Earl of Morenna by whom he had many children Henry the first died in his childhood Sancho who succeeded him in the Kingdom Uracca who was married to Ferdinando King of Leon though this match was again made void the Pope not approving of it Therasia whom some Historians have likewise called Matilda married to Phillip the first Earl of Flanders He had likewise diverse natural children amongst whom one named Alphonsus who was great Master of the Knights of Rhodes King Alphonso was certainly a great soldier a valiant Captain and a magnanimous King in all his words and actions there appeared a kinde of Majesty and sublimity of minde his liberality and justice made him feared by his enemies and adored by his subjects strength of body and greatness of minde concurred in him to make him the most worthy and admired of the age he lived in he never undertook any War but either to right his injured subjects or to propagate the Christian Religion amongst his greatest facts of Arms he never forgot acts of piety but always before any battel used with vows and prayers to beg the protection of heaven He died having arrived at the highest pitch of glory wept for by his people and lamented by the very Moors themselves who hated him thus topt with all triumph happy in a numerous and as generous an issue weary of worldly vanities he departed this life in hopes to receive in heaven the reward of his piety and vertue SANCHO the I. Second King of Portugal SAncho his eldest son indeed the onely legitimate son he had living succeeded to Alphonso he was born at Conimbria the 11. of November Anno 1154. where he was likewise educated until the fourteenth year of his age in all those studies and exercises which are proper for a Prince born to command he afterwards profited under his fathers tutorage in the Art Military in which emulating his fathers valor and greatness he did things worthy of himself gaining love from the soldiery and respect from the people he accompanied his father in three Victories in which he nobly adventured his life His father being dead he took upon him the government of the Kingdom and was Crowned the 12. of December 1185. three days after his fathers death being aged two and thirty years and finding the Kingdom at the beginning of his reign freed from the incursions of the Moors he applied himself wholly to make the peace enjoyed by his Kingdom profitable to his subjects he caused a multitude of fields to be tilled most of which were before a receptacle for wilde beasts and part of them laid waste by the late Wars with so much diligence did he addict himself to these things that by the vulgar he was called the King of Husbandmen He applied himself afterwards with the same industry to restore publique edifices and structures he rebuilt all Castles which had either been destroyed by the Moors or spoiled by other accidents of the War he restored the Cities Towns and Fortresses to their pristine splendor enriching them with new edifices and supplying them with new inhabitants he gave likewise great Revenues to all the orders of Knight-hood but principally to that of Saint Giacomo Whilest thus he took care of his subjects good and the increasing the Revenue of his Crown there were driven by contrary winds and raging seas into the Port of Lisbone a fleet of thirteen sail of ships belonging to several Christian Princes going to the Holy War with the assistance of these King Sancho invaded the Kingdom of Algarve then possessed by the Moors making this compact with the Christian Princes that commanded the Navy that they should enjoy the whole spoil of the enemy whilest he reserved for himself onely the Cities and the glory The Impress proved not very difficult although the City of Sylva the Metropolis of the Kingdom made a long and obstinate resistance for at length it yielded but he enjoyed not quietly the possession of this Kingdom for the Moors uniting themselves to revenge the injuries done to their Nation he was constrain'd to flie to a defence of himself so much the more dangerous by how much the more unequal and 〈…〉 had with the kingdom of Algarve lost likewise his native kingdom of Portugal if God of his mercy had not bridled and curbed the fury of the Moors by a merciless devouring Pestilence which made them with the loss of two hundred thousand soldiers return flying home But King Sancho was no sooner freed from these dangers but another almost over-whelmed his kingdom by continual rains most part of the land was overflown by reason of which it not being possible to till the ground a famine ensued and that at length brought forth the plague so that the whole kingdom was almost destroyed the Cities and Towns were depopulated the Country remained unmanured nor was there to be seen over the whole kingdom other but spectacles of ruine and misery This sad condition of the Christians made the Moors once more adventure in the field and without any resistance possess themselves of the greatest part of the Kingdom of Algarve the City of Sylva was rendred at discretion whilest the necessities of the King forced him to buy five years of truce or cessation upon low conditions In the mean time he would have sent assistance of ships and men to the Christian Princes who fought against the Saracens in Palestina but the miseries of his kingdom would not permit him yet he assigned to the Knights Templars and Hospitallers who were sometime before come into Portugal great Revenues giving unto them many Castles and Lands The truce was not yet expired when the King either finding or taking occasion to break it in the midst of winter assaulted the Cities of the Moors with so much fury that the Barbarians not expecting so sudden an assault were easily driven not onely out of the Confines of Portugal but out of the best part of the kingdom of Algarve King Sancho had for wife the daughter of Ramond Berengario Count of Barchinona called Aldonsa by her he had nine children of whom eight outlived their father to wit three sons and five daughters the sons were Alfonso who succeeded in the kingdom Ferdinando who for his singular vertues was called into Flanders to marry the Countess Ioanna and Pietro who was Count Iregelense and Lord of the Bateares The five daughters were Therasia Mefalda Sancha Bianca and Beringhella Therasia was married with Alfonso King of Leon her Cousin-german but this marriage not being assented to by the Pope was esteemed void so that after having born three children she was forced to return into Portugal where being shut up in a Monastery she spent the rest of her life in pious meditations it is reported by some that her Sepulchre being opened in the year 1617. her body was found whole and as it were incorrupted and that many who were sick or otherwise had incurable diseases by vowing to her and touching her
