Prince Henry the Navigator

Henry was the third son of King John I, founder of the House of Aviz, born in March 1394. He pushed his father to take Ceuta, a Muslim port across from Iberia, in 1415, and there glimpsed the Saharan trade routes ending at the North African shore. The encounter sparked a fixation: Africa's coastline, the Atlantic islands, the Christian legend of Prester John, the promise of trade beyond the Mediterranean's grip. He procured the new caravel and turned Portuguese exploration into a systematic enterprise, directing expeditions that crept down Western Africa and out into open ocean. He died in Vil…