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(1469). After Henry's death in 1474, the
king of Portugal, having married La Bel-
traneja, invaded Castile to support her claim
to the throne. Within a few years this enter-
prise failed in turn. The Portuguese ruler
abandoned his campaign, and La Beltraneja,
like Henry, faded away, although she would
live on in dignified retirement for many
decades. The question of her parentage has
remained unresolved by all the arts and sci-
ences of modern times. Isabella emerged as
the unchallenged queen of Castile, joining
her kingdom with that of her husband, Fer-
dinand of Aragon, in a united Spain.
The reign of Henry IV has continued to
be the subject of endless fascination for
Spanish historians, with its mixture of court
intrigue, political maneuvering, and recur-
rent warfare. From its medieval anarchy
emerged the strong monarchy that would
build a Spanish empire. For this reason, at
least, the enigmatic figure of King Henry
has in latter days been accorded the sympa-
thy that he never received in his own
unhappy lifetime.
ences transformed the youthful poet into a
serious journalist committed to advancing
Portugal's cultural standing in Europe and
safeguarding her intellectual freedom. Her-
culano founded the journal
O Panorama,
which monitored the international scene
for his countryfolk and was personally
involved in overthrowing a new authoritar-
ian regime that challenged constitutional
liberties in 1851.
Working with other intellectuals, such as
A
LMEIDA
G
ARRETT
, Herculano furthered the
growth of cultural institutions and from
1839 was head of the Royal Library, which
became a center of scholarship. Like many
of his literary associates, Herculano initially
approached history as a romantic art and
published a number of novels modeled on
those of Sir Walter Scott. This tendency was
not entirely banished from the early chap-
ters of his historical magnum opus. His
His-
tory of Portugal
appeared in four successive
volumes between 1847 and 1853, and it
gave a very detailed account of Portugal's
origin and growth. The first volume, which
carried the story up to the middle of the
13th century, was based on a mass of hith-
erto neglected documents that he employed
to emphasize the rise of the middle class
and the growth of democratic institutions.
A similar liberal bias was evident in his
other major historical work,
Da origine e
establecimento da inquisicão em Portugal
(
His-
tory of the Origins and Establishment of the
Inquisition in Portugal,
1854-59). Although
less notorious than its Spanish counterpart,
the Portuguese Inquisition was to men of
Herculano's principles a sinister and dan-
gerous force whose deeds must be recorded
and criticized by the historian. In his breadth
of activities, his international contacts, and
his progressive activism, Herculano became
Herculano de Carvalho e Araújo,
Alexandre
(1810-1877)
Portuguese historian and novelist
Portugal's literary heritage owes much to
Herculano, whose work ranged from the
poetical through the historical romance to
a multivolume authoritative history. Con-
sistently a champion of liberal causes, he
opposed the reactionary regime of Dom
M
IGUEL
in the early 1830s and left Portugal
to join the opposition forces mustering
abroad. Returning as a member of the lib-
eration army in 1832, he participated in the
defeat and ouster of the Miguelite forces.
These harsh political and military experi-
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