A padrão ( Portuguese pronunciation: [pɐˈðɾɐ̃w] , standard ; plural: padrões ) is a stone pillar left by Portuguese maritime explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries to record significant landfalls and thereby establish primacy and possession. They were often placed on promontories and capes or at the mouths of major rivers. Early markers were simple wooden pillars or crosses but they deteriorated quickly in the tropical climate where they were often erected. Later, padrões were carved from stone in the form of a pillar surmounted by a cross and the royal coat of arms .
45-482: Diogo Cão was the first to place stone padrões on his voyage of discovery along the coast of Africa in 1482–1484. They had been carved ahead of time in Portugal and carried in his ship at the behest of King João II . Cão placed the pillars at points in what is now Gabon, Angola and Namibia. The first was installed at the mouth of the river Congo. In August 1483 he erected one on the headlands of Angola at Cabo Negro with
90-452: A cavalier of his household, and granted him an annuity of ten thousand reals and a coat of arms on which two padrões are depicted. The King also asked him to sail back to Kongo to repatriate the 4 men he left behind. That Cão, on his second voyage of 1484–1486, was accompanied by Martin Behaim (as alleged on the latter's Nuremberg globe of 1492) is very doubtful. But it is known that
135-606: A fleet under Francisco de Almeida to claim the new islands. Anxious to avoid war, the Catholic Monarchs arranged negotiations in the small Spanish town of Tordesillas . The result of this meeting would be the famous Treaty of Tordesillas , which sought to divide all newly discovered lands in the New World between Spain and Portugal. John sanctioned several anti-Jewish laws at the behest of parliamentary representatives, including restrictions on Jewish clothing and
180-430: A head but refused to let them stay longer than eight months. Of the some 20,000 families that entered Portugal, only 600 of the most affluent Castilian Jewish families succeeded in obtaining permanent residence permits. Jews unable to leave the country within the specified interval (often the result of poverty) were reduced to slavery and were not liberated until the reign of John’s successor, Manuel. Many children of
225-558: The Marquis of Vila Viçosa , opposed this conviction. Afonso sent an envoy to assess support for Joanna's cause and after receiving "favorable accounts respecting the partisans of the Infanta", he ordered war preparations to be made for the following spring. On 12 May 1475, Afonso and John entered Castile with an army of 5,600 cavalry and 14,000 foot soldiers. Afonso V proceeded to Palencia to meet Joanna while John returned home to govern
270-510: The Battle of Aljubarrota . By 1480, Cão was sailing off the coast of Africa in the service of João II . There is a record that he returned to Portugal with captured Spanish ships. When the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1480) confirmed Portugal's monopoly on trade and exploration along Africa's west coast, João II moved quickly to secure and expand his hold on the region. In 1481, a fleet of ten ships
315-770: The Catholic Monarchs . John responded by having Fernando arrested, tried and convicted of twenty-two counts of treason, and publicly beheaded in June 1483. Afterwards, the assets of the House of Braganza were confiscated and the family fled to Castile. Braganza’s execution caused even more intrigue among the upper-nobility, who rallied behind Diogo, Duke of Viseu , John’s cousin and brother to his Queen Consort, Eleanor. In September 1484, John summoned Diogo to his private chambers, confronted him with evidence of treason, and stabbed him to death. Other ringleaders involved in
360-653: The Congo River to the Yellala Falls . On the cliffs above this site an inscription was engraved which records the passage of Cão and his men: "Here arrived the ships of the illustrious monarch, Dom João the Second of Portugal – Diogo Cão, Pedro Anes, Pedro da Costa, Alvaro Pires, Pero Escolar". Information regarding Cão's death is scanty and contradictory. A legend on the globe created by Martin Behaim reads " hic moritur " (here he dies), seeming to indicate that
405-760: The Cortes in Evora and held a grand oath-taking ceremony in which magnates and other subjects were required to swear allegiance to him as their unequivocal superior. The ceremony was perceived as humiliating by members of the upper nobility who were accustomed to the feudal tradition of acknowledging the king as simply first among equals. At the Cortes, John further enraged nobles by declaring that property title deeds would undergo examination to ensure their validity, as opposed to being confirmed in mass. After representatives of commoners voiced grievances concerning abuses committed by
450-601: The Monastery of Batalha in 1499. The nickname the Perfect Prince is a posthumous appellation that is intended to refer to Niccolò Machiavelli 's work The Prince . John II is considered to have lived his life exactly according to the writer's idea of a perfect prince. Nevertheless, he was admired as one of the greatest European monarchs of his time. Isabella I of Castile often referred to him as El Hombre (The Man). The Italian scholar Poliziano wrote