their souls He was equally strong and valiant nor was it ever known that the greatest danger 〈◊〉 strike terror into his undaunted minde he observed with a strict punctuality the rules of hoâ—nesty and justice and towards God he with 〈◊〉 ordinary piety was both zealous and reverâ—â—â— he made several Laws for the benefit 〈…〉 kingdom which are still continued among the Statutes of that Realm If he had not taken Arms against his father or if he had moderated his hatred to his 〈◊〉 or if he had not imbrued his hands in the 〈◊〉 blood of Agnesa envy it self coul◠〈◊〉 have found out any subject of blame in the 〈◊〉 course of his life he resembled his 〈…〉 many vertues but was much inferior to him in liberality his death happened to him in that condition when he had little reason to desire longer life for it was when he saw his actions of glory forgotten though he was yet alive for his subjects began onely to remember his faults which being fresh in memory made his loss the less lamented PEDRO The Eighth KING of PORTVGAL PEdro the first of that Name who succeeded his father Alfonso in the kingdom of Portugal was born at Lisbon in the year 1325. two years before his father came to sit at the heâ—m of government at the time of his being Crowned he was about the age of three and thirty years He was the onely male-childe that lived of four and some danger there was of him in his youth he being very sickly till he arrived to about eighteen years of age which made his father to be assured of a Successor for his Crown to defer the marriage of Leonora his youngest daughter to Pedro King of Arragon till he perceived him in a perfect measure of health He was about the age of one and twenty years married to Constance daughter to D. Iuan Emanuel by whom he had onely one son named Ferdinand who succeeded him in the kingdom and she as if she had onely come into the world to bear him and having performed that task died After the death of the Infante D. Pedro fell in love with Agnesa de Castro a most beautiful woman and descended of the blood Royal by her he had many children amongst whom one was Iohn who afterward was the first of that name King of Portugal this Lady being accused to King Alphonso at his return from his great Victory over the Moors nigh the River Saledo was by him for what crimes is unknown put to death which so incensed Pedro that he took up those Arms against his father which he laid not down till his death As soon as he was come to the Crown he brought to condigne punishment those who had wrongfully accused and counselled the Lady Agnesas death he afterwards renewed the old War betwixt his father and the King of Castile about the stopping of his espoused wife Constance But because the Pope had before made up this breach he by his Letters commands Piedro to desist from further prosecuting the War which he for the present obeys but soon after upon a slight pretence again enters into Castile with his Army whereupon an excommunication was thundred out against him which forced him to retire and to gain his Pardon turn his Army upon the Moors from whom he took the strong Port Town of Pharo in the kingdom of Algarve At his return home he fell sick and in the tenth year of his kingdom and about the three and fortieth of his age in September 1367. he died he was buried in the Cathedral of Lisbon not far distant from his father having caused before his death three Tombs to be erected on each side he caused the bodies of his wife Constance and the Lady Agnesa to be laid reserving the middle one for himself where he was accordingly buried He was a man of as comely a personage as any whatsoever of the Kings of Portugal of a sweet and affable disposition nor did he want any of his fathers vertues but one vice they both had which overshadowed all their vertues warring against their fathers FERDINAND The ninth KING of PORTVGAL FErdinand the first of that Name succeeded his father Pedro in the kingdoms of Portugal and Algarve he was born at Lisbon in the year one thousand three hundred forty seven and was the onely childe of Constance daughter of D. Iuan Emanuel He arrived at the Crown at the age of about two and twenty years in the year 1369. as soon as he had fininished the Ceremonies of his Coronation he prosecuted the War his father had begun against the Moors and in several battels drove them quite out of Algarve he built a Monastery upon a Promontory of Land called Cape St. Vincent now by us the Southern Cape which stretcheth it self out into the Atlantique sea He addicted himself to the planting and peopling of that kingdom distributing the waste Lands among the Inhabitants he repaired many Cities Towns and Castles which had been destroyed by the fury of the War he built several Churches and Monasteries in that kingdom all which he enriched with great Revenues but particularly a Monastery for Franciscan Friers erected in Silva the chief City of that Territory About this time it was that Pedro son of Alphonso the eleventh king of Castile having committed several tyrannical outrages intollerable to his subjects oppressing and destroying his subjects putting away and after murdering his wife daughter to Peter Duke of Burbon was by his bastard brother Henry chased out of his kingdom and forced to live an exile He at first seeks for aid to Ferdinand King of Portugal but in vain he next addresses himself to Edward the black Prince of Wales who was then at Burdeaux with an Army of thirty thousand men he consents to assist him and encountring Henry on the borders of Castile with near one hundred thousand men utterly discomfits