Profile of the Day: Henry the Navigator
Do you have Portuguese ancestors? On this day in 1394, Henry the Navigator was born in Porto, Portugal.
Image: Henry the Navigator / Wikimedia Commons
The third child of the Portuguese king, John I, Henry was noted for his early exploration and expansion of Portuguese trade. At the age of 21, Henry, his brother and father captured the Moorish port of Ceuta in northern Morocco. The site had long been the base for Barbary pirates, who often raided villages on the Portuguese coast and sold their inhabitants to slavery. After this success, Henry began to further explore the coast of Africa, which had been largely unknown to Europe.
Today, many historians regard him as the main initiator of what would be known as the Age of Discovery, a period of great European exploration of the world.
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