Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry the Navigator, who lived from 4 March 1394 to 13 November 1460, was a Portuguese prince, the third child of King John I of Portugal, and a central figure in the early Portuguese Empire, often credited as one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery even though he did not personally sail on the voyages associated with his name. Using the newly developed caravel ship, Henry directed the early development of Portuguese exploration and maritime trade with other continents through the systematic exploration of the West African coast, the islands of the Atlantic Ocean, and the search for new trade routes. He supported his father in the 1415 conquest of Ceuta, a Muslim port on the North African coast opposite the Strait of Gibraltar, an event often taken as the opening of Portugal's overseas expansion. Regarded as the patron of Portuguese discoveries for the ships, funding and institutional support he provided to generations of navigators, Henry died in Vila do Bispo in the Algarve in 1460, decades before the voyages he had set in motion reached India and the wider world.