him and establisht Pedro in the Throne who shortly after falling again to his former tyrannical courses is deserted by his subjects taken by his brother Henry and put to death Ferdinand had but one only daughter that survived named Beatrice who was married to Henry King of Castile and thereby excluded from the right of succession according to the Law made in the first Assembly Estates held at Lamâ—go in the reign of Alfonso the first King so that in this King ended the legitimate Line of Henry Duke of Lorrein This King had now reigned 18. years and lived forty when seized by a violent sickness he gave up the ghost in the year of our Lord God 1387. and was buried by his Ancestors in the Cathedral Church of Lisbon JOHN the 1. Tenth KING OF PORTVGAL JOhn the first bastard son to Pedro the first by Agnesa de Castro who succeeded Ferdinand in the kingdom was born in Lisbon in the year 1356. he was in his minority educated in the famous Conimbricense University where he addicted himself to all those studies which became a Prince
always accounted good Sea-faring men and fortunate in discovery of forein Countreys It aboundeth with Rivers of all sorts having neer two hundred great and small The chief are 1. Minius full of red Lead and thence called Minium by the Latines navigable with small Vessels neer a hundred miles 2. Lethes now Lavada 3. Muliadas now Mundego 4. Tagus 5. Duerus and 6. Anas These three last common to all the rest of Spain Anas or Guadiana passing by Portugal onely for seven leagues Tagus for eighteen and Duero for eighty None of these navigable for any long space by Ships of any great burthen all the Rivers of Spain being generally swift of course restrained within narrow Channels between sharp Rocks and therefore incommodious for navigation but that want is supplyed by three excellent Havens 1. That of Lisbon upon Tagus 2. Porto upon Duero to the north of Lisbon 3. That of Setaval south of Lisbon scituate on a Goll twenty miles in length and three in breadth a place of great importance The principal Cities of this Countrey are 1. Lisbon seated upon Tagus a City famous for Commerce called by the Latines Olisippo or Ulisippo and as some have fabulously imagined built by Ulysses in his ten years travel It is in compass seven miles and contains upwards of thirty Parishes in which are at least 20000 houses neat and comely Fabricks There are on the Walls seventy six Turrets and Towers twen-two Gates to the Sea-side Towards the Continent it is scituate upon five small Hills betwixt which is a valley which runs down to the River On the highest Hill stands an ancient Castle not strong but by reason of its vicinity to the Palace serving now onely for a Prison for great men The Entrance of the River is defended by the Castle of Cascais and neerer the City by the Fort of St. Iulians and the Rock of Belem muniâ—ioned by twenty Pieces of Ordnance This is the Chamber of the Kings of Portugal the Sea of an Archbishop the Staple of Commodities for all the kingdom and thought more worth than all the Realm besides 2. The second City of note is Santaren seated on the Tagus so called from Sancta Irene a Nun of Tomar a Monastery wherein the old Kings of Portugal used to be crowned martyred heâ—e by the Moors this City is called by Ptolomy Scavaliscus then a Roman Colony 3. Sintrâ— upon the main Atlantick at the end of high mountains called Montes Lunae hither by reason of the cool refreshings of the Sea and pleasure of the Woods adjoyning the Kings of Portugal use to retire in the heat of Summer 4. Corimbra seated on both sides the River Mondego a pleasant Scituation among the Vineyards and Woods of Olives a Bishops Sea an University and sometime the Residence of the Kings 5 On the north side of the River Duero betwixt that and Minio is placed the City of Braga once the Royal Seat of the Swevian Kings now the Sea of an Archbishop conâ—ending for the supremacy with Ioledo 6. Porto the Haven of the Galls before-mentioned standing at the mouth of Duero now vulgarly called Portuport 7. Miranda a Bishops Sea seated also on the Duero 8. Bragance the Dukes whereof now Kings of Portugal were accounted so great Princes that it was thought one third part of Portugal were their Vassals and lived on their Lands they are originally descended from Alphonso natural son to Iohn the First who was first by his Father created Earl of Borcellos and after Duke of Bragance they after came to have right to the Crown by marriage of Katherine Daughter to Emanuel 9. On the south of Tagus and betwixt it and Algarve is seated in the middest of a large and spacious Plain the City of Eubora the Sea of an Archbishop and an University the last founded by King Henry the Cardinal 10. Is Portolegre a Bishops Sea 11. Olivenza on the Guadiana 12. Beja called by Pliny anciently Pax Iulia now Mean not very well inhabited but anciently a Roman Colony and one of the three Juridicial Resorts of Lusitania The Kingdom of Algarve THe kingdom of Algarve lyeth South of Portugal from which it is divided by a Line drawn from Aschorin on the Western Sea to Odochere a Castle on the Guadiana on the East bounded by Andalusia on the West and South by the main A lantick more wilde and barren it is then the kingdom of Portugal peopled with few Towns and those not very populous hilly and mountanous but by the benefit of the Sea yielding a great Trade of fishing specially of Tunny of which there is abundance caught It took its name from its Western scituation for so Algarve signifieth in the Arabick the utmost end of it was antiently called Promontorium Sacrum now Cape St. Vincent because the bones of St. Vincent religiously preserved by the Christians were here burnt and scattered by the Moors but now vulgarly by Mariners called the Southern Cape the Places of most importance in this kingdom are 1. Niebla the seat of Abed Mefad once King of this Country 2. Sylvia an inland City the seat of a Bishop 3. Villa Maona scituate beyond the Cape 4. Tavila 5. Faro 6. Lagos all Haven Towns This Country conquered by the Moors with the rest of Spain in the distractions of their power was for a time under the Soveraignity and command of the Kings of Sevil recovered from the