Editing Prince Henry the Navigator (section)

== Life ==
[[File:Casa do Infante (Porto).JPG|thumb|left|upright|The [[Casa do Infante]], in [[Porto]], is traditionally considered Prince Henry's birthplace.]]
Henry was the third surviving son of [[John I of Portugal|King John I]] and his wife [[Philippa of Lancaster|Philippa]],<ref name="mariners">{{Cite web |url=http://ageofex.marinersmuseum.org/index.php?type=explorer&id=33 |title=Prince Henry the Navigator |publisher=The Mariners' Museum |access-date=19 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407085820/http://ageofex.marinersmuseum.org/index.php?type=explorer&id=33 |archive-date=7 April 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> sister of [[Henry IV of England|King Henry IV of England]]. He was baptized in [[Porto]], and may have been born there, probably when the royal couple was living in the city's old [[mint (coin)|mint]], now called [[Casa do Infante]] (Prince's House), or in the region nearby. Another possibility is that he was born at the Monastery of Leça do Balio, in [[Fort of Leça da Palmeira|Leça da Palmeira]], during the same period of the royal couple's residence in the city of Porto.<ref name="Bradford, 1960">Bradford, 1960.</ref>

Henry was 21 when he, his father and brothers [[Conquest of Ceuta|captured the Moorish port of Ceuta]] in northern [[Morocco]]. Ceuta had long been a base for [[Barbary pirate]]s who raided the Portuguese coast, depopulating villages by capturing their inhabitants to be sold in the [[African slave trade]]. Following this success, Henry began to explore the coast of Africa, most of which was unknown to Europeans. His objectives included finding the source of the West African gold trade and the legendary Christian kingdom of [[Prester John]], and stopping the pirate attacks on the Portuguese coast.
[[File:Porto April 2019-7.jpg|thumb|right|Prince Henry at the 1415 [[Conquest of Ceuta]], considered the beginning of the [[Portuguese Empire]].]]
At that time, the cargo ships of the Mediterranean were too slow and heavy to undertake such voyages. Under Henry's direction, a new and much lighter ship was developed, the [[caravel]], which could sail farther and faster.<ref>{{cite book|first1=John|isbn=978-0-87951-397-9|last1=Merson|location=Woodstock, New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/geniusthatwaschi0000mers/page/72 72]|postscript=– A companion to the PBS Series ''The Genius That Was China''|publisher=The Overlook Press|title=The Genius That Was China: East and West in the Making of the Modern World|url=https://archive.org/details/geniusthatwaschi0000mers|url-access=registration|year=1990}}</ref> Above all, it was highly maneuverable and could sail "[[Sailing into the wind|into the wind]]", making it largely independent of the prevailing winds. The caravel used the [[lateen sail]], the prevailing rig in Christian Mediterranean navigation since late antiquity.<ref>{{harvnb|Castro|Fonseca|Vacas|Ciciliot|2008|p=2}}</ref>
With this ship, Portuguese mariners freely explored uncharted waters around the Atlantic, from rivers and shallow waters to transoceanic voyages.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself|last=Boorstin|first=Daniel|publisher=Vintage|year=1985|pages=156–164}}</ref>

In 1419, Henry's father appointed him governor of the province of the [[Algarve]].