Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/82

42 THE QUEST FOE INDIA BY SEA sort of a great king and the mother of heroes. The friendship of England, which her marriage with John I cemented, proved a tower of strength to her husband during his epoch-making reign of forty-eight years (1385-1433). In 1398 a body of English archers came to his aid, and in 1400 he was created a Knight of the Garter the first foreign sovereign who received that honour. In 1415 our Henry V sent provisions and troops to join the Portuguese expedition against the Ceuta Moors, and again in 1428 a force of English lances heard King John of Portugal's battle-cry. That battle- cry was one dear to English men-at-arms, " Saint George! " and as a Knight of the Garter John bore the dragon for his crest. The recumbent statue of his English queen, Philippa, at Batalha shows the face of a beautiful woman, with finely cut features, a lofty forehead, and a look of firm sense. Simple and religious in her habits, carrying abstinence so far as to under- mine her health, her chief pleasure in life was to make peace between enemies, and her great occupation to educate her children. " To do good was with her a necessity of existence." Of the eight children whom this noble and devout Englishwoman bore to John I of Portugal, the eldest survivor (called Duarte after his great-grandfather, our Edward ITE) succeeded to the Portuguese throne. Another son, Pedro, became famous as the royal land- traveller of his century; a third, Fernando, won by his chivalrous self-sacrifice and patient sufferings in Moorish captivity the title of The Constant Prince.