Portugal of the Portuguese

by Aubrey F. G. Bell

João III.

King Manoel was succeeded by his son, João III (1521-57), born in 1502. To the oak and the orange succeeded the cypress. But the gloom of his reign has been much exaggerated, and the King’s character wilfully distorted by the historians, who have described him as a bigot and a witless idiot. King João was no fool, and had an intelligent love of letters, and, if the Court was now less given up to pleasure than in the reign of his predecessor, we still read of serões continuing at the palace during several nights. But the power of Rome in Portugal certainly grew in his reign, and a succession of personal sorrows increased his devotion to religion. About fifteen years after his accession many of his nearest relations died, and, although a son and heir to his throne survived till 1554, his death in that year came to crown the many griefs of this reign. This precocious boy, the Infante João, had already won some fame as a patron of letters, and was married when he died at the age of sixteen. His death was one of the greatest misfortunes of Portuguese history, from which indeed the goddess of Good Fortune seems to have departed in the first half of the sixteenth century, leaving in her place a poor Mofina Mendes, personification of ill luck. King João III and his brother Henrique had worked persistently to introduce the Inquisition into Portugal, and the Company of Jesuits, destined to do excellent work in education at home and in the colonies overseas, also came to Portugal during his reign.

Sebastian.

Prince João’s infant son, Sebastian, born in 1554, was educated by priests and Jesuits, and in 1562 his grand-uncle Henrique, priest first and prince afterwards, succeeded Queen Catharina as Regent, and continued to rule till the King came of age (14) in 1568. King Sebastian reigned in person for ten years. His character and capacities have been much discussed. To a love of sport and all dangerous enterprises, he united a deep religiousness, instilled into him by his education, and a consuming desire to extend the Christian faith and win personal glory by a victory over the Moors in Africa. To this end the ten years of his reign were directed, and in 1578 he sailed from Lisbon (25th June), with a force of about 14,000, Portuguese and foreigners, including members of all the noblest families in Portugal. Surrounded by a vastly superior number of Moors in the battle of Alcacer Kebir (4th August, 1578), the majority of the Portuguese were slain or taken prisoners. The King himself, a Don Quixote before Don Quixote was born, died fighting valiantly. His body was recovered later and sent to Spain and thence to Portugal, where it was buried in the convent of Belem, built by his great-grandfather, King Manoel. Yet in the confusion of that battle many rumours arose and the people in Portugal never believed in his death, a fact which occasioned various episodes in the following year, and was the basis of a kind of religious faith which lasted on into the nineteenth century. Not quite two centuries had passed since the battle of Aljubarrota, and into that period the Portuguese had crowded a history more brilliant than that of any other country. Now it seemed as if the ship had gone by, leaving only a wake of troubled water.

Henrique.

Sebastião was succeeded by his great-uncle Henrique, Cardinal at 33, and King at 66, who, however, only survived him for a few months, dying in 1580. His last days were embittered by the question of the succession. Seven pretenders claimed the Crown of Portugal, and chiefly the Duke of Braganza, in his wife’s right, Antonio, Prior of Crato, the Lisbon people’s favourite, and King Philip II of Spain.

Philip II of Spain.

The right seems to have been doubtful, but the might was on the side of King Philip, who made no secret of his resolution to win the kingdom by force if it were not given to him willingly. Many of the Portuguese nobility were on his side, and the King Cardinal was finally induced to recognise his claim. But the people strongly resented the intrusion of the Spaniard, and the Prior of Crato found no difficulty in having himself proclaimed King at Santarem. When, however, King Philip’s army, under the Duke of Alba, arrived at Setubal, and after taking Cascaes, advanced on Lisbon, Antonio’s forces, encamped outside the capital, melted away—they consisted of untrained citizens for the most part—and Antonio himself fled into Lisbon and thence to Oporto and Vianna in the North. From Vianna do Castello he escaped in disguise by sea, accompanied by the Bishop of Guarda and the Conde do Vimioso (October, 1580). He did not, however, yet leave Portugal, remaining disguised there and even at times at Lisbon till June, 1581, when he retired to France. Philip II had entered Portugal by Elvas, and was received as king without further resistance, making a solemn entry into Lisbon, the fourth king of Portugal in the last three years. A French fleet was sent to the Azores in favour of Antonio, but was defeated. He made a last fruitless effort in 1589 in combination with Drake, who took the town of Cascaes. There was no support forthcoming in Portugal, and the Prior de Crato returned to France, and died there a few years later. If Philip II expected now to rule over Portugal in peace he had mistaken the character of his new subjects. Antonio was dead, King Sebastian dead and buried at Belem, but in the wishes and thoughts of the people King Sebastian was alive and might be expected to return from one day to another. Pretenders accordingly abounded and gave considerable trouble; one, especially, who appeared in Italy, bore so striking a resemblance to Sebastian, and displayed knowledge of matters which only Sebastian could, apparently, have known, that to this day some believe him to have been the real king.

Spanish Domination (Philip II-IV 1580-1640).

But Portugal was now definitely wedded to Castille for the next sixty years. Spain’s enemies became her enemies, and her great colonial empire lay at their mercy. Before the end of the century the Dutch were in the East, and like rats in cheese, battened on the possessions of the Portuguese. A few years later the English followed. All the old daring and enterprise of the Portuguese mariners of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries seemed to have fallen from them like the cloak of Elijah. Their ships were used in the service of Spain, and their own overseas dominions left unprotected. Lisbon, accustomed to see the fleets depart and come in traffics and discoveries from the East, now watched the building of the invincible Armada against her old ally England. But Philip II’s hand was a strong hand, and not lightly to be shaken off by an exhausted people. Under the rule of his successors it was otherwise. Hollow pomp took the place of real power, and the concentration of affairs in the King’s hands, or in those of his minister, required men of more insight and astuteness than Philip IV (Philip III of Portugal) or the Count-Duke Olivares possessed. In Portugal discontent was widespread. The people had never willingly accepted Spanish rule, and the increased burden of taxation did not lessen their dislike. The nobles, even if they were not fired by the misfortunes of their country, were enraged by slights inflicted upon themselves. Margaret, Duchess of Mantua, had been appointed Regent of Portugal in 1634. The real power was in the hands of Miguel de Vasconcellos, who concentrated in his own person all the hatred of the Portuguese for the Spaniard.