Moors of Sevil by the Kings of Morocco It became subject unto them till they left this Country and was after parcelled among many Kings one of which was Aben Mefad reigning in Niebla and the parts adjoyning being dispossessed of his Estate by Alfonso the wise most of the other Towns and Princes submitted unto him and became his Vassals Anno 1257. more absolutely subdued and made subject to the Crown of Portugal by Alfonso the third Anno 1260. to whom the said Alfonso the renth of that Name in Leon and seventh in Castile had given the same in Dowry with Beatrix his daughter The Azores or Tenera Islands THe Azores or Tenera Islands are certain Islands belonging to the Crown of Portugal seated in the Atlantick Ocean directly opposite to Lisbon and distant from it 250 leagues first found out and subdued by the Portugals under the Conduct of Prince Henry son of Iohn the first scituate between 38. and 40. degrees of the Latitude and one of them in the first Longitude which is commonly reckoned from these Islands being the most Western parts of the world before the discovery of America They were called Azores from the multitude of Gossehawk at first found there Azor in the Spanish Tongue signifying a Gossehawk though at this time there are few or none found they were called also the Flemish Islands because first discovered by them and in the Isle of Faial one of the chief there are some families still resemble Flemings both in complexion and habit and not far from their abode is a Torrent called by the Portugals
Kings of Leon which Wars he managed with so much courage as was admirable in a Prince so young The Count of Trastamarense despising his youth took to wife his mother Teresia and from that marriage drew occasion to wage War with him Alfonso to vindicate his sleightings cheerfully encountred him and after the diverse accidents of several battels took him prisoner and forced him to regain his liberty to give him to wife his sister Uracca with that part of the land for her Dower which had been the occasion of the War Yet some there be that differ both in the occasion of the marriage and the contest Alfonso likewise fought several battels with his Grand-father Alfonso the 6. King of Castile and in one battel took him prisoner near one of his Castles called Arcos del val de vez upon whose release he had conferred upon him the title of Duke of Portugal he afterwards imployed his forces against the Saracens from whom he took Leirida Torre Naova and several other places Whereupon the King Ismaurus who was the most powerful amongst all the Mauritamans calling to his assistance four other Kings with an Army of four hundred thousand men invaded Portugal but his fortune corresponded not with his numbers for Alfonso encountring this great power with a small Army overthrew them and slew or took prisoners all the five Kings in memory or which â—ignal Victory Alphonso bore five Escutchions in his Arms though others are pleased to affirm it was in memory of the five wounds of our Savior seen by him in a Vision just before the fight The soldiers made proud with this exâ—raordinary success thinking the title of Duke too low for their Commander saluted Alphonso with the tile of King which Alphonso accepted and returning home enriched with spoils addicted himself to the exercise of his Regal power by calling a general Council of the three Estates to wit the Clergy Nobility and Commons for the better establishing by the consent of the whole people that Crown upon his head which the Soldiers love had conferred upon his merit This general Assembly being met in the City of Lamego and in the Church of St. Almacave the King came thither and seating himself upon the Royal Throne but as yet unadorned with his Ensigns of Majesty according to appointment the King Deputy Don Lorenzo Venegas spake to the Estates as followeth You are here assembled by the Authority of King Alphonso to see the Popes Letters and Resolve to confirm him for your King Whereat the whole Estates with one voice cried We will that he shall be our King Upon which the Deputy demanded shall he only be your King and not his sons after him They all answered he so long as he lives shall be our King and after his death his sons shall succeed Give him then the Royal Ensigns said the Deputy They answered we give them in the name of God and therewithall the Arch-Bishop of Braga placed the Crown upon the Kings head and gave him the Scepter in his hand with all accustomed Ceremonies which done his Majesty rose up and drawing his sword spake to this effect Blessed be God that hath been my helper with this sword I have delivered you and overcome our enemies and now that you have made me your King let us make Laws for the government of the Kingdom They answered so we will dread Soveraign we will make such Laws as shall seem good and convenient to you and we and all our children and posterity will be wholly at your command And accordingly several Laws were then and there immediately made the sum of which were 1. That King Alfonso should be Master of the Kingdom and that after him there might be no troubles in the choosing of a King his Son should reign after him his Grand-childe and so from Father to Son in secula seculorum 2. That if the eldest Son should dye during the life of the Father the next brother should be King and so forward 3. That if the King should dye without issue having a brother he should succeed but not his sons without consent of the Estates 4. That if the King should have onely daughters the eldest should be Queen after her father upon condition that she be married to a native of the Kingdom and that he be a Nobleman who should not have the power to take upon him the name of King until he had a son born nor should he till then wear a Crown on his head or take the right hand of his wife 5. That it should be for ever held for a Law among the Portugals that the Kings eldest daughter should marry a Native of the Country that so the Crown might never descend to Forreigners and that in case she should marry a Forreign Prince she should be excluded from her right of succession for they would not have that Kingdom which themselves by their own valor and by the effusion