Rei, reino e papado: a destituição de D. Sancho II de Portugal (Séc. XIII)

Abstract

This research has the goal of investigate the relationship between the Portuguese monarchy and the Papacy during the thirteenth century, especially, the reign of Sancho II (1223-1248). King, Kingdom and Papacy intersect each other in our analysis about the deposition process that unseated the Portuguese king and, at the same time, those interactions are crucial regarding the dynamic research that we establish in this work. Sancho II had a troubled coexistence with the clergy and the papal curia, especially in the time of Gregory IX (1227- 1241) and Innocent IV (1243-1254). We argue that this problem came from the great power concentrated in the hands of Iberian clergy, beyond the break of the king with a certain faction of those prelates, in particular, Master Vicente and the archbishop of Braga, Silvestre Godinho. In the Council of Lyon (1245), the Portuguese monarch was deposed by Pope Innocent IV (called rex inutilis, in other words, inadequate to lead the government of the kingdom), due to a linkage involving not only the high Portuguese ecclesiastical dignitaries, but also the king’s brother, Afonso, the Count of Bologna. We have spent some effort to understand some details of papal action, especially the time when the king’s situation worsened. For that investigative task, we emphasize the documents issued by the Chancellery of Sancho II and the papal documentation designed to Portugal. We intend with our analysis to evince that far from being unable to rule, in different circumstances, the Portuguese monarch expressed the royal will, both in negotiations and in retaliations against opponents.