Alfonso I. (El Conquistador, 'the Conqueror'), earliest king of Portugal, was the son of Henry of
Burgundy, conqueror and first Count of Portugal. Born in 1110, he was but two years of age at his father's death, so that the management of affairs fell into the hands of his ambitious and dissolute mother, Theresa of Castile. Wrestling the power from her in 1128, he turned his sword against Castile and the Moors, and defeated the latter, after a bloody struggle, at Ourique, July 25, 1139, proclaiming himself king of Portugal on the field of battle. The title was confirmed by the pope three years later. After settling the succession, the privileges of the nobility, and the administration of justice at the Cortes of Lamego, with the help of some casual English crusaders he took Lisbon (1147), and later, the whole of Galicia, Estremadura, and Elvas. He died at Coimbra, December 6, 1185.