495-572: The Sunda Kingdom and in commemoration he raised a padrão at the kingdom's main port, Sunda Kalapa , now part of Jakarta , Indonesia . The Luso Sundanese padrão was rediscovered in 1918 and is exhibited at the National Museum of Indonesia . Other notable explorers known to have erected padrões include Pero da Covilhã , Bartolomeu Dias , Goncalo Coelho and Jorge Álvares . The Lisbon Geographic Society managed to restore in
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#1732772139011540-558: The 20th century three padrões erected by Diogo Cão and one by Bartolomeu Dias. At the Dias Cross Memorial on the coast of South Africa 's Eastern Cape province, there is a padrão replica on a promontory at what is now known as Kwaaihoek ; it was placed by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 to mark the site of his most easterly landfall after becoming the first European navigator to round the Cape of Good Hope . The original padrão
585-476: The Committee, who rejected it, correctly, on the grounds that Columbus's estimate for a voyage of 2,400 nmi was only a quarter of what it should have been. In 1488, Columbus again appealed to the court of Portugal, and John II again granted him an audience. That meeting also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal with news of his successful rounding of
630-729: The Congo River mouth and marked it with a padrão erected on Shark Point, commemorating the Portuguese occupation. This padrão stood until 1642 when it was destroyed by the Dutch during their occupation of the Congo. Cão sailed up the great river for a short distance and commenced modest commerce with the natives of the Bakongo kingdom. He was told that their king lived farther upriver, so he sent four Christian native messengers to search for
675-500: The assistance of King Louis XI in his fight against Castile. In September 1477, disheartened that his efforts to secure support had proved fruitless, Afonso abdicated the throne and embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He was eventually persuaded to return to Portugal, where he arrived in November 1477. John had been proclaimed king days prior to Afonso's arrival, but relinquished his new title and insisted that his father reassume
720-528: The best-known poems in Fernando Pessoa 's book Mensagem , the only one published during the author's lifetime. He also figures strongly in the 1996 novel Lord of the Kongo by Peter Forbath. English Portuguese Jo%C3%A3o II John II ( Portuguese : João II ; [ʒuˈɐ̃w] ; 3 May 1455 – 25 October 1495), called the Perfect Prince (Portuguese: o Príncipe Perfeito ),
765-688: The center of the plaza, stands a bronze statue of him supported on a square granite pedestal base. In 1999, André Roubertou from the French Hydrographic Office (SHOM) named an undersea hole located off the southern coast of Portugal ( Gulf of Cádiz ) the Diogo Cão Hole. In 2018, a hopper dredger called the Diogo Cao and immatriculated in Luxembourg was launched afloat. Diogo Cão is the subject of Padrão , one of
810-500: The cortes for financial support, and strengthen the monarchy's power over the nobility. John established a new court called the Mesa or Tribunal do Desembargo do Paco to supervise petitions for pardon, privileges, freedoms, and legislation. He also instituted annual elections for the judges, clerks, and hospital stewards under federal jurisdiction. His attempts to centralize hospitals across Portugal were not implemented fully but paved
855-574: The crosses were fragmentary, but could be identified from their use of Portuguese limestone. In 1498 Vasco da Gama erected a padrão at Malindi in East Africa before setting across the Indian Ocean to Calicut. This is known today as the Vasco da Gama Pillar and includes the original cross, made from Portuguese limestone. In 1522 the Portuguese mariner Henrique Leme negotiated a treaty with
900-669: The crown. From 1477 to 1481, John and Afonso V were "practically corulers." John, given control of overseas policy in 1474 and concerned with consolidating Portuguese control of Africa, played a major role in negotiating the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479) with Spain that concluded the War of the Castilian Succession and ensured Portugal hegemony in the Atlantic south of the Canary Islands . The treaty also arranged for
945-763: The eldest daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu , on 22 January 1471. John accompanied his father in the campaigns in northern Africa and was knighted after the victory in the Conquest of Arzila in August 1471. Following the death of Henry IV of Castile in December 1474 and the accession of his niece, Isabella, a faction of the nobility hostile to Isabella offered the Castilian crown to Afonso V, provided he wed Henry's daughter, Joanna. John urged his father to marry Joanna and invade Castile, but leading nobles, namely
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#1732772139011990-420: The emancipation of Christian converts owned by Jews. However, the king’s personal attitude towards Portuguese Jews has been described as pragmatic, as he valued their economic contributions and defended them against unjust harassment. After the Catholic Monarchs expelled Jews from Castile and Aragon in 1492, John authorized the admission of tens of thousands of Jews into Portugal at the price of eight cruzados
