For Stephens, the topic of greatest interest in the study of the nineteenth century Europe lies in the tenacity with which small nations fostered the national spirit and resisted the raising power of large states, such as Germany, France, and Great Britain. This affirmation of the small nations derived fundamentally from the work of the modern historians, who, using new premises on the historical research and on the writing of history, would have provided their respective nations with a history free of myths and of the glorification of legendary figures. According to the Scottish historian – although this reflection might be debatable (Sérgio Campos Matos, Historiografia e Memória Nacional, pp. 77-84) –, in no other nation the historiographical work has exerted greater influence on the process of national awareness than in Portugal (“Modern Historians”, 1887, p. 109). Furthermore, Stephens considered that “the only reason why it has retained its independence, while other medieval states of that peninsula have merged into the Kingdom of Spain, is to be found in its history” (“Portugal”, 1885, p. 539). Factors such as race, language, or geography – central in the view of other nineteenth-century historians –, appeared to him as insufficient to justify the independence of Portugal from Spain.

Although his account of the Portuguese historical experience follows a chronological organization essentially based on the succession of reigns, both in the text published on the Encyclopaedia Britannica and in The Story of Portugal, Henry Morse Stephens presented an interpretation that reveals knowledge of the most recent historiography about Portugal at the time. First, the idea that nations face stages of growing and decline («wax and wane»), which the historian advocated, guided to a certain extent his analysis of the Portuguese historical path. In his view, there will not have existed significant differences between the Portuguese and Spanish experiences until the end of the eleventh century. Only after the establishment of Portugal as an independent kingdom, with the acclamation of Afonso Henriques as its first king, it has begun the development of a distinct individuality and character. Like any independent kingdom, Portugal experienced a stage of growth and consolidation, followed by a period of apogee and prosperity, which, in turn, gave way to a stage of decline. In his view, fell to the first kings, until king Afonso III, the task of delimiting the border of the Portuguese territory, as well as constitutionally stabilizing the functioning of the kingdom. The kingdom of king Dinis deserved particular attention from the historian, who considered it of great importance because “it marks the development of the people into an independent nation” (The Story of Portugal, 1891, p. 85).

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