Death of King Sebastian at Alcácer Quibir
In August 1578 the young King Sebastian I of Portugal led a crusading expedition into Morocco. At the Battle of Alcácer Quibir (the Battle of the Three Kings), his army was annihilated and Sebastian himself was killed, along with a large part of the kingdom's noble officer class. Sebastian left no heir. The crown passed briefly to his aged great-uncle, Cardinal Henry, whose death in 1580 extinguished the legitimate male line of the House of Aviz and opened a full dynastic succession crisis. Several claimants emerged, but Philip II of Spain — grandson of a Portuguese king — was the strongest, and he enforced his claim by military invasion. The result was the Iberian Union (1580-1640), joining Portugal and its global empire to the Spanish crown. The catastrophe also fed the Sebastianist messianic myth that the lost king would return. A tiny overstretched kingdom thus lost both its dynasty and its independence in the space of two years.
- Year: 1578 CE
- Category: Political
