Misplaced Pages

#79920

74-547: The house was founded by King John I of Portugal , Grand-Master of the Order of Aviz and illegitimate son of King Pedro I (of the Portuguese House of Burgundy ), who ascended to the throne after successfully pressing his claim during the 1383–1385 Portuguese interregnum . Aviz monarchs would rule Portugal through the Age of Discovery , establishing Portugal as a global power following

148-567: A royal badge for the Portuguese monarchy, apart from being part of the personal standard of King Manuel I . It acts as a supporter to the Coat of arms of Portugal , also present on the current Flag of Portugal . Owing to the association with King Manuel I and other Aviz monarchs with the Portuguese discoveries , the armillary sphere was commonly used as a symbol representing Portuguese sovereignty across

222-623: A 16th-century document in the archives of the Torre do Tombo in which she was named as Teresa Lourenço. In 1364, by request of Nuno Freire de Andrade, a Galician Grand Master of the Order of Christ , he was created Grand Master of the Order of Aviz . When John's half-brother Ferdinand I died in October 1383 without a male heir, strenuous efforts were made to secure the succession for Beatrice , Ferdinand's only daughter and heir presumptive . Beatrice had married King John I of Castile , but popular sentiment

296-519: A maritime-influenced Mediterranean climate , similar to nearby Spanish and Moroccan cities such as Tarifa , Algeciras or Tangiers . The average diurnal temperature variation is relatively low; the average annual temperature is 18.8 °C (65.8 °F) with average yearly highs of 21.4 °C (70.5 °F) and lows of 15.7 °C (60.3 °F) though the Ceuta weather station has only been in operation since 2003. Ceuta has relatively mild winters for

370-533: A period of political instability persisted, under competing interests from the Marinids and Granada as well as autonomous rule under the native Banu al-Azafi . The Fez finally conquered the region in 1387, with assistance from Aragon . On the morning of 21 August 1415, King John I of Portugal led his sons and their assembled forces in a surprise assault that would come to be known as the Conquest of Ceuta . The battle

444-457: A small Hindu community that had existed in Ceuta since 1893, connected to Gibraltar's. When Spain recognized the independence of Spanish Morocco in 1956, Ceuta and the other plazas de soberanía remained under Spanish rule. Spain considered them integral parts of the Spanish state, but Morocco has disputed this point. Culturally, modern Ceuta is part of the Spanish region of Andalusia . It

518-565: A small village of Muslims and Christians surrounded by ruins until its resettlement in the 9th century by Mâjakas, chief of the Majkasa Berber tribe, who started the short-lived Banu Isam dynasty. His great-grandson briefly allied his tribe with the Idrisids , but Banu Isam rule ended in 931 when he abdicated in favor of Abd ar-Rahman III , the Umayyad ruler of Córdoba, Spain . Chaos ensued with

592-451: A worthy ally. The marriage consolidated an Anglo-Portuguese Alliance that endures to the present day. John I of Castile died in 1390 without issue from his wife Beatrice, which meant that a competing legitimate bloodline with a claim to the throne of Portugal died out. John I of Portugal was then able to rule in peace and concentrate on the economic development and territorial expansion of his realm. The most significant military actions were

666-675: Is known officially in Spanish as Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta (English: Autonomous City of Ceuta ), with a rank between a standard municipality and an autonomous community . Ceuta is part of the territory of the European Union . The city was a free port before Spain joined the European Union in 1986. Now it has a low-tax system within the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union . Since 1979, Ceuta has held elections to its 25-seat assembly every four years. The leader of its government

740-639: Is one of the special member state territories of the European Union , and it is one of several Spanish territories in Africa , which include Melilla and the Canary Islands . It was a regular municipality belonging to the province of Cádiz prior to the passing of its Statute of Autonomy in March 1995, as provided by the Spanish Constitution, henceforth becoming an autonomous city. Ceuta, like Melilla and

814-539: Is recognized chiefly for his role in Portugal's victory in a succession war with Castile , preserving his country's independence and establishing the Aviz (or Joanine) dynasty on the Portuguese throne. His long reign of 48 years, the most extensive of all Portuguese monarchs, saw the beginning of Portugal's overseas expansion. John's well-remembered reign in his country earned him the epithet of Fond Memory ( de Boa Memória ); he

