The early life of the Chronicler is almost a blank. Until the year 1450, in which he wrote his first serious Chronicle, though not, perhaps, his first book, we have little beyond the meagre information, supplied by Mattheus de Pisano,9 that he began to study late—"dum maturæ jam ætatis esset"—and that he had passed his youth without acquiring the rudiments of knowledge—"nullam litteram didicisset"10—to which some later authorities have added—he spent his early years in the pursuit of arms, a statement likely enough to be true. It seems probable that he obtained a post in the Royal Library during the brief and luckless reign of D. Duarte (1433–1438), or shortly afterwards, as assistant to the Chronicler Fernão Lopes, whom he succeeded, for he was actually in charge of it early in the reign of Affonso V, in 1452, and finished the Chronica de Guiné in that place in 1453.
Tradition has it that he entered the Order of Christ as a young man, for he came to be Commander therein, a position only obtainable at that time by regular service in the Order, and by seniority; but the nature of these services, and the advancement which Azurara gained by them, cannot precisely be determined, because the early private records of the Order, together with the roll of its Knights, have been lost, those that exist only reaching back to the commencement of the 16th century.11 This Order was founded by King Diniz in 1319, on the suppression of the Templars, and it inherited most, if not all, their houses and goods throughout Portugal. Its members were bound by the three monastic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, which prevailed in Azurara's time, although Commanders and Knights of the Order were at a later period allowed to marry, by grant of Pope Alexander VI.12 The Commanders were bound to confess and communicate four times in the year, to recite daily the Hours of Our Lady, to have four Masses said annually for deceased members, and to fast on Fridays, as well as on the days ordained by the Church. Membership of the Order was an honour reserved for Nobles, Knights, and Squires, free from stain in their birth or other impediment; while the Statutes directed a number of enquiries to be made before a candidate was admitted, one being, was he born in lawful wedlock?—a question our Chronicler could possibly not have answered in the affirmative.13 Besides this, aspirants were required to be knighted before their admission, and then to profess. A gift of one or more "Commendas", or benefices, followed in due course, but, to prevent the abuse of pluralities which thus crept in, Pope Pius V afterwards decreed that no Knight should hold more than one Commenda, and this he was to visit at least once in every three years. The Knights possessed many privileges, the most notable being that, in both civil and criminal cases, they were exempt from the jurisdiction of the Royal Courts, and subject only to those of their Order, does not necessarily follow that he was illegitimate, and, in fact, no letters of legitimation exist in respect of him.] which had all the old prerogatives of those of the Temple and Calatrava, together with such as had been granted it by name.14
According to one authority, Azurara began his career as author in the reign of D. Duarte by compiling a detailed catalogue of the Miracles of the Holy Constable, Nun' Alvares Pereira.15 The MS., which is said to have existed in the Carmo Convent in Lisbon as late as 1745, has disappeared, but the substance of this curious work may still be read in Santa Anna's Chronica dos Carmaelitas, together with a number of contemporary popular songs about the Constable, extracted from MSS. left by Azurara.16
More than ten years now elapse without any mention of Azurara's name, and we hear of him for the first time, definitely, in 1450. On March 25th of that year he finished at Silves, in the Algarve, his Chronicle of the Siege and Capture of Ceuta, an event that took place in 1415, and formed the first of a long line of Portuguese expeditions, and the starting-point in their career of foreign conquest. Fernão Lopes, the Froissart of his country, and the father of Portuguese history, was still alive at the time Azurara wrote this work, but had become too old and weak to carry on his history of the reign of João I, to which it is a sequel. After paying a tribute to Lopes as a man of "rare knowledge and great authority",17 Azurara tells us that Affonso V ordered him to continue the work, that the deeds of João I might not be forgotten; and this he did, culling his information from eye-witnesses as well as from documents, with that honesty and zeal which are his two most prominent features as an historian.18 He began the Chronicle—which was printed once only, and that in the 17th century—thirty-four years after the capture of Ceuta, i.e., in the autumn of 1449, and concluded it, as the last chapter states, on March 25th, 1450. It was, therefore, written in the short space of about seven months, which, says Innocencio, seems well-nigh incredible, considering how deliberately and circumspectly histories were compiled in those days.19 The narrative is, with a few exceptions, full and even minute.
We know not the precise date at which Azurara had begun to apply himself to the study of letters, and he makes no allusion whatsoever, in his writings, to his early life; but it is clear, from the Chronica de Ceuta, that his self-training had been lengthy, and his range of study wide.20 In the Preface to this, his first literary essay still existing, he quotes from many books of the Old and New Testament, as well as from Aristotle, St. Gregory, St. Anselm, and Avicenna; while in the body of the work he compares the siege of Ceuta to that of Troy, talks of "Giovanni Boccaccio, a poet that was born at Florence", mentions the Conde Lucanor, and wanders off into philosophical musings that forcibly recall passages of the Leal Conselheiro of D. Duarte, and prove him to have been no tyro in the learning of the age. He was equally well versed in astrology, in which he believed firmly, as in history, and of the latter he says: "I that wrote this history have read most of the Chronicles and historical works."21 To understand how this was possible, it must be remembered that the Portuguese Court, in the first half of the 15th century, was an important literary centre, and that João I and his sons, besides being themselves authors of books, possessed libraries among the most complete in Europe.22 The atmosphere of learning that he breathed made Azurara what he was, and it explains the ascendency he gained, as a pure man of letters, over the mind of Affonso V.
Three years elapsed between the writing of his second and third books, and there can be little doubt that Azurara spent this period partly in the Royal Library and partly among the Archives, which were then housed in the Castle of S. Jorge in Lisbon, continuing his study of the history of his own and foreign countries in the chronicles and documents those places contained.
Some time in the year 1452 the King, who was then in Lisbon, charged him with the book which constitutes his chief title to fame, owing to the importance of its subject, and the historical fidelity and literary skill that distinguish its presentment, namely, the Chronica de Guiné, or, as it might be called, the Life and Work of Prince Henry the Navigator. From the subscript we find it was written in the Royal Library, and finished there on February 18th, 1453. Azurara sent it to the King, five days afterwards, with a letter which has fortunately been preserved, since it shows how friendly and even familiar were the relations subsisting between them, and how these were maintained by a regular correspondence. It appears that Affonso had urged Azurara to obtain all the information possible about the life and work of D. Henrique, and, this done, to write as best he could, "alleging a dictum of Tully, that it sufficeth not for a man to do a good thing but rather to do it well".
