Siege of Lisbon

October 25, 1147

An English, Flemish, and German flotilla of crusaders bound for the Holy Land stopped in the Tagus estuary and, at Afonso Henriques's request, helped besiege Lisbon. After seventeen weeks the city fell. Many of the crusaders settled there; the first Anglo-Portuguese alliance was soldered in its ruins. The conquest of Lisbon gave Portugal its greatest port and eventual capital, transforming a small northern county into an Atlantic-facing kingdom.