SECTION 10

#1733106009080

888-497: The 1383–1385 Portuguese interregnum , King John I of Portugal took the Cross of the Order of Aviz as his heraldic badge , adding it to the coat of arms of Portugal and the according royal flags. King John I enforced the imagery of his position as Grand-Master of the Order of Aviz, lending its name to his newly founded royal house and its cross as his personal charge on the royal arms. This

962-671: The Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea , the Strait of Gibraltar is an important military and commercial chokepoint . The Phoenicians realized the extremely narrow isthmus joining the Peninsula of Almina to the African mainland made Ceuta eminently defensible and established an outpost there early in the 1st millennium   BC. The Greek geographers record it by variations of Abyla ,

1036-453: The Canary Islands , was classified as a free port before Spain joined the European Union . Its population is predominantly Christian and Muslim , with a small minority of Sephardic Jews and Sindhi Hindus , from Pakistan. Spanish is the official language, while Darija Arabic is also a well-spoken language there. The name Abyla has been said to have been a Punic name ("Lofty Mountain" or "Mountain of God ") for Jebel Musa ,

1110-567: The Congress of Deputies , the lower house of the Cortes Generales (the Spanish Parliament). As of the November 2019 election, this post is held by María Teresa López of Vox . Ceuta is subdivided into 63 barriadas ("neighborhoods"), such as Barriada de Berizu, Barriada de P. Alfonso, Barriada del Sarchal, and El Hacho. Ceuta maintains its own police force. The defence of

1184-658: The Iberian Union . During the Iberian Union, 1580 to 1640, Ceuta attracted many settlers of Spanish origin and became the only city of the Portuguese Empire that sided with Spain when Portugal regained its independence in the Portuguese Restoration War of 1640. On 1 January 1668, King Afonso VI of Portugal recognised the formal allegiance of Ceuta to Spain and ceded Ceuta to King Carlos II of Spain by

1258-557: The Islamic conquest of the Maghreb around 710. Instead, the rapid Muslim conquest of Spain produced romances concerning Count Julian of Septem and his betrayal of Christendom in revenge for the dishonor that befell his daughter at King Roderick 's court. Allegedly with Julian's encouragement and instructions, the Berber convert and freedman Tariq ibn Ziyad took his garrison from Tangiers across

1332-540: The Minho in the course of two months as part of a war against Castile in opposition to its claims to the Portuguese throne. Soon after, the king of Castile again invaded Portugal with the purpose of conquering Lisbon and removing John I from the throne. John I of Castile was accompanied by French allied cavalry while English troops and generals took the side of John of Aviz (see Hundred Years' War ). John and Nuno Álvares Pereira , his constable and talented supporter, repelled

1406-793: The Peninsula of Almina overlooking the port is one of the possible locations of the southern pillar of the Pillars of Hercules of Greek legend (the other possibility being Jebel Musa ). The Ceuta Peninsula has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because the site is part of a migratory bottleneck, or choke point, at the western end of the Mediterranean for large numbers of raptors , storks and other birds flying between Europe and Africa. These include European honey buzzards , black kites , short-toed snake eagles , Egyptian vultures , griffon vultures , black storks , white storks and Audouin's gulls . Ceuta has

1480-588: The Philippine Dynasty succeeded to the throne following the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 . The founder of the House of Aviz, King John I of Portugal , was born in 1357 as the illegitimate child of King Pedro I of Portugal , a member of the Portuguese House of Burgundy , and Teresa Lourenço , daughter of a Lisbon merchant. In 1364, at 7 years old, John was made Grand Master of the Order of Aviz , henceforth becoming known as John of Aviz. The House of Aviz

1554-524: The Portuguese Empire . The symbol was a consistent motif in both Manueline and Neo-Manueline architecture. It also became particularly associated with Colonial Brazil and the subsequent United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves . An important element of Portuguese heraldry since the 15th century, the armillary sphere was many times used in Portuguese naval and colonial flags, mainly in Brazil . It

SECTION 20

#1733106009080

1628-522: The Spanish Army of Africa and rebelled against the Spanish republican government; his military uprising led to the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. Franco transported troops to mainland Spain in an airlift using transport aircraft supplied by Germany and Italy . Ceuta became one of the first battlegrounds of the uprising: General Franco's rebel nationalist forces seized Ceuta, while at the same time

