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Henry the Navigator Facts & Worksheets

Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator (aka Infante Dom Henrique) is renowned for having sponsored exploration expeditions to the western coast of Africa and the Madeira Islands.

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Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator (aka Infante Dom Henrique) is renowned for having sponsored exploration expeditions to the western coast of Africa and the Madeira Islands. He earned the title “the Navigator” despite not participating in any expeditions.

See the fact file below for more information about Henry the Navigator, or you can download our 29-page Henry the Navigator worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY YEARS

  • Henry was born on March 4, 1394, in Porto, Portugal, and died on November 13, 1460, in Vila do Infante, near Sagres. He was the third child of English King John I and Philippa of Lancaster, who was John of Gaunt’s daughter.
  • Henry led and sponsored missions to satisfy his curiosity, expand Portugal’s wealth and territory, and promote Christianity. His acts ignited European adventure exploration. However, his actions also marked the start of capitalism, European colonization, and, ultimately, the transatlantic slave trade.
  • Henry’s career began in 1415 with the conquest of the Moroccan fortified city of Ceuta. King John’s three eldest sons, including Henry, invaded primarily to gain their knighthood through actual combat instead of the fictitious fighting of a competition.
  • In 1418, the Muslim rulers of Fez in Morocco and the kingdom of Granada in Spain attempted to reclaim the city. Henry rushed to the rescue with more soldiers, only to discover that the Portuguese garrison had driven off the attackers. Subsequently, Henry suggested attacking Granada, but he was then given peremptory commands from home by his father.
  • Henry was appointed lord of Covilhã and Duke of Viseu upon his return to Portugal. At age 26, he became the administrator general of the Order of Christ in 1420, replacing the Crusading order of the Templars in Portugal.
  • Henry also dedicated his life to the advancement of geographical knowledge. At the age of 22, he retired to the isolated Algarven promontory of Sagres, where he spent the following forty years. According to geographer Peter Hugill, “the world’s first technical ‘university'” was founded when he created an astronomical observatory, a map library, and a school for scientific explorers and navigators (World Trade Since 1451, 109).
  • There, he mastered the basics of Islamic and classical geography, as well as astronomy, mathematics, cartography, and navigation, and imparted this knowledge to his bold navigators. He was assisted by a large group of  Christian, Muslim, and Jewish scholars, ship designers, and cartographers who lived close to his palace.

SPONSORSHIP OF EXPEDITIONS

  • Henry started promoting Atlantic voyages along the western coast of Africa in the mid-1420s, primarily with funds authorized by the Order of Christ. He looked for ways to get involved in the West African trade, particularly gold and enslaved people, and to create potentially profitable colonies on underdeveloped islands, the most successful of which he assisted in founding Madeira.
  • Henry’s older brother, Prince Pedro, undoubtedly sparked Henry’s interest in geography through his travels. Pedro began a lengthy trip to Europe in 1425, traveling to England, Flanders, Germany, Hungary, the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (now Romania), and then to Italy, Aragon, and Castile on his way home. He was close enough to Ottoman Turkey in Eastern Europe to recognize the threat posed by Muslims. Pedro returned to Portugal in 1428 with a translated copy of Marco Polo’s travels from Italy, which he had done for Prince Henry.
  • After King John died in 1433, Henry’s other older brother, Duarte, acceded to the throne. Due to their inability to succeed in the Canary Islands, Henry’s captain moved farther down the Atlantic coast to search for other opportunities.
  • The most significant accomplishment, according to tradition, was the rounding of Cape Bojador in 1434 by Gil Eanes, which disproved a superstition that had previously discouraged seamen. But, this appears to be an exaggeration at best, given the imprecise reporting of the sailing instructions in Portuguese sources. It was Cape Juby, which many prior navigators had already passed, that Eanes mistook for Cape Bojador.
  • Over the years that followed, the captains of Henry advanced southward, going somewhat beyond the Río de Oro. On Pedro and Henry’s orders, they also started colonizing the recently discovered Azores.
  • Duarte reluctantly permitted Henry and Fernando, his younger brother, to launch an expedition against Tangier in 1437. Since Ceuta had shown to be a financial liability, they thought that controlling the nearby city would ensure Ceuta’s security and serve as a source of income.
  • Henry and Fernando’s attack on Tangier failed because Henry lacked good leadership and mismanaged the operation. If Fernando hadn’t been taken hostage in return for Henry’s broken promise to give up Ceuta, the Portuguese army would not have been able to retreat.
  • Not long before Henry returned in 1438, King Duarte died. At the time, Afonso V, his heir, was only six years old. Pedro took over as regent despite Leonor of Aragon, the boy’s mother, who would have gladly accepted Henry as regent. Nevertheless, Pedro and Henry collaborated for most of the next decade.
  • A caravel that brought back some gold dust and enslaved people from the coast of West Africa in 1441 put an end to mounting complaints that Henry was wasting money on a failed expedition. In 1445, one of Henry’s explorers, Dinís Dias, arrived at the mouth of the Sénégal River (believed to be a branch of the Nile).
  • A year later, another captain of Henry’s, Nuño Tristão, spotted the Gambia River. The slave trade with Portugal had grown to such an extent by 1448 that Henry ordered the construction of a fort and warehouse on Arguin Island.
  • In May 1449, Henry did not participate in the skirmish at Alfarrobeira, wherein an accidental crossbow shot killed Pedro.

