On 5th August 1578, the Portuguese king D. Sebastião led his armies into the Battle of Alcácer-Quibir, known in Morocco as the Battle of the Three Kings. There the flower of Portuguese nobility perished, and the King was lost to History. The crisis triggered by this national catastrophe would soon lead to the loss of Portuguese independence.
D. Sebastião was probably killed in battle. Yet his body was never found. As Portugal was inexorably absorbed into the Spanish empire, with little resistance from what remained of its nobility, the peasantry started to develop the mythology that would be known as Sebastianismo. Central to this mythology was the belief that D. Sebastião was not actually dead, and would one day return on a misty morning to deliver Portugal from its hour of greatest need. Originally this was probably meant to be when the Spanish King Felipe II was riding in to take the Portuguese throne, but since – you know – he didn’t show up, the hour of greatest need ended up being postponed until D. Sebastião became himself a mythical figure, like Barbarossa or King Arthur.
Dear reader, D. Sebastião may have never returned from the mist of memory, but I have. Apologies, by the way. Much like D. Sebastião didn’t know he was going to die in Morocco, I did not know this blog would be going on so long a hiatus. (Although, you know, D. Sebastião did know death in battle was a possibility and he could at least have tried to produce an heir before going all in on this one war.) I never did mean to go this long without a post, yet here we are. I am truly sorry. But I am now back to take my rightful place at the head of this blog, and to guide it to a new age of regular posts as in the good old days (I am thinking monthly posts, as back then).
I do feel I owe you a bit of an explanation about the circumstances of this involuntary hiatus. You see, in the academic year of 2021/22 I started training to be a secondary school teacher, aiming to teach Science to English youths. Doing this while parenting a 2-year-old was by far the most thoroughly exhausting endeavour I have pursued in my entire life. So yeah, I naïvely thought I might be able to keep posting, just maybe at a lower frequency, before school work swallowed me and every second of my life whole.
I can now proudly tell you two things: (a) I persevered, and I now hold Qualified Teacher Status in England, and (b) I hope I never have to work as a teacher again. Mind you, the actual teaching was amazing, and I still think is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. But I had no time for myself – or my family, or this blog! – and I was fortunate to find out I could still use my particular set of skills for the good of society as an operational researcher and still get to sleep.
My return to writing was further delayed by a house move and the neverending orgy of stress that came with it. And now, at last, I have recovered a measure of stability in my life, both personally and professionally.
I have chosen to symbolically reactivate this blog today, 5th of October, anniversary not only of the Portuguese Republic but also of the Kingdom of Portugal.
This post is merely an announcement of the return of Aetherial Porosity. A new post will follow soon, about developments in the world of chess which took place during our hiatus.
Do expect a continuation to A Brief History of Every King of Portugal, as well as more posts about Portugal, poetry, science, and whatever else I find interesting to write about. Also, I guess now I will have to write something about D. Sebastião and Sebastianismo.
Finally, I want to extend a big thanks to all of you, dear readers. Without you writing this blog would be a sterile exercise in pointlessness. In particular, a very special thanks goes to the readers who have reached out to me with kind words about my writing during this hiatus. Without your encouragement I would almost surely not be resuming blogging so soon.
From the bottom of my heart, a big thanks to you all.
P.S.: All the cool kids are writing on Substack these days, and I’ve been reading lots of interesting stuff on Substack lately. Therefore, I’ll be trialling this thing where, at least for now, I’ll keep the blog going both on WordPress and on Substack. My wife tells me she’s quite fond of the aesthetics of the WordPress blog (vanilla as they are) and would be sad to lose them. However, I am rather enticed by an ad-free experience for users. Should I just keep this going on both platforms? Or should I focus on only one? Why don’t you take a moment to let me know what you think? And while you’re at it, why don’t you consider subscribing to automatically keep up with the blog?
Aetherial Porosity 
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