A Portuguese historian believes he has solved the 500 year-old mystery of the adventurer's true identity after a thorough investigation of medieval documents and chronicles.Some of the reasoning behind this strikes me as similar to the reasoning behind the doubts as to Shakespeare's identity: that someone so ordinary could have produced such incredible literature, in Shakespeare's case, and that the son of a Genoese cheesemonger could discover America.
The origins of the man who discovered the Americas has long been a subject of speculation.
Contemporary accounts named his birth place as the Italian port of Genoa to a family of wool weavers but over the centuries it has been claimed that he was a native of Greece, Spain, France, Portugal and even Scotland.
Others claimed his origins were hidden because he was Jewish or secretly working as a double agent for the Portuguese royal family.
But the latest theory suggests that the great navigator, who died in 1506 after four voyages to the New World, was in fact of royal blood: the son of King Vladislav III who was supposedly slain in the Battle of Varna in 1444.
In his third book on the subject Manuel Rosa, who has spent 20 years researching the life of Columbus, suggests that Vladislav III survived the battle with the Ottomans, fled to live in exile on the island of Madeira where he was known as "Henry the German" and married a Portuguese noblewoman.
Mr Rosa believes a conspiracy was agreed to hide Columbus' true origins and to protect the identity of his father. "The courts of Europe knew who he was and kept his secret for their own reasons," the researcher at Duke University, North Carolina said.
Obviously, the cases are vastly different. What seems more compelling to me is that Columbus had access to several royal courts in Europe, and that he married into the Portuguese nobility. Those things would normally have been beyond the reach of a commoner, much less an itinerant Italian would-be explorer.
The Knights of Columbus probably won't take this story very well.
The part of the story that for me exemplifies some of the strange byways of history is the fact, if it is a fact, that an exiled Polish king lived on Madeira in the 15th century. Reminds me of the story of Charles XII of Sweden, who escaped from Ottoman captivity and rode across Europe, incognito, in 15 days.
Henry the German is a great nickname for a Polish guy named Christopher.
ReplyDeleteJoseph I (Napoleon's older brother), King of Spain, the Indies, Naples and Sicily, lived for a time in New Jersey.
Mr Rosa believes a conspiracy was agreed to hide Columbus' true origins and to protect the identity of his father. "The courts of Europe knew who he was and kept his secret for their own reasons," the researcher at Duke University, North Carolina said.
ReplyDeleteI don't get it. Maybe it's just a badly written article in the Telegraph, but why should his fathers identity need to be "protected"? What are "their own reasons"? It's not like discovering America would bring dishonor on the family name.
If the former king of Poland was living in exile and incognito in Madeira, a very out-of-the-way spot, he must have done so for a reason. The most likely would be that someone or other wanted him dead; troublesome claimants to thrones were often murdered in those days. If certain royal courts kept it secret, it would be because they were friendly, one imagines.
ReplyDeleteOr not. Wiki:
ReplyDeleteAccording to Portuguese legend Władysław survived the Battle of Varna (although the Turks claimed to have his head, his body in royal armor was never found) and after his journey to the Holy Land he settled on Madeira Island.[4] King Afonso V of Portugal granted him the lands in Cabo Girão district of the Madeira Islands, rent-free for the rest of his life.[4] He was known there as Henrique Alemão (Henry the German) and married Senhorinha Anes (the King of Portugal was his best man[5]), who gave him two sons. Later he become knight of Saint Catharine of Mount Sinai (O Cavaleiro de Santa Catarina) and established a church of Saint Catherine and Saint Mary Magdalene in Madalena do Mar (1471).[6][7] There he was portraited as Saint Joachim (São Joaquim) meeting Saint Anne at the Golden Gate on a painting by Master of the Adoration of Machico (Mestre da Adoração de Machico) in the beginning of the 16th century.[4]
According to legend, he felt his defeat in battle as a warning from God (since he declared war on a false pretext, violating the truce with the Ottoman Turks), and he wandered as a pilgrim, seeking forgiveness, he found in Jerusalem. For the rest of his life he would live in total denial of any Polish title; there are historical records that Polish monks went to Madeira to question him and certified he was in fact long lost King Wladislaw III, living in secrecy, and that he refused to return to Poland and assume the throne.
