Prince Henry and the Origins of European Expansion

The intriguing nature of the detective work clearly lies in the fact that the record of early European expansion is very meagre indeed and clues are often tantalisingly inconclusive. The problem arises partly from the fact that the Portuguese “discoveries” have always been seen as the beginning of the modern expansion of Europe overseas with all that that has entailed for the development of the modern world. Many historians have been aware of the problems posed by Gomes Eannes de Azurara’s chronicles, and none more so than P. E. Russell who, with an interval of 23 years between them, wrote two important articles on Prince Henry and his chronicler - neither of them, unfortunately, very accessible for the general reader. Academic historians have, on the whole, accepted the close relationship which Azurara established between the events of the life of Prince Henry and the origin of modern European expansion.