Dom Sebastião

(1554-1578)

D. Sebastião nicknamed "the Desire" and "the Sleeper", was King of Portugal from 1557 until his death.He was the son of Joao Manuel, Prince of Portugal and Joana of Austria.

D. Sebastião ascends to the throne with only three years of age and after the death of its grandfathers the king D. João III. Initially and due to his young age, D. Sebastião began with a minority regency, led first by his grandmother Queen Catherine of Austria and later by her great-uncle Cardinal Henry of Portugal.

In 1568 D. Sebastião assumed the government at the age of fourteen.

Motivated to revive the glories of the Reconquest, D. Sebastião decides to arm an army in Morocco, planning a crusade, after Mulei Mohammed requested his help to recover the throne.

On August 4, 1578, the battle of Alcácer-Quibi ocurred, where Portugal suffered a defeat at the hands of the Sultan Abd al-Malik (Mulei Moluco), in which much of the army was lost.

He died in North Africa, in the battle of Alcácer Quibir, leaving no descendants, paving the way for the delivery of the Portuguese crown to the Filipes of Spain.

It is said that D. Sebastião, when he was advised to surrender and surrender his sword to the victors, that the king refused with haughtiness, saying: "Real liberty will only be lost with life." and we are told that on hearing them, the knights invested against the infidels.

D. Sebastian followed them and disappeared in the eyes of everyone involved in the crowd, leaving the doubt about their true end.

Around him was born the myth of "Sebastianism," the hope that one day he would return, on a foggy morning, to save the country from all its troubles.