Sancho I

Sancho I (born 1154, Coimbra, Port.—died March 26, 1211) was the second king of Portugal (1185–1211), son of Afonso I.

Sancho’s reign was marked by a resettlement of the depopulated areas of his country, by the establishment of new towns, and by the rebuilding of frontier strongholds and castles. To facilitate his plans, he encouraged foreign settlers and enlisted bishops, religious orders, and nobles in his colonization projects, granting vast territories to the military orders (the Hospitalers, the Templars, the Orders of Calatrava and Santiago). After an invasion by the Almohad prince Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr, Sancho used the help of a passing crusader fleet to capture Silves from the Moors (1189), but lost it (1191) and other lands south of the Tagus River when al-Manṣūr again attacked. Sancho quarreled both with his bishops and with Rome over the payment of tribute.