Christopher Columbus: Son of Exiled Polish King?

Christopher Columbus, “discoverer” of the Americas, was a brilliant navigator, a ruthless enslaver and an unwitting destroyer of worlds. Now it seems he may also have been half Polish. Portuguese historian Manuel Rosa has spent 20 years studying the life of the man regarded in the Americas as both hero and villain and has concluded that Columbus was not born of Genovese wool weavers as previously thought but rather was the son of a deposed Polish King. Vladislav III, living in exile on the island of Madeira after being defeated by Ottoman warriors, married a Portuguese noblewoman who bore him a son in 1451. Forty years later that son would set sail from Spain and begin the European conquest of the Western Hemisphere. This theory of Columbus’ origins is fast gaining widespread acceptance among  historians on both sides of the Atlantic.

Tagged Christopher Columbus, historian, King Vladislav III, Manuel Rosa, Polish, Spain