TE19 Iberian Adventure

John Hartley

Initially the young Henry, the third son of King John I and an English princess, distinguished himself in the Moroccan campaigns. “Youth is a roulette wheel.” Said Grandad, “And when the die is cast, you’ll gaze upon that spinning wheel and contemplate all that’s out of reach.”

“If I resolve in my youth to have no regrets, will it absolve me - will I be free from these questions, this fear?”

“Youth is pure and sacred.” Grandad’s eyes deep as desert skies. “You’ll look back and shewill be lost, and you’ll ask yourself these questions too.” She is the void spanning our hopes and dreams; a corridor that leads to bitterness, bitterness to anger, and anger to depression, finally depression to despair; nostalgia for what was squandered. To replay memories of neglected opportunities stifled passions, unexamined questions; to recall abandoned journeys, broken promises, parted lovers. However, the overzealous prince led a further campaign where his brother Fernando was taken hostage. Henry held himself personallyresponsibleforthedeathof hisyoungersiblingand lived out his final years sponsoring voyages from his castle. Gil Eanes became the first seafarer to round Cape Bojador in West Africa and later Ferdinand Magellan made the first circumnavigation. “Camões epitomised the Portuguese spirit of longing and adventure.” Looking out over the raging Atlantic, Pedro recalled 186