on royal succession and excluded the Castilian line of kings from the Portuguese throne, made provisions for the nobility on justice and the independence of Portugal. However, even as Spanish jurists and diplomats later demonstrated that the document was not creditable, the Portuguese defended the authenticity of the account. Alexandre Herculano later recounted the patriotic re-imagining in his História de Portugal, which caused its own controversy, and was later perpetuated by the writings of Alfredo Pimenta (who defended the existence of the Cortes of Lamego). In commemoration of the Battle of Ourique, the first Portuguese coat-of-arms appeared that included five small shields, to represent the five defeated Muslim kings (from one interpretation), which was later challenged by many authors. Legend Some years later, the idea of a miraculous intervention in the battle by Saint James in favor of the Portuguese appeared in the chronicles of the battle. Saint James was widely venerated in Iberia (with a main centre of veneration in Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, where his tomb was believed to be), being generally seen as the . As a consequence of Portuguese independence this legend was embellished with time to distance the Portuguese from Spanish devotional practices and beliefs. Later interpretations replaced Saint James with Saint George and, finally, with Jesus Christ. In the legend, Henriques was visited before the battle by an old man who saw in a dream that Henriques would be victorious because God would intervene in his favour. He advised the nobleman to leave the encampment alone when he heard the bell of the local chapel. Riding off he was surprised by a ray of light that showed him (in one interpretation) the sign of the cross and Jesus Christ on a crucifix. Henriques knelt in its presence and heard the voice of Christ, who told him he would defeat the Almoravids, which he, through courage and his faith, succeeded the following day. The legend of the miracle of the Battle of Ourique served thus as a political instrument to defend Portuguese independence as divine will. Yet, the legend, possibly earlier, knows its first known record in the early 15th century by the monks of the Monastery of Santa Cruz, during the battles between John and the Kingdom of Castile. Some modern authors claim that it is a creation of the monks, or forged by these, while not presenting evidence to support their theory,