During the sixty years this unhappy country groaned under the Spanish yoke, the navy was almost entirely destroyed; more than 200 large merchantmen were lost. The arsenals and forts were robbed of above 2000 brass cannons, with an infinite number of iron ones; and the great square at Seville was at one time filled with 900 pieces of cannon, all marked with the arms of Portugal. Two hundred millions of golden crowns were taken out of the country between the years 1584 and 1626; and the finest estates and richest domains were bestowed on Spanish subjects. The Dutch deprived them too of the islands of Ceylon, Ternate, and Tidor; they forced Malacca to surrender after a long siege, took possession of the ports of Mina and Arguin on the coast of Guinea, and formed different settlements in Brazil; in short, such were the losses sustained by the Portugueze during these sixty years, that all their efforts have been hitherto inadequate entirely to repair them. The spice and East India trade which they had carried on exclusively during a whole century, then fell into the bands of the Dutch and English; and the Portugueze government finding it impossible to regain this valuable branch of commerce, turned all their thoughts towards Brazil, from which they had no small difficulty in driving the Dutch. Don Pedro likewise, on his first accession to the crown, made this important colony one of the principal objects of his attention, and spared no pains to extend it to the utmost of his power.
It became necessary at this time to increase the authority of the missionaries, who, from their first entrance into the interior parts of America, had defended their proselites against the armed savages, with no other weapons than the gospel of Christ in one hand, and a crucifix in the other. An ordinance was therefore published on the 21st of December, 1686, which declared that the holy fathers of the society of Jesus should not only be invested with the spiritual government, as before, but also the political and temporal one, over the towns and villages under their administration.
Some years after the publication of this edict, which, though it opened a passage for the Portugueze to the gold and diamond mines in Brazil, had nearly been attended by the most fatal consequences in Paraguay, the richest fleet which ever sailed from Brazil entered the port of Lisbon. It contained more than a ton and a half of gold, and came most opportunely to relieve the exigencies of don Pedro, who, foreseeing the events that would most probably follow the death of Charles the IId of Spain, was preparing a considerable armament, which was attended by so great an expence, that the royal treasury being nearly exhausted, he was under the necessity of having recourse to the cortes, from whom he obtained a supply of 600,000 crowns.
Louis the XIVth, deeply interested in the motions of Portugal, was presently informed of this new subsidy, and the apparent motives alledged by the king to induce its being speedily granted. This intelligence did not at first appear to make much impression on the French monarch, but he soon after took umbrage at it, and still more particularly on hearing that the Spanish ambassador continued living in a great style at Lisbon, had an opera performed in his own house, gave the most magnificent entertainments, and had succeeded in gaining the favour of the king of Portugal.
The court of France was very well aware, that don Pedro had legitimate claims on the crown of Spain, that his vicinity to Madrid would facilitate his views, and that he might easily find allies to support his pretensions; it was therefore thought expedient to dispatch an envoy extraordinary with orders to sound the intentions of the court of Lisbon on this subject.
The nearer Charles the IId approached towards his end, the more were the powers of Europe employed in forming plans for dividing his inheritance. Different treaties had been formed during the course of his illness between France, England, and the United Provinces; but these were presently annulled, when on the demise of that prince, his will declared Philip, duke d’Anjou, heir to the crown of Spain. The new king was at first acknowledged by all the powers in Europe, except the Empire: he took upon himself the title of Philip the Vth, and departed immediately for Spain. It was this occasion which gave rise to the following memorable speech of Louis the XIVth; “My son, there are now no longer any Pyrenees;” a speech which unhappily was but too soon forgotten, since the first war undertaken by France, after that of the succession, was against the Spaniards.
Philip the Vth entered his new dominions without the smallest opposition; he was received with much solemnity, and with every testimony of joy, on the 14th of April, 1701, at Madrid, where the people took the oath of allegiance, and expressed an attachment to his person, which neither time, nor reverse of fortune, had ever the power to weaken. Destitute of troops sufficient to oppose the united forces of France and Spain, and without allies to furnish him with supplies, don Pedro gave up for the present all idea of bringing forward the claims of the house of Braganza to the crown of Spain, and hastened to form an alliance with Louis the XIVth and Philip the Vth, as the properest means of preventing the kings of Spain from renewing their pretensions to that of Portugal.
This alliance was greatly approved by the public; the Portugueze still bearing in mind the misery of their situation, whilst under the dominion of the house of Austria, and remembering with pleasure and gratitude the signal services rendered them by that of Bourbon. Their great disinclination to war, also added to their satisfaction, since they had now every reason to flatter themselves they might be suffered to remain neuter; but this hope, alas! was presently destroyed, for England, having on the 7th of September, 1701, formed a league with the Empire and Holland against France and Spain, immediately on war being declared, commanded her fleet to commence hostilities on the coast of Portugal. Don Pedro directly gave orders to the duke de Cadaval to assemble a sufficient body of troops to secure the sea-ports from the insults of the English; and at the same time informed his allies of his situation, and the danger with which he was threatened, unless speedily assisted. Neither France nor Spain were in a condition to equip a fleet capable of standing against the attacks of the English, and yet these powers insisted on Portugal’s taking an active part in the war. Spain, in particular, treated the Portugueze ambassador with insupportable insolence, and on his urging the necessity of his master’s remaining neuter, he was answered by the cardinal Portocarrero, “that no other conduct could be expected from the rebel duke of Braganza.”
The king of Portugal, whose love of peace had even induced him to pass over in silence the intelligence he had received from his minister at the Hague, that by a private treaty between France and Spain, his kingdom was to become a province of the last-mentioned country, now thought himself justified in breaking with allies, who not only gave him up to the power of his enemies, but were even employed in contriving his destruction, he therefore on the 6th of May, 1703, entered into the league styled the grand alliance, and obtained the most favourable conditions; the emperor promising to keep in pay 14,000 Portugueze, and the queen of England engaging herself to maintain a fleet ready at all times to defend Portugal and its colonies. There were also secret articles in this treaty, which treaty itself was not to be made public till the archduke Charles arrived at Lisbon, by which don Pedro was to be put into possession of Badajos, Alcantara, Albaquerque, Valentia in Estremadura; Bayonne, Vigo, Tuy, and Gardia, in Gallicia.
Louis the XIVth was presently made acquainted with this convention, and gave orders to his ambassador to demand an explanation, which he was constantly refused.