa of Lancaster, married to King John I. For most of his adult life he served as administrator of the Order of Christ, a crusading order.It is telling that, at his death, the full regalia as a Knight of the Garter are included in the inventory of his relatively few possessions.As a warrior, he aimed to seize territory from Muslim control in North Africa, such as Ceuta, captured by a Portuguese army under his leadership in 1415.Attempts to conquer Tangier in 1437 met with disaster, and (the ultimately fatal) imprisonment of Henry's brother, Fernando, to guarantee the peace.He also participated in capture of the minor fortress at Alcacer-Ceguer in 1458.In these ventures Prince Henry often emerges as a headstrong warrior, taking rash actions not always in the best interest of the military enterprise.After the fall of Constantinople, Prince Henry was considered as the leader for a crusade sponsored by Pope Callixtus III to retake that city, although this effort did not materialize.The author analyzes the complex diplomatic reasoning to justify expeditions to North African Muslim territory as well as to the Guinea coast, the justification being that these ventures sought to aid the cause Christian conversion while the opportunity to profit from commercial ventures went unmentioned or unreported.
It is as a navigator, and therefore, seaborne exploration and commerce, that Prince Henry is often recognized.Understanding the Prince's exact role in the history of navigation is much more complex than the triumphal statute in Lisbon facing the river Tagus or the supposed school of navigation he is said to have assembled at Sagres at the great fortress facing the Atlantic.Russell's biography sheds considerable light on Prince Henry's sponsorship of ventures along the Atlantic coast of Africa, gradually going further and further south of Cape Bojador, previously presumed to be the furthest point south that it is possible to sail without danger (although the Phoenicians penetrated this area, circumnavigating Africa 1,500 years earlier, information subsequently lost to succeeding centuries).Russell documents Portuguese voyages, made possible by the perfection of the caravel, ships able safely to transit the ocean, adapting concepts earlier utilized in the Mediterranean and Red Seas by Phoenician and Arab seamen centuries earlier.The success of one voyage contributed to subsequent ventures as knowledge of ocean currents and prevailing winds could be harnessed by the caravel captains to successfully sail southward and, most important, safely return to the port of Lagos.It is in the caravel that Portuguese mariners sailed to Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries, and Cape Verde islands, as well as sailed up some of the larger African rivers in search of gold, items of commercial value, and slaves.Prince Henry obtained royal warrants for these ventures, obtaining (usually) one-fifth of the value of commerce obtained by each voyage.He also challenged others or went beyond his royal warrant in navigation for Atlantic commerce, exploration, or competition with the Muslim caravan route in the slave trade.Caravels transported horses in exchange for slaves obtained on the Guinea Coast.
The Infante Dom Henrique, therefore, financed and authorized many of the Portuguese activities.Ironically (except for military campaigns) he did not sail on the Atlantic voyages.This is likely why the author titles this book, Prince Henry, "the Navigator." It is as a sponsor of exploration, an agent who encouraged commercial ventures and sought to profit from their success, within the broader context of a crusader, and the success of the Order of Christ, that this book reveals Prince Henry's contribution to navigation.
Thanks to Peter Russell's research and skilful writing, this is a truly excellent book, essential for an understanding of early modern history and the history of exploration and the foundation of Portuguese expansion overseas.The book contains a series of plates with images of maps and the Prince and a comprehensive bibliography.The only minor disappointment is an absence of more detailed maps concerning the Atlantic and African river ventures of navigators that sailed under the aegis of Prince Henry.
Into the Unknown......
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.
Great book, but don't take this one to the beach !!
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!
Henry the Navigator: Debunking or Hatchet Job?
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.
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A Bit Disapointed