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Abstract
The starting point of this work is the speech by the Old Man of Restelo in Os Lusíadas IV, 101, lines 1-2: ‘You let the enemy grow at your doorstep / while going in search of another so far away,’ which seems to imply that the Old Man – whom Camões does not appear to identify with – represents those who opposed overseas expansion or, if not opposed, considered North African colonization the lesser evil. We will show how this was both a national and European dilemma in the first half of the 15th century and how, when addressed at the Council of Basel (1436) by curial jurists, it divided the princes of Avis, puzzled King Duarte and his court, and confused both canonists and civil jurists.
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