of their own blood without the aid or assistance of any strangers had made so go out of the race of the Portugals The Crown by these Laws and Statutes confirmed Alfonso as he was advanced in Title so he addicted himself to higher and greater enterprizes in five moneths siege he added the great and populous City of Lisbone to his Crown not without the loss of thousands of valiant soldiers and as many hazards of his own life some affirm that in this War the number of the slain amounted to no less then two hundred thousand men This magnanimous King likewise made innumerable acquists both of one side and the other of the Tagus he slew both the Kings of Leon and Castile but at length wounded in a battel he was no longer able to follow the Wars in person for what with his wound and what with age being now sixty six years old he had not strength enough to mount on horseback he therefore bequeathed his command over his Armies to his eldest son Sanctius or Sancho but still reserving to himself the superintendency of all Having thus relinquished the Wars he addicted himself wholly to works of piety and to endeavor the flourishing of the Christian Religion he built within his Kingdom one hundred and fifty Churches and Monasteries all which he enriched with great revenues Amongst the rest he built that at Conimbria from whence that famous University called Academia Conimbricense had its Original In this Monastery called that of the Holy Cross he died at ninety one years of age on the 9. of December Anno 1185. and here he remained buried in a little Tomb scituated in an Angle of that Church till such time as King Emanuel affected with the Fame of his Sanctity erected for him a most stately Monument which is at this day to be seen By Uracca his first wife daughter to the Count Trastamarense he had no children whereupon at fifty two years of age and in the seventh year of his reign he took to wife Mafalda sister to Amadeo
corps were healed Mafalda was espoused to Henry the first King of Castile although allied to him in a forbidden degree wherefore this marriage was likewise declared void and she emulating her sister built a Monastery of the Cistercian Order and is reported likewise to have done many Miracles particularly in the year 1627. when her Tomb was opened Sancha the third daughter became a Nun of the Order of St. Francis who lived about this time Bianca and Beringella died young and were buried in Conimbria right against their fathers Tombe though some write otherwise After the death of the Queen Aldonsa which happened in the year 1138. King Sancho gave himself over to the love of diverse Ladies amongst whom he had many children who proved most of them his greatest vexation and disquiet for the pleasures of the senses do not terminate but in the sence of grief At last arrived at the age of 57. years in the 26. year of his reign oppressed in Conimbria by an incurable disease he took leave of this world He was buried in the Church of the Holy Cross on the left side of the Altar in the great Chappel where King Emanuel built him a Sepulchre like to that of his father he left infinite riches which by his Will he divided amongst all his children making no difference between the legitimate and the illegitimate he by his Will supplicated Pope Innocentius the fourth to be his Executor for which he left in Legacy a hundred weight of Gold a gift without doubt worth his pains King Sancho was for vertue and for goodness singular in his age a worthy son of so renowned a father he proved fortunate in the utmost events of War and then did his triumphs flow in upon him when he dispaired of Victory he left it yet in doubt whether he were more wise or more valiant he always snowed himself so great an enemy to sloth and idleness that to avoid it he would not disdain sometimes to throw down the Scepter and hold the plow Fortune who was his friend in War was his foe in Peace for then besides the vexation that he could not vex his enemies he was likewise enforced to bear the injuries of the Land Sea and Skies in sum he was a King worthy the greatest Incomiums if he had not too much drowned all his other vertues in illicite Loves ALFONSO the II. Third King of Portugal ALfonsâ— the second succeeded to Sancho the first he was born in Conimbria on St. Georges day anno 1185. At 27. years old he was Crowned King with the envy of his brothers who little younger then he could hardly confine themselves within the bounds of Allegiance and to their discontents did the Legacies left by Sancho give new motives for Alphonso either out of avaritious desire of riches or out of obstinacy detained from them a great part of what was left them by their father These sinister thoughts of the then Prince Alphonso were discerned by his father before his death which made him leave to the brothers beside some Cities and Castles five hundred thousand Crowns in gold But scarce was his father dead but he began to contend with his brothers and sisters about their inheritance and because his brothers were retired into Elginera and Alenquar Fortresses given them by their father he under pretence that they could not be allienated from the Crown gathered together an Army to possess himself of them which he easily performed his brothers wanting money to hire soldiers and so not being able to make the least resistance His brothers thus driven out of the kingdom fled to the Pope for redress then in great veneration because he then pursued no other interest but justice who commanded Alfonso to remit the difference to indifferent Judges who necessitated to obey chose rather to accommodate the business with indifferent Judges then to run the hazard of a sentence He employed himself afterwards by the advice of Matthew Bishop of Lisbone to fight against the Moors and though these came assisted with ninety five thousand men yet were they forced to yield the Victory to him with the loss of thirty thousand soldiers and four Kings who were slain in the battel Alfonso for some years prosecuted this War but in time he grew so extream fat that he was unable to perform not only those great exercises incumbent on a soldier but every simple motion of the body yet for all that