of Prester John and his Kingdom

The King who Could not be Found: ENDNOTES The Influence of Prester John and his Kingdom

“Prester John Map” by Abraham Ortelius, from History Today (February 20, 2018). Fair use.

In the Byzantine Empire during the twelfth century, the emperor received a mysterious letter from a Christian king by the name of Prester John. Written in Latin, the letter described Prester John’s kingdom as a place of prosperity and apparent righteousness, though “[n]o

one could say where the letter had come from or what messenger had carried it to Europe.”1 The mystery surrounding Prester John drove explorers to begin searching regions of India and, in the 1500s, to take the search along the coasts of Africa, seeking out the mythic king who might be an ally for Christian kingdoms trying to convert their neighbours. Exploration was influenced by the desire for an upper-hand over religious enemies, and Prester John, the Christian King of India, was considered central to that effort, no matter how elusive he proved to be.

With religious conflicts raging across Europe and the Middle East, and with the quests for conversion in the Americas, Prester John offered hope of yet another army to serve in the name of Christianity. News eventually spread in the twelfth century, describing the mysterious king, Presbyter Johannes, who “intended to lead his army to the Holy Land in support of his hard-pressed coreligionists there.”2 A Portuguese variation of Prester John’s letter, translated by Damião de Góis in the sixteenth century, led to further curiosity about the location of the Christian king.3 The common belief emerged that Prester John’s kingdom resided in Africa, drawing various expeditions to the African coast seeking proof of the existence of the monarch.4 The quest to discover his kingdom in Ethiopia is one that urged exploration not only “for a better understanding of the whereabouts of Préster John, but for the understanding of the world’s geography.”5 The most notable expedition to search for the kingdom was led by Prince Henry the Navigator, who sought Prester John as an ally along with his African subjects.6 Prince Henry was encouraged by the need “to learn the extent of the Moslem domains in Africa, and to discover ‘if there were in those parts any Christian princes…that they would aid him against those enemies of the faith.’”7 Though no one bearing the name Prester John was ever discovered in Ethiopia, the Portuguese believed they had found him in the sixteenth-century Ethiopian Emperor, Lebna Dengel.8 Regardless of their discovery, the name of Prester John was never admitted to the list of African rulers and the mystery of his identity remained confined to mere speculation.

Prester John’s letter spurred a search which spanned centuries into the 1500s. Portuguese explorers sailed to the coasts of Africa, seeking the support of Prester John and his “thoroughly virtuous” subjects against the Muslims.9 Sir John Mandeville alludes to the king and his kingdom, reflecting on the “many full noble cities and good towns in his realm”10 and examines the power of this mysterious king, as reflected in his letter, that he “hath under him many kings and many isles and many diverse folk of diverse conditions.”11 In this way, Prester John became an mythical example of a successful Christian kingdom at a time when religious disputes raged throughout Eurasia.12 Thus, the legend of Prester John encouraged exploration in the name of religion throughout the Atlantic world. Those who searched for the Christian king in Africa were influenced by a myth, a simple letter describing a utopian kingdom and they viewed this mythical kingdom as a source of potential allies waiting to be called upon for the service of God. The interactions between Ethiopian and European diplomats resulting from these searches established connections through the mystery of a king never to be found by Atlantic explorers.

Jessica Knapp English major, History minor