FINAL MARITIME VENTURES

  • Henry spent much of his time at Sagres after Alfarrobeira. King Afonso V gave him the authority to send ships to the African Guinea coast to conduct trade.
  • He occasionally appeared at the court in Lisbon and assisted in setting up the king’s sister’s marriage to emperor Frederick III in 1450. 
  • For most of his final decade, Henry focused on funding expeditions. These only led to minor discoveries, as the prince now appeared to be primarily focused on making use of Africans held in slavery and, starting in 1452, Madeira’s sugar—in the areas he had already visited. The Portuguese navigator Diogo Gomes and the Venetian explorer Alvise Ca’ da Mosto were Henry’s final two significant mariners who found several of the Cape Verde Islands.
  • Resuming the previous attempt at conquering Morocco, Afonso V conducted an expedition with Henry in 1458 against Alcácer Ceguer (presently Ksar es-Seghir). Once the town surrendered, Afonso V gave his uncle the terms of surrender. After arriving back in Alcácer-Ceguer, Henry lived for two years.

LEGACY

  • Present-day Sierra Leone was likely the furthest south that Henry’s expedition traveled. However, following his passing, Portuguese research advanced much more quickly, indicating that the prince’s renown as an explorer’s patron had been greatly exaggerated.
  • While the colonization of Madeira was, for a while at least, a great success, most of his endeavors were unsuccessful. His greatest passion, the Canary Islands, was finally taken over by Spain, and it took Portugal more than 20 years after the prince’s passing to acquire a large portion of the African gold trade successfully. Though frequently expressed, his goal to convert the Canary Islands and West Africa inhabitants to Christianity was mainly unfulfilled. Henry’s long-standing reputation as a proponent of scientific advancement is also unsupported by reliable evidence.
  • Additionally, his support of the West African slave trade sparked an industry that resulted in the transatlantic slave trade, which had 10 to 12 million Africans sent out to the Americas as forced laborers decades later.
  • Though he personally wasn’t on the expeditions, Henry was the driving force behind them. The best cartographers, navigators, and shipbuilders of the era were brought together in the school of navigation he founded in Sagres, Portugal. The institution developed into a center of innovation, producing breakthroughs in navigational advancements in ship design and cartography that enabled long-distance maritime travel.

Henry the Navigator Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Henry the Navigator across 29 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Henry the Navigator. He earned the title “the Navigator” despite not participating in any expeditions.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Henry the Navigator Facts
  2. Henry’s Information Sheet
  3. Henry the Navigator
  4. Spon-SEARCH-ship
  5. Let’s Travel Back!
  6. Ad-VENTUREs
  7. Henry’s Treasure Hunting
  8. Whose Treasure is This?
  9. Vocabu-HENRY
  10. Event Matching
  11. Henry’s Legacy

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Henry the Navigator?

Henry the Navigator, born in 1394, was a Portuguese prince renowned for his patronage of exploration during the Age of Discovery. He played a pivotal role in promoting and financing maritime exploration, particularly along the coast of Africa.

What were Henry the Navigator’s contributions to exploration?

Henry sponsored numerous expeditions along the African coast, aiming to find a sea route to Asia and to expand Portugal’s influence and trade. He established a navigation school and encouraged the development of new ship designs and navigational techniques, significantly advancing maritime exploration.

What motivated Henry the Navigator’s interest in exploration?

Henry was influenced by a combination of factors, including the desire to spread Christianity, gain wealth through trade, and expand Portugal’s territorial holdings. Additionally, he sought to circumvent Muslim dominance in trade routes to Asia by finding an alternative sea route.

What were some key achievements of Henry the Navigator’s expeditions?

Henry’s expeditions explored and mapped significant portions of the West African coast, discovering new territories and establishing trading posts. These explorations laid the groundwork for Portugal’s later colonization efforts and the establishment of the Portuguese Empire.

What is Henry the Navigator’s legacy?

Henry’s patronage of exploration marked the beginning of the Age of Discovery and had a profound impact on world history. His efforts expanded geographical knowledge, facilitated European colonization of new territories, and initiated global maritime trade networks that reshaped the world economy. He is remembered as a visionary figure who significantly influenced the course of exploration and navigation.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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