he ceased not to apply himself with extream diligence to prosecute the greatest affairs of State and where he could not in person he present to send such commands as shewed him to be both of great experience and wisdom He married with Uracca daughter to Alfonso the eighth or as others say the ninth King of Castile and Leonora or Elinor daughter to Henry the second King of England by her he had divers children the first was Sancho who succeeded his father in the kingdom Alfonso the second son whom by right of his wife was chosen Duke of Bologna and afterwards came to be King of Portugal The third son was called Ferdinand who obtained the principality of Serpa and married Sancia Fernandez daughter of Ferdinand Count of Castile The fourth died a childe called Vincenzo The last was a daughter called Leonora and was married to the King of Dacia Alfonso arrived to the eight and fortieth year of his age and one and twentieth of his kingdom when in the year 1233. he was constrained to pay the last debt to nature He was buried in Alobaccia in a little Church built by himself more for devotion then magnificence But after many years the Abbot Giorgio di Melo causing that little Church to be demolished carried his bones to that of St. Vincenzo where they now repose in a most sumptuous sepulcher Under this King as many affirm lived for certain time St. Antonio Protector of the City of Padona a Saint held in great veneration among the Roman Catholiques he was a native of Lisbon not so much esteemed for the Nobility of his birth as for his holy life Alfonso taking away his extream fatness was a man of a very comely presence and of singular eloquence his nature did make him pleasant with all but onely those of his own blood which fault in him did much diminish his subjects love and that general respect was due to him though he was a man noted for covetousness yet he oftentimes gave great gifts to his friends and always consumed the greatest part of the revenue of the kingdom The Portugueses while his father was alive did extreamly desire him for their King but did not at all now lament his death either because new things always please the people or else because he after his fathers death shewed himself indifferent from himself or from what they thought him whereupon not being wholly like his Progenitors he renewed in his subjects their grief for their loss SANCHO the II. Fourth KING of PORTVGAL SAncho the second who
though 't is to be supposed at that time he thought not to have arrived at so great height as to be King of Portugal When he was grown to the age of about three and twenty years he was by his brother made a chief Commander of his Armies in which Military imployment he behaved himself with so much courage and magnanimity as was admirable his valor soon gained the love of the soldiers and his courtesie and affability the affection of the people the very Moors his enemies would applaud him as both a perfect soldier and a Courtier His brother being dead and his Nephew Beatrice uncapable of succession by reason of her having married a forreign Prince he claimed the Crown as next of the blood but his claim was at first made void by reason of his being illegitimate when afterwards the Councel of Estates finding that if they should refuse him they might perchance choose one less deserving conferred the Crown upon him yet so as he should receive it not as his indubitable right by birth but as given him by election Yet some Writers there be that affirm that there were several legitimate sons of his father King Pedro then alive who all laid their several claims to the Crown as of right belonging to them before him but that he being at the time of his brothers death General of the Armies in Algarve and having gained so much upon the soldiers and people presuming upon their affection and his desert laid claim to the Crown which they being no way able to resist were forced to rest content and permit him to enjoy what was likewise willingly conferred upon the people so that he came to the Crown partly by force and partly by election But howsoever he came by it enjoy it he did and entred into his government about the two and thirtieth year of his age and in the beginning of the year 1388. received with great applauses by the whole kingdom as a Prince from whom they expected great and good things having already had so large experience of him Soon after his Coronation he married Philippa daughter to Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster which match he the rather inclined to because Henry the bastard King of Castile in right of his wife Beatrice pretended a title to the Crown of Portugal which he hoped he might the better oppose by matching into that â—amily which had equal if not more indubitable â—ight to the kingdom of Castile For Iohn Duke of Lancaster having married Constance the eldest daughter to Peter the deposed and murthered King of Castile and Leon claimed a right to and was a great stickler for those kingdoms yet never enjoyed any other but the bare title King Iohn having setled his kingdom applied himself to the prosecuting the War against the Moors who being quite driven out of his conâ—ines he resolves to follow into their own country and be the first King of his Nation that ever past the sea to this purpose he mans out a potent fleet and having fraighted it with a sufficient Army puts to sea and lands in Mauritania where in several battels he discomfits the Barbarians wastes their Countrey burns their Villages and possesses himself of a Sea-port Town called Seplene or Ceâ—ta whereby he gained both a retiring place and an in-let into the Country when he pleased By his Queen Phillippa King Iohn had a noble and numerous Issue first Edward so named from King Edward the third of England his God-father who succeeded in the kingdom secondly Ferdinand a man of so great abstinence and so devoutly religious that the Portuguese added him to the Calender of their Saints he was in the Wars against the Moors taken prisoner and during his captivity behaved himself with such an admirable patience as worthily deserves our wonder never murmuring to be linckt together with one of his meanest servants and with