The battle itself was almost anti-climactic, because the 45,000 men who traveled on 200 Portuguese ships caught the defenders of Ceuta off guard. An attack that commenced on the morning of August 14, 1415 ended with the capture of the town by nightfall. Henry distinguished himself in the battle, being wounded during the conquest of the city that was known as the “Key to the Mediterranean.”
Thus, one of the major northern trade centers of the Islamic world was now in the possession of Portugal. This African conquest was the first significant ripple of a wave of European expansion that would reach every continent on the globe.
Henry the Navigator : Born in 1394, Henry was the third son of King John I, a monarch from the House of Aviz, and his queen Philippa. He and his brothers lived in an era where honour was as much earned as inherited; the medieval concept of chivalry still held sway in European courts. Given this worldview, it is not surprising that John I led his sons and their assembled forces in an attack on the Moroccan stronghold of Ceuta in 1415.
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