A prisoner of the Turks eh, he must have been saddle sore before he started!
ReplyDeleteJohn Derbyshire thinks the wWW1 ommies respected Turks a did a piece on Turkish admission to the EU called it 'Let them In". Considering the nature of the indignities the Turks subjected WW1 British POWs to it was a witticism in very poor taste.
A study several years ago of the DNA of Columbus' son Diego (it wasn't possible to extract DNA from the "Great Explorer" himself) showed no Jewish or Hebraic gene markers on the male side of the family. This debunked the claim that Columbus was a actually a Spanish Jew hiding his real identity from Ferdinand and Isabella.
ReplyDeleteThere remains the question that if Columbus were indeed Italian, why is there no record of his having written anything in the Italian language, not even his private notes? Columbus was also conversant in the Catalonian dialect of Castillian Spanish, odd for an Italian. And why is he called Cristóbal Colón in the Spanish speaking world? Columbo does not transliterate into Colón.
This new Polish angle is intriguing. Perhaps Diego's DNA can be checked for Polsih or slavic gene markers.
Hate to rain on everyone's parade, but he was Italian, from Genoa to be particular. If you want to find another Woppish naval explorer, take a look at John Cabot. Just guido up his name a bit and you'll get the real one. Nothing to hide with either of these guys, they were just looking for some gigs...
ReplyDelete- Sal
In response to "Sal", just because you learned that Sr. Colon was Italian at the Knights of Columbus summer picnic doesn't make it so.
ReplyDeleteUnless you can respond directly to the other commenters points and questions, the validity of your statement is nullified.
It sounds rather fishy - Columbus, like the hero of a swords-and-sorcery novel, turns out by some remarkable coincidence to be the son of an exiled king? The mixture of Joseph Campbell and get-my-name-in-the-paper sensationalism is...not encouraging.
ReplyDeleteBut at least it's a testable hypothesis (DNA), unlike the anti-Stratfordian nonsense, which I believe is now centered around Oxford, though he is on record as a truly awful poet. In general these revisionist types are looking for a hobby, or a hobby-horse at any rate, and not the truth.
Furthermore, this Manuel Rosa must have an ingenious theory to explain Ferdinand Columbus, who wrote a biography of his father and, according to his Wikipedia article, stated clearly in it that Columbo is indeed the family name, and he did come from the Republic of Genoa, though Ferdinand was not sure of the city.
ReplyDeleteAnd the whole argument-from-snobbery that seems to underpin this theory, just like the anti-Stratfordian theories, is just nonsense if you look at the biographies of famous contemporaries. Most great names in business and scholarship, and many in warfare and politics were commoners. Now I don't know how a Portuguese nobleman of that time would feel about marrying his daughter to a man with no estate, but if the family needed money and he seemed to have good prospects I expect it would seem reasonable.
I don't think that DNA tests based on the material taken from Jagiełło's tomb in Kraków will solve the case. Many Polish chronicles actually doubt that Jagiełło is Władysław Warneńczyk's father. At the time of his birth Jagiełło was already 62 and described as a 'crippled and broken old man'. He had three wives before Sonka Holszańska and was unable to conceive a child. The most common conspiracy theory claims that thanks to Sonka's infidelity the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom as well as Hungary was ruled by the son of an equerry.
ReplyDeleteThe theory about Władysław hiding his identity may be based on his biography and certain 'character traits'. Władysław was considered to be a highly unable ruler. He could not continue his father's policy of conquest and was unwilling to start a family. He is commonly considered the worst of all Polish dynastic rulers. Rumors claim that he was gay. It is worth noting that in the 15th century Poland was still a country of strict and stern moralty and would not accept a homosexual ruler. You might say that for Warneńczyk his alledged death could be a way of escaping royal duties.
Correction to Viridian's comment. Jagiello (Lithuanian original Jogaila) was not 62, but rather 72 years, when Wladyslaw was born. And I don't believe, that Wladyslaw was gay - accusation for lust given by contemprorary chronicist Jan Dlugozh only implies that he could have had some love affairs, which would be rather natural for an unmaried teenager king. But of cause, there is no doubt, that he died in 1444.
ReplyDeleteThere may be more Knights of Columbus members of Polish or part-Polish descent than you think!
ReplyDelete