Alfonso V (1432-81), king of Portugal. He succeeded his father, Edward I, in 1438 and became known as "the African" because of his campaigns in Morocco. During Alfonso's reign, his famous uncle, Prince Henry the Navigator, directed the important voyages of discovery that made Portugal one of the leading sea powers of the century.
King Alfonso was the first monarch to make discovery a for-profit business. In 1469, he signed an agreement with Fern√£o Gomes in which Gomes agreed to explore 300 miles of African coast annually. As an incentive, Gomes would receive a monopoly on trade from Guinea and the king would also receive a share of the profits.
Alfonso also considered a westward voyage to Asia and consulted the Florentine cosmographer Toscanelli about the feasibility of such a route. Toscanelli proposed a shorter way of going to the Land of Spices (Asia) than by the African route. Their correspondence later influenced the development of Christopher Columbus's ideas.