1702-556: The Treaty of Lisbon . The city was attacked by Moroccan forces under Moulay Ismail during the Siege of Ceuta (1694–1727) . During the longest siege in history, the city underwent changes leading to the loss of its Portuguese character. While most of the military operations took place around the Royal Walls of Ceuta , there were also small-scale penetrations by Spanish forces at various points on

1776-509: The hinterland and made the more defensible Septem their regional capital in place of Tingis. Epidemics , less capable successors and overstretched supply lines forced a retrenchment and left Septem isolated. It is likely that its count ( comes ) was obliged to pay homage to the Visigoth Kingdom in Spain in the early 7th century. There are no reliable contemporary accounts of the end of

1850-450: The province of Cádiz on the Spanish mainland by the Strait of Gibraltar and it shares a 6.4 km (4 mi) land border with M'diq-Fnideq Prefecture in the Kingdom of Morocco . It has an area of 18.5 km (7 sq mi; 4,571 acres). It is dominated by Monte Anyera, a hill along its western frontier with Morocco, which is guarded by a Spanish military fort. Monte Hacho on

1924-601: The siege and conquest of the city of Ceuta by Portugal in 1415, and the successful defence of Ceuta from a Moroccan counterattack in 1419. These measure were intended to help seize control of navigation off the African coast and trade routes from the interior of Africa. The raids and attacks of the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula created captives on both sides who were either ransomed or sold as slaves. The Portuguese crown extended this practice to North Africa. After

1998-475: The "illustrious generation". Ceuta Ceuta ( UK : / ˈ sj uː t ə / , US : / ˈ s eɪ uː t ə / , Spanish: [ˈθewta, ˈsewta] ; Arabic : سَبْتَة , romanized :  Sabtah ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean . Ceuta

2072-474: The African coast. These led to the discovery of the uninhabited islands of Madeira in 1417 and the Azores in 1427; all were claimed by the Portuguese crown. Contemporaneous writers describe John as a man of wit who was very keen on concentrating power on himself, but at the same time possessed a benevolent and kind demeanor. His youthful education as master of a religious order made him an unusually learned king for

2146-529: The Azores to subjection. The Cortes in Tomar acknowledged Philip II of Spain as King Philip I of Portugal on 16 April 1581 after this Spanish military intervention. From 1581, the House of Aviz had ceased to rule any portion of continental Portugal; António, Prior of Crato held out in the Azores into 1582 as António I of Portugal ; the last of his allies in the islands finally surrendered in 1583. The House of Aviz

2220-578: The Azores, on 26 July 1582. António then retreated to Terceira , where he supervised the raising of levies for defense, but in November he left Angra do Heroísmo en route to France to persuade the French to furnish more troops, 800 of which arrived in June 1583. Philip had despatched Santa Cruz with an overwhelming force which left Lisbon on 23 June, and reaching sight of São Miguel some time after 7 July, finally reduced

2294-571: The Crown of Portugal to another. The title of Grand Master of the Order of Aviz was permanently incorporated into the Portuguese Crown toward the end of rule by the House of Aviz, in 1551. The House of Aviz would rule Portugal until its fall in the 1580 to the Philippine Dynasty . after he had ordered the Duke of Alba to take Portugal by force. This period of Portuguese history saw the ascent of Portugal to

House of Aviz - Misplaced Pages Continue

2368-603: The Mauretanian king Ptolemy in AD   40 and seized his kingdom, which Claudius organized in AD ;42, placing Septem in the province of Tingitana and raising it to the level of a colony . It subsequently was Romanized and thrived into the late 3rd century, trading heavily with Roman Spain and becoming well known for its salted fish . Roads connected it overland with Tingis (Tangiers) and Volubilis . Under Theodosius I in

2442-564: The Middle Ages. His love for knowledge and culture was passed on to his sons, who are often referred to collectively by Portuguese historians as the " illustrious generation " ( Ínclita Geração ): Edward , the future king, was a poet and a writer; Peter , the Duke of Coimbra, was one of the most learned princes of his time; and Prince Henry the Navigator, the duke of Viseu, invested heavily in science and

