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Portugal Settlement and Cultivation
The rapid advance of Afonso Henriques from Coimbra to
Lisbon
created a vast, relatively uninhabited tract of land
between
north and south. The repopulation of this deserted
territory with
Christian settlers began immediately. Afonso Henriques
invited
many of the crusaders to remain after the siege of Lisbon
and
granted them lands, especially at Atouguia and Lourinhã,
as
payment for their help. In addition, Sancho I directed
most of
his time and energy to settling the new monarchy, for
which he is
known as The Populator (O Povoador). He sent agents
abroad,
especially to Burgundy, the land of his ancestors, to
recruit
colonists, who settled at various places, but especially
at Vila
dos Francos (present-day Azambuja). Such communities
spread
rapidly throughout the realm thanks to the protection of
the
king, who saw in them not only a way to populate the
kingdom but
also a way to diminish the power of the nobility.
The vacant territory between north and south was also
filled
by various monastic orders, including the Franciscans,
Dominicans, and Benedictines. The Roman Catholic Church
granted
charters to the orders to build monasteries and cultivate
the
surrounding land. The most successful of these orders were
the
Benedictines, who built a monastery at Alcobaça and
planted the
surrounding land in orchards that remain to this day. This
monastery grew to over 5,000 monks and occupied a huge
territory
stretching from Leiria in the north to Óbidos in the
south,
including the port-town of Pederneira (present-day
Nazaré).
In the valley of the Tagus and to the south, settling
communities of unarmed colonists was too dangerous;
therefore,
early Portuguese kings called upon religious-military
orders to
fortify, cultivate, and defend this territory. Founded in
the
early twelfth century to wage war against infidels and
protect
pilgrims, these religious orders of knights had become
powerful
in the Holy Land and in many areas of Europe. Several
orders of
knight-monks were given huge tracts of land in the Tagus
Valley
and the Alentejo as recompense for their military service
to the
king at a time when he had no standing army on which to
rely. The
most successful of these knight-monks was the Order of the
Templars, which was granted territory on the Zêzere River
(Rio
Zêzere), a tributary of the Tagus, where they built a
fortified
monastery in Templar fashion at Tomar. The Templar domain
gradually grew to encompass territory from Tomar in the
north to
Santarém in the south and as far west as the lands of the
Benedictines at Alcobaça. As more territory in the
Alentejo was
reconquered, additional orders were granted tracts of land
to
defend and cultivate. The Order of the Hospitallers was
given
land surrounding Crato; the Order of the Calatravans
(later Avis)
was established at Évora; and the Order of the Knights of
Saint
James was given lands at Palmela.
Data as of January 1993
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