him forced for his living to grinde in a Mill though such was the piety of the servant that if he could he would willingly have performed the task himself and excused his Lord from the toil if it had been possible at length he was ransomed and returning ended his days in a recluse the third son of King Iohn was named after his own name the fourth Pedro but the fifth who most worthily deserves to be recorded was the Infante Henry This Prince whether emulating the great actions of his father or out of a natural inclination in himself was the first that encouraged the Portugueses to affect forreign Voyages he first set out with a great fleet in or about the year 1425. and made discovery of the Islands in the Atlantique sea which at first were called from their being newly found out Insulae Novae or the New Islands afterwards and now vulgarly called the Azores he likewise in many other Voyages made discovery of the Islands of Maderae Holy Port and Capo Verde and sailing farther along the Coast of Africa was the first that found out the way by Sea to Guiana at length wearied with travel and overpressed with age he retired and lived upon Cape St. Vincent which place he choose because of the constant sereness of the Air being a great lover of Astrologie and the Mathematiques he died about the year 1465. and was buried in the Chappel of that Monastery built by Ferdinand the first King Iohn reigned in all forty seven years having from the King of England received the honor of being Knight of the Garter as likewise did his two sons Prince Edward and the Infante Henry He died in the year 1436. leaving the World full of his glory He was a Prince in whom all Vertues seemed naturally to flow endowed with all imaginable Ornaments both of body and minde of a tender and affable Nature yet in the field as Valiant as the fiercest though 't is by some observed that he was never perceived upon any charge given upon the enemy many of which he made in his own person to change countenance or shew any sign of discomposure from his constant temper EDWARD the I. Eleventh KING of PORTVGAL EDward the first of that Name King of Portugal was born at the City of Braga in or about the year of our Lord one thousand three hundred ninety and two he was educated during his youth in all those exercises befitting a a Prince under the tutorage of the Arch-Bishop of Lisbon in which he profited so that in his most tender years his great judgement was deservedly wondered at after he had past his minority in studies he several times accompanied his father in the Wars of Africa where he showed great proofs of his magnanimity and courage He came to the Crown at the age of forty four years or thereabouts some report that being to have the Ceremonies of his Coronation performed the same morning that the Crown was to be put upon his head a Jew one of his Physicians and a great Student inâ— Astrologie came to him and falling down
the slaughter of them for three miles together and two days after having burnt and pillaged the villages they put to sea steering their course towards Portugal But whilst they laboured with contrary winds plying to and fro at Sea Robert Earl of Essex fell in amongst them who being very young had out of the heat of Military glory hatred of the Spaniards and commiseration of Don Antonio declining the pleasures of the Court and committed himself to Sea without the knowledge and absolutely against the Queens mind in hopes by reason of the influence he had over most of the Commanders of the Land-Forces to be made their General Two days after his being joyned with them they with much trouble arrived in Penicha a town of Portugal which with the loss of some drowned in landing they became masters of the Castle being likewise immediately rendred to Don Antonio Hence the Land-forces under the Command of Sir Iohn Norris marched directly and with all possible speed towards Lisbon about Sixty miles distant Drake promising to follow with the Fleet by the way of the River Tagus The Army being arrived at Lixbon though they had before at a Councel of War determined to encamp on the East-side of the town the better to bar succours from coming out of Spain now contrary to their own resolutions sat down before St. Kathermes suburbs on the West-side where as at first they found no resistance so they found little help but what the prayers of some few disarmed men gave them who now and then cried out God save the King Antonio and indeed other help they could not afford him Albertus Archduke of Austria the Vice-Roy having before disarmed the Portugals The next day when the English weary with their long march betook themselves to their rest the Spanish Garison sallied out upon them who were at first resisted by Bret and his Companies till more coming up to their assistance forced the Spaniards to give back the valiant Earl of Essex chasing them to the very gates but the English had several Commanders of note and no small quantity of private soldiers slain In sum when they had now stayed two days before the town and perceived that the Portugals notwithstanding the great brags and fair promises of Don Antonio did not at all incline to a Revolt and that no advice came of any assistance from Muley Hamet King of Morocco but that instead of them fresh Forces flocked in great numbers from the East parrs into the City whilst their Army was lessened by a violent sickness their Provision and Amunition failed and their great Guns for battery arrived not they raysed their siege and took their way towards Cascais a small town at the mouth of the river the Spaniards following them at a distance but not ever daring to fall into their Rear The town of Cascais they took blew up the Castle and so notwithstanding all the intreaties of Don Antonio set Sayl for England firing in their way Vigo a Port-town deserted of its inhabitants This and some small bustles with one or two Counterfeit Sebastians not worth mentioning were the onely storms that hapned in this kingdom during the reigns of Phillip the second and third for they keeping their words in most things though some of their priviledges they infringed had almost brought the people to a willingness to be their