2516-697: The Moroccan coast, and seizure of shipping in the Strait of Gibraltar. During the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) , Spain allowed Britain to occupy Ceuta. Occupation began in 1810, with Ceuta being returned at the conclusion of the wars. Disagreements regarding the border of Ceuta resulted in the Hispano-Moroccan War (1859–60) , which ended at the Battle of Tetuán . In July 1936, General Francisco Franco took command of

2590-458: The Philippine domination. Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão, writing in 1956 and counting António as a king, dates the end of the dynasty's rule of Portugal as occurring in 1581–1582. The Cortes of Tomar had acclaimed Philip II of Spain as Philip I of Portugal in 1581, subsequently António's forces were utterly defeated at sea by Álvaro de Bazán at the Battle of Ponta Delgada off São Miguel Island in

2664-579: The Portuguese victory in the Battle of Aljubarrota on 14 August 1385, where he defeated John I of Castile. A formal peace between Portugal and Castile would not be signed until 1411. To mark his victory, John founded the Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória, known as the " Batalha Monastery " ("Battle Monastery"), whose chapel became the burial place of the princes of the new dynasty of Aviz. The descendants of King John I were still also Masters of Aviz, though at times that title passed to one descendant of John and

2738-598: The Romans eventually accepted his conquests and he continued to raid them anyway, he soon lost control of Tingis and Septem in a series of Berber revolts. When Justinian decided to reconquer the Vandal lands , his victorious general Belisarius continued along the coast, making Septem a westernmost outpost of the Byzantine Empire around 533. Unlike the former ancient Roman administration, however, Eastern Rome did not push far into

2812-550: The ancient name of nearby Jebel Musa . Beside Calpe , the other Pillar of Hercules now known as the Rock of Gibraltar , the Phoenicians established Kart at what is now San Roque , Spain . Other good anchorages nearby became Phoenician and then Carthaginian ports at what are now Tangiers and Cádiz . After Carthage 's destruction in the Punic Wars , most of northwest Africa

2886-517: The attack in the decisive Battle of Aljubarrota on 14 August 1385. John I of Castile then retreated. The Castilian forces abandoned Santarém , Torres Vedras and Torres Novas , and many other towns were delivered to John I by Portuguese nobles from the Castilian side. As a result, the stability of the Portuguese throne was permanently secured. On 2 February 1387, John I married Philippa of Lancaster , daughter of John of Gaunt , who had proved to be

2960-538: The attack on Ceuta, the king sought papal recognition of the military action as a Crusade . Such a ruling would have enabled those captured to be legitimately sold as slaves. In response to John's request, Pope Martin V issued the Papal bull Sane charissimus of 4 April 1418, which confirmed to the king all of the lands he might win from the Moors. Under the auspices of Prince Henry the Navigator , voyages were organized to explore

3034-485: The bastions of Coraza Alta, Bandera and Mallorquines. Luís de Camões lived in Ceuta between 1549 and 1551, losing his right eye in battle, which influenced his work of poetry Os Lusíadas . In 1578 King Sebastian of Portugal died at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir (known as the Battle of Three Kings) in what is today northern Morocco, without descendants, triggering the 1580 Portuguese succession crisis . His granduncle,

House of Aviz - Misplaced Pages Continue

3108-411: The beginning of its decline during John III 's reign. John III was succeeded in 1557 by his grandson Sebastian I of Portugal , who died, aged 24 and childless, in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir . Sebastian was succeeded by his great-uncle Henry , aged 66, who, as a Catholic Cardinal, also had no children. The Cardinal-King Henry died two years later, and a succession crisis occurred when pretenders to

3182-506: The city came under fire from the air and sea forces of the official republican government. The Llano Amarillo monument was erected to honor Francisco Franco ; it was inaugurated on 13 July 1940. The tall obelisk has since been abandoned, but the shield symbols of the Falange and Imperial Eagle remain visible. Following the 1947 Partition of India , a substantial number of Sindhi Hindus from current-day Pakistan settled in Ceuta, adding to

3256-423: The city to pursue further enterprises in the area. From 1415 to 1437, Pedro de Meneses became the first governor of Ceuta. The Marinid Sultanate started the 1419 siege but was defeated by the first governor of Ceuta before reinforcements arrived in the form of John, Constable of Portugal and his brother Henry the Navigator , who were sent with troops to defend Ceuta. Under King John I 's son, Duarte ,

