espair at this disaster and at the loss of Santarem and of Lisbon,
Alfonso appealed to Christendom for help. Among those who came were
Count Raymond of Toulouse, who was rewarded with the kingdom of Galicia
and the hand of his daughter and heiress Urraca, and Count Henry of
Burgundy, who was granted the counties of Porto and of Coimbra and who
married another daughter of Alfonso's, Theresa.

This was really the first beginning of Portugal as an independent state;
for Portugal, derived from two towns Portus and Cales, which lie
opposite each other near the mouth of the Douro, was the name given to
Henry's county. Henry did but little to make himself independent as he
was usually away fighting elsewhere, but his widow Theresa refused to
acknowledge her sister Urraca, now queen of Castile, Leon and Galicia,
as her superior, called herself Infanta and behaved as if she was no
one's vassal. Fortunately for her and her aims, Urraca was far too busy
fighting with her second husband, the king of Aragon, to pay much
attention to what was happening in the west, so that she had time to
consolidate her power and to accustom her people to think of themselves
as being not Galicians but Portuguese.

The breach with Galicia was increased by the favour which Theresa, after
a time, began to show to her lover, Don Fernando Peres de Trava, a
Galician noble, and by the grants of lands and of honours she made to
him. This made her so unpopular that when Alfonso Raimundes, Urraca's
son, attacked Theresa in 1127, made her acknowledge him as suzerain, and
give up Tuy and Orense, Galician towns she had taken, the people rose
against her and declared her son Affonso Henriques old enough to reign.

Then took place the famous submission of Egas Moniz, Affonso's governor,
who induced the king to retire from the siege of Guimaraes by promising
that his pupil would agree to the terms forced on his mother. This,
though but seventeen, Affonso refused to do, and next year raising an
army he expelled his mother and Don Fernando, and after four wars with
his cousin of Castile finally succeeded in maintaining his independence,
and even in assuming the title of King.

These wars with Castile taught him at last that the true way to increase
his realm was to leave Christian territory alone and to direct his
energies southwards, gaining land only at the expense of the Moors.

So did the kingdom of Portugal come into existence, almost accidentally
and withou