Moreover, King Dinis is considered by Stephens the founder of the Portuguese literature, which is significant given the importance the historian attributed to literary manifestations as expression of the national spirit, especially during the golden age of the nations. Another moment of the Portuguese historical path that reveals some interest in his analysis is the reign of King Fernando, which, corresponding to a moment of crisis, it is considered a natural outcome of a long period of peace and prosperity. In his point of view, it was a moment of incompatibility between the people, who were already conscious of its nationality, and the court.

As with other reflections on the Portuguese experience, such as that of Oliveira Martins, the reign of João I emerges in Stephens’ analysis as the starting point of a new era in the history of Portugal, in which “a new spirit appeared alike among the kings, and the merchants, and the soldiers, which was to culminate in the glories of the heroic age” (The Story of Portugal, 1891, pp. 115-116). According to the historian, it was during the fifteenth century, with Prince Henry as the greater labourer of the discoveries and with a host of statesmen, navigators, and chroniclers, that Portugal became the greatest nation of Europe – even though it was only in the sixteenth century that it experienced its heroic period. The discovery of the maritime course to India in the end of the fifteenth century, the discovery of Brazil at the turn for the following century, and the building of a commercial and maritime empire in the Orient are the events that, for Stephens, were decisive in defining the golden age of Portugal’s history.

Nevertheless, while Portugal claimed its space in the concert of nations, “the seeds of rapid decline” went sprouting. In his view, there are several factors behind this rapid decline: on the one hand, the tendency of the royal power towards absolutism and the consequent destruction of the feudal power, which weakened the nobility’s sense of patriotism and gradually alienated them from the people; on the other hand, the depopulation of the territory, encouraged by the departure of Portuguese people to the Atlantic islands, to Brazil and to the Orient; the corruption of the officials of the African and Oriental trading posts, which compromised the continuity of the Portuguese in these domains; and the Inquisition, installed in Portugal during the reign of King João III, as well as the Society of Jesus, were two crucial factors in Portugal’s decline. Stephens attributed special relevance to the Portuguese presence in the Orient, considering that it was there that the weakening of the country became more perceptible. The historian has even dedicated some attention to this topic, having published a study under the title Albuquerque on the series Rulers of India (1892). In addition, he pointed to the Iberian Union, which he called “the sixty years of captivity”, and the interference of England and Holland in the Orient as decisive conditions for the consummation of the Portuguese ruin.

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