3330-458: The coat of arms derived from that of the Kingdom of Portugal was added to the center; the original Portuguese flag and coat of arms of Ceuta remained unchanged, and the modern-day Ceuta flag features the configuration of the Portuguese shield . John's son Henry the Navigator distinguished himself in the battle, being wounded during the conquest. The looting of the city proved to be less profitable than expected for John I, so he decided to keep

3404-520: The colony at Ceuta rapidly became a drain on the Portuguese treasury. Trans-Saharan trade journeyed instead to Tangier . It was soon realized that without the city of Tangier, possession of Ceuta was worthless. In 1437, Duarte's brothers Henry the Navigator and Fernando, the Saint Prince persuaded him to launch an attack on the Marinid sultanate. The resulting Battle of Tangier (1437) , led by Henry,

3478-565: The creation of the Portuguese Empire . In 1494, Pope Alexander VI divided the world under the dominion of Portugal and Spain with the Treaty of Tordesillas . The House of Aviz has produced numerous prominent figures in both European and global history, including Prince Henry the Navigator , King Manuel I of Portugal , and Holy Roman Empress Isabella of Portugal . Numerous Aviz dynasts have also claimed thrones or titles across Europe, including King Peter V of Aragon and John, Prince of Antioch . The Aviz ruled Portugal from 1385 until 1580, when

3552-621: The development of nautical pursuits. In 1430, John's only surviving daughter, Isabella , married Philip the Good , Duke of Burgundy, and enjoyed an extremely refined court culture in his lands; she was the mother of Charles the Bold . On 2 February 1387, John I married Philippa of Lancaster , daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster , in Porto . From that marriage were born several famous princes and princesses of Portugal ( infantes ) that became known as

3626-404: The elderly Cardinal Henry , succeeded him as King, but Henry also had no descendants, having taken holy orders . When the cardinal-king died two years after Sebastian's death, three grandchildren of King Manuel I of Portugal claimed the throne: Philip prevailed and was crowned King Philip I of Portugal in 1581, uniting the two crowns and overseas empires in what is historically referred to as

3700-625: The enclave is the responsibility of the Spanish Armed Forces ' General Command of Ceuta (COMGECEU). The Spanish Army 's combat components of the command include: The command also includes its headquarters battalion as well as logistics elements. In 2023, the Spanish Navy replaced the Aresa -class patrol boat P-114 in the territory with the Rodman -class patrol boat Isla de León . Ceuta itself

3774-474: The fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031. Following this, Ceuta and Muslim Iberia were controlled by successive North African dynasties. Starting in 1084, the Almoravid Berbers ruled the region until 1147, when the Almohads conquered the land. Apart from Ibn Hud 's rebellion in 1232, they ruled until the Tunisian Hafsids established control. The Hafsids' influence in the west rapidly waned, and Ceuta's inhabitants eventually expelled them in 1249. After this,

SECTION 50

#1733106009080

3848-418: The late 4th century, Septem still had 10,000 inhabitants, nearly all Christian citizens speaking African Romance , a local dialect of Latin. Vandals , probably invited by Count Boniface as protection against the empress dowager , crossed the strait near Tingis around 425 and swiftly overran Roman North Africa . Their king, Gaiseric , focused his attention on the rich lands around Carthage ; although

3922-408: The latitude, while summers are warm yet milder than in the interior of Southern Spain, due to the moderating effect of the Straits of Gibraltar. Summers are very dry, but yearly precipitation is still at 849 mm (33.4 in), which could be considered a humid climate if the summers were not so arid. Since 1995, Ceuta is, along with Melilla , one of the two autonomous cities of Spain. Ceuta

3996-513: The particular backing of the rising bourgeoisie of Lisbon ; the nobility were split, with the majority favoring the legitimist Beatrice. Troops under General Nuno Álvares Pereira defeated a small Castilian army at Atoleiros, while John of Castile had to lift a siege to Lisboa, mainly due to a plague that hit his army and killed his wife Beatrice. This was followed, however, by a larger invasion of Castilian and Portuguese troops loyal to John of Castile. John of Aviz's rule became established fact with

