Afonso I Henriques (nicknamed Afonso O Conquistador; probably 25 July 1109 6 December 1185) was the first king of independent Portugal (reigned from 1139 to 1185).
Alfonso Henriquez was the son of Henry of Burgundy, the French feudal lord. By marrying Theresa of Castile, the illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon, Henry was named Count of Portugal and was given a fief between the Montego and Douro rivers. When Henry died in 1112 (or 1114), the very young Alfonso Henriquez inherited the title of Count and was declared lord of the territory. Theresa of Castile was the son regent, but she was fanatically in love with the Galician nobleman Fernando Perez, for whom she seemed to want to disinherit Alfonso. But in 1128, an adult Alfonso Henriquez defeated his mother and forced her and Pérez to leave Portugal. In this way, he gained undisputed dominion over the territory.
With the support of the cities, churches, and knights in the territory, Alfonso I began to fight to get rid of his vassal status to Leon. He fought against his cousin Alfonso VII, king of Castile and Leon (he was an ally of Alfonso I's mother) and declared himself Prince of Portugal in 1129. After a long period of war and conspiracy, Alfonso I finally achieved his goal of making Portugal an independent kingdom in 1139 and claimed to be king. In 1143, Alfonso VII reconciled with Alfonso I and recognized him as king. In order to ensure this status, Alfonso I also took the initiative to ask Pope Innocent II to make Portugal a vassal of the Pope and contributed 4 ounces of gold. However, in fact, it was not until 1179 that Pope Alexander III recognized Alfonso as king.
On July 25, 1139, Alfonso I defeated a Moorish army. From then on, his attention was focused on the struggle against the Moors to expand his dominion. He achieved a series of victories: the capture of Santarén in 1147; with the help of the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, he captured Lisbon in October of that year. He also conquered some areas of what is now southern Portugal. To help Portugal's future expansion, Alfonso I managed to establish divisions of the Knights Templar and Hospitaller in Portugal.
Alfonso shared power in his later years with his son Sancho I until his death in 1185. If you look at the succession to the Portuguese count, he was one of the longest-reigning rulers in Europe.