County of Portugal | |||||||||||||||||
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868–1071 1096–1139 | |||||||||||||||||
Status | County within the Kingdoms of Asturias, Galicia, and León | ||||||||||||||||
Capital | Guimarães (868–1131) Coimbra (1131–1139) | ||||||||||||||||
Common languages | |||||||||||||||||
Religion |
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Demonym(s) | Portuguese | ||||||||||||||||
Government | Feudal monarchy | ||||||||||||||||
Count of Portucale | |||||||||||||||||
• 868–873 | Vímara Peres (first of the first county, from the House of Vímara) | ||||||||||||||||
• 1050–1071 | Nuno II Mendes (last of the first county, from the House of Vímara; Annexation to the Kingdom of Galicia) | ||||||||||||||||
• 1096–1112 | Henry (first of second county, from the house of Burgundy) | ||||||||||||||||
• 1112–1139 | Afonso Henriques (last of the second county) | ||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||
• Established | 868 | ||||||||||||||||
1139 | |||||||||||||||||
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Today part of | Portugal Spain |
The County of Portugal (Galician-Portuguese: Comtato de Portugalle; in documents of the period Portugalia[1]) refers to two successive medieval counties in the region around Guimarães and Porto, today corresponding to littoral northern Portugal, within which the identity of the Portuguese people formed. The first county existed from the mid-ninth to the mid-eleventh centuries as a vassalage of the Kingdom of Asturias and the Kingdom of Galicia and also part of the Kingdom of León, before being abolished as a result of rebellion. A larger entity under the same name was then reestablished in the late 11th century and subsequently elevated by its count in the mid-12th century into an independent Kingdom of Portugal.