Portugal of the Portuguese

by Aubrey F. G. Bell

The Restoration.

In 1640, forty nobles, sure of the support of the people, and encouraged by the enthusiastic approbation of the Archbishop of Lisbon, decided that the hour had come to throw off the hated yoke. The Duke of Braganza’s agent, João Pinto Ribeiro, was the heart and soul of the conspiracy. The secret was well kept. Fu cosa meravigliosa il concerto, says an Italian historian. The Countess of Atouguia, Filippa de Vilhena, who had knowledge of the plot, herself armed her two young sons to take part in it on the 1st of December. As nine o’clock struck that morning the conspirator nobles forced their way into the palace and proclaimed the King, João IV, Duke of Braganza.

João IV.

He was the grandson of the Duchess Catharina, one of the claimants to the Portuguese throne on the death of the Cardinal King. Spain, with burdens not less great than her vast resources, and the revolt of Catalonia on her hands, was unable to do more for the moment than encourage plots in Portugal against the new King. The most serious of them was a conspiracy to kill the King, of which the Archbishop of Braga was the organiser in 1641. The Vatican gave its support to Spain and connived at this conspiracy. King João IV was too deeply religious to take the opportunity to free the Church—and State—in Portugal from the supremacy of Rome, and his foreign policy generally was not marked by the strength which the circumstances required. His foreign ministers had extraordinarily difficult tasks. In the year after the Restoration, treaties were made with France and Holland, and the alliance with England was renewed. But the custom to plunder Portugal’s overseas territories was now inveterate, and she derived little profit from her new allies, although a common cause united them against Spain. The Dutch gave the Portuguese fair words in Europe and hard blows in her colonies, and Portugal was powerless to do more than protest with words against such double dealing. Actual war between Spain and Portugal began in 1643, and continued desultorily till 1646, when it was broken off till the death of King John IV in 1656. King João’s brother, the Infante Duarte, had been arrested by order of Philip II as soon as news came of the Restoration in 1640, and was subjected to a process of slow murder till he died in prison in 1649, a second Infante Fernando, only that his gaoler was no prince of Fez but the Catholic King.

Affonso VI.

King João’s eldest son, Theodosio, who had shown great promise, also died before him, aged nineteen and the second son, Affonso, succeeded at the age of thirteen. Although completely uneducated and incapable of affairs, he wrested the power out of his mother’s hands six years later. Affonso VI is said to have been more at home in the company of grooms than in that of statesmen, but fortunately at the beginning of his reign he had an affection for a statesman of strong and wise views, the Conde de Castello Melhor, and allowed himself to be guided by his counsels. There seems no reason to think that he would not have continued to rely on ministers as excellent, and in that case his reign might have ended as prosperously as it began. But dissensions at Court deprived him first of Castello Melhor, then of his capable successor, Antonio Sousa de Macedo, and without them he was helpless. The Queen, a daughter of the Duc de Nemours, insisted on taking part, and no minor part, in affairs, was determined, in fact, to govern Portugal in the interests of Louis XIV. The strife between her and Castello Melhor was open and continuous till the Secretary of State fell. The King’s brother, the Infante Pedro, who must have known better than most how the country would gain if King Affonso had a wise minister at his elbow, supported the cause of the Queen. He forced Sousa de Macedo to flee from the palace to save his life, and when the King was thus left defenceless, obliged him to resign (November, 1667) and proceeded to marry the Queen.

Pedro II.

He did not himself assume the title of King but used that of “Governor” until the death of the King, who had been sent to the island of Terceira and then brought to Cintra, where he died in 1683. (The Queen, his former wife, died in the same year.) During these internal affairs events had happened which were of vast importance for Portugal. The war with Spain had at first been favourable to Spain, but three years after Affonso VI came to the throne the Spanish were decisively defeated at Elvas, and four years later, in 1663, the Portuguese under the leadership of the Count of Schomberg, achieved the victory of Ameixial, by which Portugal really established her independence. The capture of Elvas and the victory of Montes Claros followed. These were good answers to the exclusion of Portugal from the peace between Louis XIV and Spain in 1659. The Restoration of Charles II brought about renewed relations of friendliness between England and Portugal. A fresh treaty was signed between the two countries in May, 1661, and Englishmen (as well as Frenchmen) fought at Ameixial. Negotiations for peace with Holland began in the same year, and were brought to a successful issue in 1662, although, owing to new conflicts in India, the Portuguese and Dutch were not really at peace till 1669. Finally, in 1666, negotiations for peace were carried on between Spain and Portugal. They were, however, broken off, and in 1667 a treaty was signed, not between Portugal and Spain, but between Portugal and France. However, in 1668, the war with Spain, which had lasted for over a quarter of a century, ended, and peace was concluded between the two countries. Ceuta remained in the hands of the Spanish. This was unhappily the fate of many of Portugal’s overseas possessions. She lost or pawned one jewel after another till her splendid heirlooms were reduced, not indeed to insignificance, but to insignificance in comparison with their former worth. She did at least succeed in recovering Brazil from the Dutch. Pedro II, who ruled as Regent from 1656 to 1683, and as King from 1683 to 1706, was little better educated than his unfortunate brother, but he proved a wise and capable statesman with the good of his country constantly at heart. If personal ambition seemed to mark the first events of his public life, he redeemed these faults by a real devotion to Portuguese interests, and under his rule Portugal again attained a degree of importance which was clearly shown at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession, when all the European Powers eagerly sought her assistance. Portugal at first maintained her neutrality, and, not for the last time in her history, bobbed and wavered like a cork between conflicting waves. But before Pedro II died he had set the seal on his wisdom by openly throwing in his lot with England and her Allies (May, 1703). As events proved, the other course would have meant Portugal’s ruin. The same year, 1703, witnessed the signing of an important and much discussed commercial treaty between Great Britain and Portugal, known as the Methuen Treaty (27th December). It provided that Portuguese wines should be admitted to Great Britain at reduced rates (a third less than those upon French wines), and that as regards the prohibition of the importation of manufactured woollen goods into Portugal an exception should be made in the case of Great Britain.

João V.

João V was but seventeen when he began his reign of forty-four years in 1706. His noble qualities and lofty aims were marred by the grandiose taste of the time and by an unwise imitation of the Roi Soleil. He wished to be the Portuguese Louis XIV. He lavishly encouraged art and science, and took personal and intelligent interest in their progress. He acted generally with a magnificence befitting a lord of all Europe, or at least of all the possessions in the East that had once been Portugal’s, whereas his treasury was supplied mainly by gold from Brazil. In the matter of buildings, especially, his extravagance was unbridled, and two of them, the Convent of Mafra and the Alcantara Aqueduct, still excite wonder and admiration. It was all very splendid, and very unwise when agriculture at home and the development of the colonies abroad as well as a fleet to maintain them required every available penny. The principal event of his reign in foreign affairs was the peace of Utrecht, signed between France, Spain, and Portugal in 1713.