Sancho I (the Populator) was a generally obscure fugure in
Portuguese history. Sancho was nevertheless important for populating the northern Christian regions of Portugal - notably with
Flemings and
Burgundians. Coimbra was the centre of his kingdom, and Sancho ceased exhausting and generally pointless wars against his neighbours for control of the
Galician borderlands. In terms of the
Reconquista, Sancho was a peripheral figure. With
Crusader help he took
Silves[?] in
1191, only to lose it again soon afterwards.