1383–85 Crisis

The 1383-1385 crisis or "Portuguese Interregnum" was a time of civil war in Portuguese history when no crowned king reigned. It began when King Ferdinand I of Portugal died without male heirs, and ended when King John I was crowned in 1385, after the Battle of Aljubarrota. Portuguese interpret this era as their earliest national resistance movement countering Castilian intervention; Robert Durand considers it the "great revealer of national consciousness". Burgesses and nobles worked together to establish the Aviz dynasty (a branch of the Portuguese House of Burgundy) securely on an independent throne, unlike the lengthy civil wars in France known as the Hundred Years' War, and England as the War of the Roses, where aristocratic factions fought powerfully against a centralised monarchy.
Prelude
In 1383, King Ferdinand I of Portugal was dying. From his marriage to Leonor Telles de Menezes only a girl, Princess Beatrice of Portugal, survived. Her marriage...