4070-459: The position of the city was consolidated with the taking of Ksar es-Seghir (1458), Arzila and Tangier (1471) by the Portuguese. The city was recognized as a Portuguese possession by the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479) and by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). In the 1540s the Portuguese began building the Royal Walls of Ceuta as they are today including bastions , a navigable moat and a drawbridge. Some of these bastions are still standing, like

4144-590: The southern Pillar of Hercules . The name of the mountain was in fact Habenna ( Punic : 𐤀𐤁‬𐤍‬ , ʾbn , "Stone" or " Stele ") or ʾAbin-ḥīq ( 𐤀𐤁‬𐤍𐤇‬𐤒 , ʾbnḥq , "Rock of the Bay"), about the nearby Bay of Benzú . The name was hellenized variously as Ápini ( Ancient Greek : Ἄπινι ), Abýla ( Ἀβύλα ), Abýlē ( Ἀβύλη ), Ablýx ( Ἀβλύξ ), and Abilē Stḗlē ( Ἀβίλη Στήλη , "Pillar of Abyla") and in Latin as Abyla Mons ("Mount Abyla") or Abyla Columna ("the Pillar of Abyla"). The settlement below Jebel Musa

4218-410: The status of a European and world power. The conquest of Ceuta in 1415 was its first venture in colonial expansion, followed by a great outpouring of national energy and capital investment in the exploration of Africa , Asia and Brazil with the founding of colonies to exploit their resources commercially. The period also includes the zenith of the Portuguese Empire during the reign of Manuel I and

4292-455: The strait and overran the Spanish so swiftly that both he and his master Musa bin Nusayr fell afoul of a jealous caliph , who stripped them of their wealth and titles. After the death of Julian, sometimes also described as a king of the Ghomara Berbers , Berber converts to Islam took direct control of what they called Sebta. It was then destroyed during their great revolt against the Umayyad Caliphate around 740. Sebta subsequently remained

4366-478: The throne in the name of his wife, but under the Treaty of Salvaterra that had been the basis for John's marriage to Beatrice, the unpopular Leonor was left as Regent until such time as the son of Beatrice and John would be 14 years old. In April 1385, amidst popular revolt and civil war, the Cortes of Coimbra declared John, Master of Aviz, as king John I of Portugal. He was half-brother of Ferdinand and natural son of Ferdinand's father and predecessor Pedro I. He had

4440-400: The throne including Catherine, Duchess of Braganza , Philip II of Spain, and António, Prior of Crato claimed the right to inherit it. António, Prior of Crato, was acclaimed king in several cities around the country in 1580, twenty days before Philip II of Spain invaded Portugal and defeated the supporters of António in the Battle of Alcântara . Although António had been proclaimed king, and

4514-476: Was a debacle. In the resulting treaty, Henry promised to deliver Ceuta back to the Marinids in return for allowing the Portuguese army to depart unmolested, which he reneged on. Possession of Ceuta indirectly led to further Portuguese expansion . The main area of Portuguese expansion, at this time, was the coast of the Maghreb , where there was grain, cattle, sugar, and textiles, as well as fish, hides, wax, and honey. Ceuta had to endure alone for 43 years, until

SECTION 60

#1733106009080

4588-421: Was a navigation instrument used to calculate distances and represents the importance of Portugal during the Age of Discovery , as well as the vastness of its colonial empire when the First Republic was implemented. John I of Portugal John I ( Portuguese : João [ʒuˈɐ̃w̃] ; 11 April 1357 – 14 August 1433), also called John of Aviz , was King of Portugal from 1385 until his death in 1433. He

4662-413: Was against an arrangement in which Portugal would have been virtually annexed by Castile. The 1383–1385 Portuguese interregnum followed, a period of political anarchy, when no monarch ruled the country. On 6 April 1385, the Council of the Kingdom (the Portuguese Cortes ) met in Coimbra and declared John, then Master of Aviz, to be king of Portugal. This was followed by the liberation of almost all of

4736-420: Was almost anticlimactic, because the 45,000 men who traveled on 200 Portuguese ships caught the defenders of Ceuta off guard and suffered only eight casualties. By nightfall the town was captured. On the morning of 22 August, Ceuta was in Portuguese hands. Álvaro Vaz de Almada, 1st Count of Avranches was asked to hoist what was to become the flag of Ceuta , which is identical to the flag of Lisbon , but in which

