Prince Henry, the third surviving son of John I and Philippa of Lancaster, was born in the northern Portuguese city of Oporto on Ash Wednesday, 4 March 1394. If that traditional day of mourning and penitence was thought to be an unpropitious one for a prince's birth, no one was tactless enough to say so, at least not in writing. Zurara's report that the boy emerged from his mother's womb embracing a simulacrum of the Holy Cross, a piece of information that the chronicler seems to attribute to Henry himself, was seen as proof positive that the young prince's dedication to religion and to crusading against the infidel was prenatally arranged.
-Peter Russell, Prince Henry 'the Navigator': A Life
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment