A talk by Peter Booker

The sixteenth century was one of fiercely held Christian religious feelings and concomitant energetic European expansion. To D Manuel I goes the prize for sponsoring Vasco da Gama´s epochal voyage to the Indian Ocean, and to D Sebastião the wooden spoon awarded for unrivalled military incompetence. The monarch between them was D João III, Manuel´s son, and Sebastião´s grandfather. Overseas, D João oversaw the consolidation of the Eastern Empire, the first seaborne contact with China and Japan, the foundations of the Brazilian Empire and the withdrawal from the Moroccan madness. At home, he is remembered for finally locating Portugal´s university at Coimbra, where his statue now stands, for the introduction of the Portuguese Inquisition and for his sponsorship of Christian missionaries. Could D João have left both Portugal and his empire in better shape? How does he rate among the monarchs of Portugal? Among Portuguese, is he remembered with the same kind of awe and respect with which the English look back on Henry VIII (1509 - 1547)?