The
County of Portugal (, in documents of the period the name used was
Portugalia) refers to two successive medieval counties in the region around
Braga and
Porto, today corresponding to littoral
northern Portugal, within which the identity of the Portuguese people formed. The first county existed from the mid-ninth to the mid-eleventh centuries as a
vassalage of the
Kingdom of Asturias and later the Kingdoms of
Galicia and
León, before being abolished as a result of rebellion. A larger entity under the same name was then reestablished in the late 11th century and lasted until the mid-12th century, when its count elevated it into an independent Portuguese kingdom.