4810-429: Was also referred to as "the Good" ( o Bom ), sometimes "the Great" ( o Grande ), and more rarely, especially in Spain , as "the Bastard" ( Bastardo ). John was born in Lisbon as the natural son of King Peter I of Portugal by a woman named Teresa, who, according to the royal chronicler Fernão Lopes in the Chronicle of the King D. Pedro I , was a noble Galician . In the 18th century, António Caetano de Sousa found

4884-403: Was attached to the province of Cádiz until 1995, the Spanish coast being only 20 km (12.5 miles) away. It is a cosmopolitan city, with a large ethnic Arab-Berber Muslim minority as well as Sephardic Jewish and Hindu minorities. On 5 November 2007, King Juan Carlos I visited the city, sparking great enthusiasm from the local population and protests from the Moroccan government. It

4958-467: Was effected in various ways: by insertion within the bordure, alternating with the castles; more commonly inserted within the shield, and occasionally shown outside the shield with the latter laying over it. The Cross of Aviz is a cross flory vert (a green cross with a fleur-de-lys at the end of each arm) The armillary sphere has been an important element of Portuguese heraldry since the reign of King Manuel I of Portugal . The armillary sphere became

5032-402: Was established as a result of the dynastic crisis following the 1383 death of Ferdinand I. Ferdinand's widow Leonor Telles was disliked by both the nobility and the commoners for having left her first husband and for having had their marriage annulled in order to marry King Ferdinand. Ferdinand's designated heir was their only surviving child Beatrice , married to John I of Castile who claimed

5106-723: Was later renamed for the seven hills around the site, collectively referred to as the "Seven Brothers" ( Ancient Greek : Ἑπτάδελφοι , romanized :  Heptádelphoi ; Latin : Septem Fratres ). In particular, the Roman stronghold at the site took the name "Fort at the Seven Brothers" ( Castellum ad Septem Fratres ). This was gradually shortened to Septem ( Σέπτον Sépton ) or, occasionally, Septum or Septa . These clipped forms continued as Berber Sebta and Arabic Sabtan or Sabtah ( سبتة‎ ), which themselves became Ceuta in Portuguese ( pronounced [ˈseu̯tɐ] ) and Spanish (locally pronounced [ˈseu̯ta] ). Controlling access between

5180-413: Was left to the Roman client states of Numidia and—around Abyla— Mauretania . Punic culture continued to thrive in what the Romans knew as "Septem". After the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC, Caesar and his heirs began annexing North Africa directly as Roman provinces but, as late as Augustus , most of Septem's Berber residents continued to speak and write in Punic . Caligula assassinated

5254-403: Was still regarded as rightful king in some of the Azores Islands until 1583, his legitimacy as a monarch is still disputed by historians. Only a small minority of historians (even in Portugal) accept the period of twenty days between Anthony's acclamation and the Battle of Alcântara as his reign. In Portugal he generally considered not as a national king, but as a patriot who led armed resistance to

5328-522: Was succeeded in Portugal by Philip's personal union of the Crowns of Portugal and Spain. In Portuguese history this is variously referred to as the Philippine Dynasty, the House of Habsburg, or the House of Austria. Portugal and Spain would share a common monarch until 1640, upon the proclamation of the Duke of Braganza as John IV of Portugal . Following his success in succeeding to the throne following

5402-618: Was the Mayor until the Autonomy Statute provided for the new title of Mayor-President . As of 2011 , the People's Party (PP) won 18 seats, keeping Juan Jesús Vivas as Mayor-President, which he has been since 2001. The remaining seats are held by the regionalist Caballas Coalition (4) and the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE, 3). Owing to its small population, Ceuta elects only one member of

5476-515: Was the first time a Spanish head of state had visited Ceuta in 80 years. Since 2010, Ceuta (and Melilla) have declared the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha , or Feast of the Sacrifice, an official public holiday. It is the first time a non-Christian religious festival has been officially celebrated in Spanish ruled territory since the Reconquista . Ceuta is separated by 17 km (11 mi) from

#79920