1035-511: The enslaved Castilian Jews were seized from their parents and deported to the African island of São Tomé in order to be raised there as Christians and serve as colonists. In July 1491, John's only legitimate child, Prince Afonso , died in a horse accident, confronting Portugal with a succession crisis. The king wanted his illegitimate son Jorge to succeed him but Queen Eleanor was intent on securing succession for her younger brother Manuel,
1080-542: The explorer lost his life on the coast of Africa in 1486 during his second voyage. However, sixteenth-century historian João de Barros never mentions Cão's death but wrote instead of his return to the Congo, and subsequent taking of a native envoy back to Portugal. A report by a board of astronomers and pilots presented at a 1525 conference in Badajo clearly stated that his death happened near Serra Parda. A coast map by Henricus Martellus Germanus published in 1489 indicated
1125-410: The explorer revisited the Congo and erected two more padrãos on land beyond his previous voyage. The first was at Cabo Negro, Angola, the second at Cape Cross . The Cape Cross pillar probably marked the end of his progress southward, some 1,400 kilometers. Diogo Cão also embarked the four indigenous ambassadors, that he had promised not to keep for more than fifteen moons. Cão sailed 170 kilometers up
1170-514: The field, but overall the battle was indecisive. Despite its uncertain outcome, the Battle of Toro represented a great political victory for Isabella and Ferdinand and Afonso's prospects for obtaining the Castilian crown were severely damaged. John promptly returned to Portugal to disband the remnants of his army, arriving the first week of April. Months after the Battle of Toro, in August 1476, Afonso V travelled to France hoping to obtain
1215-415: The inscription: In the era of 6681 years from the creation of the world, 1482 years since the birth of Our Lord Jesus, the most High and Excellent and Mighty Prince, King D. João II of Portugal, sent Diogo Cão squire of his House to discover this land and place these pillars. Subsequent excavations and surveys, particularly by Eric Axelson in the 1950s, located the remains of a number of the padrões. Some of
1260-461: The kingdom. In March 1476, at Toro , Afonso V and John and some 8,000 men faced Castilian forces of similar size led by Isabella's husband, Ferdinand of Aragon , Cardinal Mendoza and the Duke of Alba . King Afonso V was beaten by the left and center of King Ferdinand's army and fled from the battlefield. John defeated the Castilian right wing, recovered the lost Portuguese Royal standard, and held
1305-489: The kingdom. On May 25, Joanna and Afonso were betrothed and proclaimed sovereigns of Castile. In the same month, John's wife, Eleanor, gave birth to the couple's only child to survive infancy, Afonso . In late 1475, Afonso, with only a fragment of his army remaining, wrote letters to John imploring him to provide reinforcements. John raised an army and left for Castile again in January 1476, appointing Eleanor regent of
1350-542: The known coast of Africa with the purpose of discovering the maritime route to India and breaking into the spice trade . During John II's reign, the following achievements were realised: In 1484, John appointed a Maritime Advisory Committee, the Junta dos Mathematicos , to supervise navigational efforts and provide explorers with charts and instruments. Around the same time, Christopher Columbus proposed his planned voyage to John. The king relegated Columbus's proposal to
1395-527: The legal heir presumptive. Following bitter disputes with Eleanor and a failed petition to Rome to have Jorge legitimized, John finally recognized Manuel as his heir in his will while on his deathbed in September 1495. John died of dropsy at Alvor on 25 October 1495 and was succeeded by Manuel I . He was initially interred at the Silves Cathedral , but his remains were transferred to
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1440-477: The location of a padrão erected by Diogo Cão in Ponta dos Farilhões nearby Serra Parda, with the legend "et hic moritur" ("and here he died"). The four pillars set up by Cão on his two voyages have all been discovered still on their original site, and the inscriptions on two of them from Cape Santa Maria and Cape Cross, dated 1482 and 1485 respectively, are still to be read and have been printed. The Cape Cross padrão
1485-419: The marriage of John's son, Afonso, to the eldest daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella . Following his father's death on 28 August 1481, John was proclaimed King of Portugal and crowned at Sintra on 31 August. After his official accession to the throne, John strived to diminish the power and influence of the nobility that had greatly accumulated during his father’s reign. In 1481, he assembled
