(Dom Enrique o Navegador). Born Mar. 4, 1394, in Oporto; died Nov. 13, 1460, in Sagres. Portuguese prince; organizer of naval expeditions to the islands of the central Atlantic Ocean and the shores of Africa, for which he received the sobriquet “navigator” in the 19th century, although he never actually sailed.
Henry used money from the Order of Christ, which he headed, to establish in Sagres (Portugal) an observatory and seafaring school. He supported the development of Portuguese shipbuilding, which began to produce predominantly caravels. The naval expeditions of G. V. Cabral, A. Cadamosto, and others led to the discovery of the Azores (1432-35), Cape Verde, the Senegal and Gambia rivers, and the Bijagos archipelago (1434-57), and the Cape Verde Islands (1456). On the initiative of Henry the Navigator, the importation of African slaves into Portugal was begun. Such captains as N. Tristāo, D. Dias, and A. Fernandes investigated and charted about 3,500 km of the west coast of Africa from the Western Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea while searching for gold and slaves between 1434 and 1460. The expeditions by Henry the Navigator laid the basis for Portuguese expansion in Africa.