Prince Henry 'the Navigator': A life.

Peter Russell, Prince Henry 'the Navigator': A Life New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. xvi + 448 pp. $35. ISBN: 0-300-08233-9.

Peter Russell's Prince Henry is a major biography of an almost mythic figure who was medieval in outlook but paved the way for the age of exploration and discovery during the early modern period. Prior to his retirement, Sir Peter Russell was King Alfonso XIII Professor of Spanish Studies and had been for many years director of Portuguese studies at Oxford. His interest in Prince Henry dates back to World War II and since that time he has published many works on Portugal and Prince Henry. The volume under review is thus the cumulative effort of more than five decades of study.

Professor Russell discusses and evaluates his primary sources. He has used the archives in both Spain and Portugal and his Select Bibliography has over 400 entries. Russell's account is almost a modern "life and times" approach. He packs a great deal of specific information into each chapter as he attempts to recreate the times of Prince Henry (1394-1460). He tries to understand Henry as he was, not as the myth and legend created by Gome Eanes de Zurara and by the Portuguese. Russell sees Henry as a "more interesting if also far more perplexing figure than the uncomplicated culture hero of the mythmakers" (3).

Russell's fifteen chapters are topical, but a little repetition occurs throughout the book. More is gained by Russell's thematic approach to the various interests in Henry's career, than is lost by the minor repetitious intrusions that occur in later chapters. For example, he is able to deal with the Madeira and Azores Islands in a clear, understandable way covering a number of decades. The same is true when he devotes a chapter to Henry's desire and failure to gain control of the Canary Islands that belonged to Spain. With this approach, Professor Russell can devote a chapter to the caravels used by Henry's explorers and another to the beginnings of the West African Atlantic slave trade. Certain main themes appear in Russell's work. He discusses Henry's religiosity which he thinks is genuine. Henry was the head of the Order of Christ in Portugal as well as a founder of the University of Lisbon and a chair of theology there. Henry still thinks that conversion and enslavement are interchangeable terms for the West African slaves. Russell has a thorough discussion of the importance of passing Cape Bojador in West Africa in 1434 and concludes that counting the voyage of Pedro de Sintra, started before Henry's death, 2000 miles of the West African coast were covered through Henry's efforts.

Russell deals adequately with the cartographic evidence and underlines that the new discoveries were readily shared by Henry with foreigners and that no foreigners were excluded from trade with Henry's Atlantic islands or Guinea, except for the hated Castilians. In the period after Henry's death, secrecy and exclusivity would become the norm with the Portuguese, the Spanish, and later the Dutch. Russell concludes that Henry's work led to the establishment of an overseas Portuguese empire that would last for centuries.

Since Prince Henry only voyaged to Africa twice (both short trips to the Ceura area) and along the Portuguese coast, Russell refrains throughout his book from calling him "the Navigator." He also points our that there is no evidence that a navigational school existed at the Sagres (Algarve). Russell also stresses that the horoscope cast by an astrologer at Henry's birth shows that he was "predestined to devote himself both to making 'great and noble conquests and to the uncovering of secrets previously hidden from men'" [15]. Henry's motto was "a hunger to perform worthy deeds" [23]. His horoscope and his motto had a continuing impact on Henry for the rest of his life. Although he was the third son of King John I of Portugal and Queen Philippa, the daughter of John of Gaunt, Henry was the king's favorite son. From the moment that he won his spurs at age twenty-one with the conquest of the Moorish North African Fort of Ceuta in 1415, Henry seemed to live a charmed life. No matter how many setbacks Henry endur ed, especially the defeat of his Portuguese forces at Tangier in 1437, he seemed to escape blame and thus appears as a "Teflon" prince in Russell's evaluation of Henry's popularity in Portugal.

Professor Russell makes so many major points that it is difficult to cover them all in a brief review. A close reading of this brilliant study will reward all who are interested in the opening of the Atlantic through exploration and trade as well as the development of future imperialism and colonization.