1530-470: The nobility and clergy, he deprived nobles of their right to administer justice on their estates, instead authorizing crown officials or corregedors to inspect and dispense justice throughout the realm. Such aggressive assertions of royal supremacy roused resentment amongst the nobility. By 1482, Fernando, Duke of Braganza , the wealthiest nobleman in Portugal, and his followers had begun conspiring for John’s deposition, allegedly receiving support from
1575-557: The plot were persecuted. Ultimately, John succeeded in enriching the Crown by executing or exiling most of Portugal’s feudal lords and confiscating their estates. For the rest of his reign, he kept the creation of titles to a bare minimum. Under John's direction, commercial activity in Africa became a crown monopoly. The immense profits generated by African ventures enabled the king to fund exploration expeditions, reduce his reliance on
1620-469: The ruler and then proceeded south along the coast of present-day Angola where he erected a second padrão , probably marking the termination of this voyage, at Cabo de Santa Maria . When he returned to the Congo, Cão was annoyed to find that his messengers had not returned, so he abducted four local natives who were visiting his ship and returned with them to Portugal. He reached Lisbon by 8 April 1484, where John II ennobled him, promoting him from esquire to
1665-527: The southern tip of Africa (near the Cape of Good Hope ). Columbus then sought an audience with the Catholic Monarchs and eventually secured their support. While returning home from his first voyage early in 1493, Columbus was driven by storm into the port of Lisbon. John II welcomed him warmly but asserted that under the Treaty of Alcáçovas previously signed with Spain, Columbus's discoveries lay within Portugal's sphere of influence. The king then prepared
1710-499: The way for the radical reforms introduced during the reign of Manuel I. John II famously restored the policies of Atlantic exploration, reviving and broadening the work of his great-uncle, Henry the Navigator . The Portuguese explorations were his main priority in government, patronising both local and foreign men, such as João Afonso de Aveiro and Martin Behaim , to further his goals. Portuguese explorers pushed south along
1755-520: The work of Henry the Navigator , he sent out Cão, probably around midsummer 1482, to explore the African coast south of the equator. Diogo Cão filled his ship with stone pillars ( padrões ) surmounted by the cross of the Order of Christ and engraved with the Portuguese royal arms, planning to erect them at significant landmarks along his voyage of discovery. On the way, the expedition stopped at Sao Jorge da Mina to resupply. In August 1482, Cão arrived at
1800-527: Was King of Portugal from 1481 until his death in 1495, and also for a brief time in 1477. He is known for reestablishing the power of the Portuguese monarchy , reinvigorating the economy of Portugal, and renewing the Portuguese exploration of Africa and Asia. Born in Lisbon on 3 May 1455, John was the second son of Afonso V of Portugal and Isabella of Coimbra . At one month old, on 25 June 1455, he
1845-486: Was a Portuguese mariner and one of the most notable explorers of the fifteenth century. He made two voyages along the west coast of Africa in the 1480s, exploring the Congo River and the coasts of present-day Angola and Namibia. Little is known about the early life of Diogo Cão. According to tradition, he was born in Vila Real, Portugal , around 1452. His grandfather, Gonçalo Cão, had fought for Portuguese independence at
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1890-448: Was declared legitimate heir to the crown and received an oath of allegiance from the three estates . In 1468, Afonso V and Henry IV of Castile attempted to arrange a double marriage in which John would marry Henry's daughter, Joanna , and Afonso would marry Henry's niece and heir-presumptive, Isabella of Castile . However, Isabella refused to consent to the arrangement. Instead, John married Eleanor of Viseu , his first cousin and
1935-724: Was discovered by Eric Axelson in the 1930s – it had fallen, or was pushed, off the top of Kwaaihoek, and was in pieces in the gullies below. Axelson recovered these pieces and was able to reconstruct the stone monument; the reconstructed original now stands in the William Cullen Library of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg . Notes Citations Diogo C%C3%A3o Diogo Cão ( c. 1452 – 1486), also known as Diogo Cam ,
1980-542: Was dispatched to the Gold Coast to construct a fortress known as Sao Jorge da Mina . The fort would serve as a commercial center for trade (including in slaves) and an important point of resupply for Portuguese voyages. João II also re-instituted a program of exploration southward along the African coast, an initiative that had been held in abeyance during the war with Spain. Diogo Cão was selected to lead João's first voyage of exploration in 1482. When João II restarted
2025-602: Was long in Berlin (replaced on the spot by a granite facsimile) but was recently returned to Namibia; those from the Kongo estuary and the more southerly Cape Santa Maria and Cabo Negro are in the Museum of the Lisbon Geographical Society. In 1951, botanists named a genus of plants from western central tropical Africa in his honour, Diogoa . In Vila Real , the plaza Diogo Cão was named after him. In
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