Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Battle of Toro: Portugal's Last Royal Duel
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked about Portugal's empire, the carreira, the cartaz, the inquisition — all the big oceanic stories. But before all that, Portugal was a small kingdom on the edge of Europe, and it nearly became something else entirely — a dynastic union with Castile, not through diplomacy, but through a marriage and a war. Luna: Oh, you mean the whole Joanna la Beltraneja affair? Lucas: Exactly. In 1474, King Henry IV of Castile died, and his only child was a daughter, Joanna, but there were whispers — loud whispers — that she wasn't actually his, that her father was a court favorite named Beltrán de la Cueva. So the Castilian nobles backed Henry's half-sister Isabella instead. Isabella had just married Ferdinand of Aragon, which made her a formidable rival. Joanna's supporters called on the obvious ally — her uncle, King Afonso V of Portugal. He was her uncle, and he was also her betrothed, which was, you know, a bit much, but marriage among royals was politics. Luna: Hold on, her uncle? That's... a marriage to her uncle? Lucas: Yes, but it wasn't consummated because Joanna was only twelve, and the marriage was more of a political tool to give Afonso a claim to the Castilian throne. Afonso was a crusader king, the one who had taken Tangier earlier, and he was eager to expand his power. So he crossed the border in May 1475, proclaimed himself king of Castile, and married Joanna. But Isabella and Ferdinand were not about to hand over their kingdom. The war that followed is called the War of Castilian Succession, and it dragged on for months. Lucas: The campaigns were messy — small skirmishes, shifting loyalties, sieges. Afonso had support from some disgruntled Castilian nobles, but Isabella's faction was more organized, and Ferdinand was a skilled commander. By the winter of 1475, Afonso was in the city of Toro, on the Duero river, while Ferdinand maneuvered to cut him off. The two armies finally faced each other on the first of March, 1476, in a field outside Toro. Luna: So this is the battle that decides everything? Lucas: It should have been, but it wasn't. The battle was a confused, chaotic mess. The two armies clashed at dawn, and for hours it was a brutal back and forth. Afonso's Portuguese troops actually broke Ferdinand's left wing, and at one point it looked like the Portuguese would win. But Ferdinand's right wing, under a commander named Cardinal Mendoza — yes, a cardinal leading troops — held firm, and the battle ended in a stalemate. Both sides claimed victory. Afonso even had a Te Deum sung in Toro to celebrate, but he knew he hadn't won a decisive victory. His claim to the throne was effectively dead. Luna: Wait, so nobody won? That seems anticlimactic. Lucas: In terms of the battle, yes, it was a draw. But strategically, it was a disaster for Portugal. Afonso couldn't get reinforcements, his treasury was empty, and the Castilian nobles who had supported him started defecting to Isabella. He eventually went to France to beg for help from Louis XI, but that failed too. In 1479, he signed the Treaty of Alcáçovas, which ended the war. Portugal gave up its claim to the Castilian throne, and in exchange, Spain recognized Portuguese control over the Atlantic south of the Canaries. That was huge — it essentially gave Portugal a free hand in Africa and the route around it, which would lead to Vasco da Gama's voyage. But for Afonso, it was a bitter pill. Luna: So the Treaty of Alcáçovas was like the Tordesillas before Tordesillas. Lucas: Exactly. That's a perfect way to frame it. The treaty divided the Atlantic between Spain and Portugal along a line south of the Canaries. Spain kept the Canaries, but Portugal got everything else — which, at the time, meant the African coast and the islands of Madeira, the Azores, and Cape Verde. That treaty set the stage for Tordesillas in 1494, which extended the line to the other side of the world. So Toro, even though it's mostly forgotten, was a turning point. If Afonso had won decisively, Portugal and Castile might have been united under a single crown a century before the Iberian Union of 1580. The entire history of the Atlantic would have been different. Luna: So this is like the Portugal that could have been. Lucas: Yeah, that's the fascinating thing. After Toro, Afonso V fell into a deep melancholy. He abdicated the throne to his son, Prince John, and retreated to a monastery, where he died in 1481. His reign was long but ended in disappointment. He had won Ceuta in Morocco, but he lost the crown of Castile. And his son, João II, would go on to be the king who sent explorers down the African coast, the one who funded the voyages that eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope. So in a way, the defeat at Toro set Portugal on its maritime path. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Luna: It's interesting how often a big defeat ends up shaping a nation's future in unexpected ways. Lucas: And speaking of shaping futures, if you've been getting something out of these conversations, the way we keep this podcast ad-free is through listener support. If today was useful to you, maybe just a little, you can help us keep going at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just know that we appreciate anyone who does. Luna: Yeah, it's a nice way to say thanks, and it really helps us keep doing this. Lucas: Now, where were we? Ah, right — the aftermath of Toro. The treaty of Alcáçovas also had a personal dimension. Joanna la Beltraneja, the woman at the center of it all, was forced to renounce her claims and retire to a convent in Coimbra, Portugal. But she didn't just disappear — she lived for another fifty years, and she kept signing documents as 'La Reina' — the Queen. She never really accepted that she wasn't the rightful queen of Castile. That's a human story that gets lost in the big political narrative. Luna: Wow, she held on to that identity for fifty years? Lucas: She did. She spent her life in a gilded cage, but she never gave up her title. There's something poignant about that. Meanwhile, Afonso's son João II took the throne, and he was a different kind of king — more pragmatic, less chivalric. He didn't dream of conquering Castile; he focused on building Portugal's maritime empire. He explored the African coast, opened the slave trade, and negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas with Spain. So in a way, Toro was the end of an old chapter and the beginning of a new one. The Portugal that became a global empire was born out of that defeat. Luna: It's like the empire started when they stopped looking north. Lucas: Exactly. They turned their gaze south and west, to the unknown ocean, and that was their true destiny. Toro might be a footnote in most history books, but for Portugal, it was the moment they chose the sea over the land. And that choice changed the world.