James of Portugal

Early life and background

James was the 3rd son of Infante Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, and Isabella of Urgell; among other kinships he was the great-grandson of the English prince John of Gaunt.

At the age of 15, James accompanied his father in the Battle of Alfarrobeira in 1449. During the conflict, his father's forces were defeated by the Portuguese royal army, and his father was killed. After the battle, James was taken captive but was later freed as a result of the intervention of his aunt Isabella and her husband Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. He then went into exile in Burgundy together with his brother John and his sister Beatrice. His aunt ensured that the siblings were well provided for.

Church career

James of Portugal studied in Flanders and, on 23 March 1453, was appointed Bishop of Arras. On his aunt’s advice, he traveled to Rome, where Pope Nicholas V, hearing of the disgraces inflicted upon his family after Alfarrobeira, resolved to appoint the young James as the new Archbishop of Lisbon, which had been recently vacated by the death of D. Luís Coutinho. However, not being old enough to be consecrated to the dignity, James was only appointed administrator in perpetuity of the Archdiocese on 30 April 1453. Given the political situation in Portugal, James was unable to return to Lisbon to take possession of it, and so remained in Italy and governed his archdiocese from afar, via the vicar-general Luís Anes.

Nicholas V having died in early 1455, the new Pope Calixtus III elevated James to a cardinal-deacon of the Church (despite not having the requisite 30 years of age for the office), assigning him the titular diaconate of Santa Maria in Portico Octaviae, soon substituted for the diaconate of Sant'Eustachio. Callixtus III also gave James the Bishopric of Paphos, in Cyprus, where his brother, John, had married Charlotte of Lusignan, Princess of Cyprus.

Following the death of Callixtus III, James of Portugal participated in the conclave that elected Pius II as the new pope. He was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, number 58, at the 9th Chapter of the order, held in 1456 at The Hague.

The Portuguese art historian António Bélard da Fonseca, in his multi-volume O Mistério dos Painéis (1957-1967), controversially claimed that it is James of Portugal, and not St. Vincent, who is depicted as the radiant saintly figure in the central panels of the famous Saint Vincent Panels of Nuno Gonçalves.

Death and burial

While travelling from Rome to Austria to rally support for a new crusade, James of Portugal fell ill and died in Florence on 27 August 1459, at the age of twenty-six. He was buried in the basilica of San Miniato al Monte in Florence, the only tomb in that church. Some of the best artists in Renaissance Florence were commissioned to design and decorate the chapel of the "Cardinale del Portogallo" in San Miniato, including the Cardinal of Portugal's altarpiece by the Pollaiuolo brothers.

Ancestry

References

Citations

Sources

References

1. "The Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal".