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 Vila do Bispo, Algarve, in November 1460, having set the template for what became the Age of Discovery.