Prince Henry "the Navigator" Book

This a superb biography of the intiator Europe's Age of Discovery. Anyone wishing to learn the story of why Prince Henry decided to promote Portuguese exploration will be amply satisfied by this account which gives a full description of the trips of exploration that he commissioned as well as his vigorous promotion of Portuguese colonization of Madeira and the Azores.

Peter Russell portrays Henry as a person standing third in line to the throne behind two older brothers and thus forced to make a place for himself in the world as none will be given to him. Military adventure was what he tried first. He persuaded his father to allow him to lead a successful conquest of the North African city of Ceuta when he was only 20. He would later lead a disastrous attack on Tangier in which his younger brother would be taken prisoner.

Henry would wind up devoting most of his life to promoting exploration, training in navigation and building a fleet of caravels for international commerce. As his older brother inherited the throne, Prince Henry chose not to marry because he would have no kingdom to bequeath to his heir. He did however leave a tremendous legacy to Europe through his work to promote to the expansion of European trade and political hegemony.