slaves whereas Phillip the fourth committing the whole charge of the Government to Count Olivares who though without doubt an able Statesman yet would seem to have a way in policy by himself which no body else could understand the reasons of lost the whole kingdom and all its Territories For such was the new rigorous ways which he would prescribe in the Government of Catalonia and Portugal both people very tender of their Priviledges the least breach of which should have been seconded by a potent Force to have suppressed them in case they should attempt an Insurrection when in stead of having such power in readiness the Catalonians had rather opportunity given them to rebel and spurs to provoke them to make use of the opportunity for some soldiers being scatteringly quartered among them but too few to curb them they looked upon that as a greater intrenchment upon their Liberties than any before and a design utterly to enslave them wherefore converting their patience into fury they took Arms massacred those soldiers slew their Viceroy and put themselves under the French Protection This Revolt of the Catalonians was a president to the Portugals who had extreamly suffered under the breach of their Priviledges for contrary to the second Article sworn to by King Philip the Second which said That the Viceroy or Governor should be either Son Brother Uncle or Nephew to the King of Spain The Infanta Margarita di Mantoua who had no relation at all to the kings of Castile was made Governess which they might and perhaps would have born had they not been incensed by a more feeling injury Anno. 1636. when the Tax of a fifth part was imposed upon all the Subjects of that kingdom an intollerable grievance and thought so insufferable by the Southern parts of the Nation that they rose in Arms to oppose it and had set the whole kingdom in a combustion had it not been timely quenched by the timely care and industry of the then Governess the Infanta Margarita of Mantoua Yet this small stir gave an Item to the Court of Spain of the readiness of the people to revolt which made Olivarez endeavor by all ways possible to cut off the means of their being able to do but whilest he endeavored to prevent them he gave them the means to do it though he failed not to make use of those courses which in probability might ensure that kingdom the chief of which was the endeavoring to allure from thence the Duke of Braganza whom the people of Portugal looked upon as the person who of right ought to be their king and who was the onely Native of the kingdom who might restore again the Line of Alphonso besides he was a Prince who for Power Riches and Number of Tenants not onely exceeded all the Nobles of Portugal but even of Spain it self And indeed the Duke of Braganza was one of the most glorious Subjects in Europe being allied to most Kings in Christendom which made the Kings of Spain though they were Competitors for the Crown of Portugal treat this Family with more honor than any other of his Grandees receiving them almost with as much respect as if they were Sovereign Princes which appeared in Philip the Second who most of all desired to abase this Family yet would always when the Duke of Braganza came to visit him meet him in the middle of the room and not permitting him to kiss his hand seat him with himself under the Canopy of Estate To draw him therefore out of that kingdom Olivarez first politickly offered him the Government of Milan a place of great trust
a king of their own Nation or because none could without danger oppose themselves to the torrent of so a publick Will The Duke was at this time at his Countrey-house at Villa Vitiosa whether by accident or because he would always have had occasion to excuse himself if the business should not have succeeded I cannot guess but by reason of his absence they thought fit to make choice of two Governors whom to avoid the pretences of others they nominated to be the Archbishops of Lisbon and Braganza These began immediately to exercise their Command and were obeyed with so much quiet that in all that great and populous City of Lisbon there was none slain but onely those before-mentioned the prisons were opened nor was there any that suffered any wrong either in their goods or life All the Shops were opened as if there had not happened any Change of Government Onely the house of Vasconsellos was sackt with so much anger and despite that they did not pardon the very Doors and Windows nay such was the fury of the people that had they not been hindred by the soldiers of the Guard they had levelled it with the ground As for his carcase it suffered all those disgraces which a people wronged both in their liberties and estaâ—es could inflict they ran like mad men to express living sentiments of Revenge upon his dead and senseless Corpse vaunting who could invent the newest ways of disgrace and scorn till at length almost wearied with their inhumane sport they left it in the street so mangled that it did not seem to have the least resemblance of a man from whence it was the next day carried by the Fraternity della misericordia and thrown into the Burying-place of the Moors The Marquess of Alemquer after he had by command from the Governor assured the strongest posts of the City sent several Soldiers into the streets crying Long live King John the Fourth which the people hearing distracted as it were with very joy leaving their Trades ran up and down proclaiming him with voices of Iubilee the greatest part through excess of passion not being able to refrain from tears The Messengers did not run but flie to the Duke of Braganza to give him notice of his promotion to the Crown The first arrived on Sunday morning before day he feigned a great alteration at this Advice whereupon some have presumed to say that he had not any knowledge of the Design He seemed at first not to believe it but told the Messengers that though he might have desert and a spirit fit for the Crown of Portugal yet he had neither will nor ambition to desire That his enemies wronged him by tempting him with Stratagems as far from his Genius as his Faith But at the arrival of the Count of Monte Santo who came to accompany him to Lisbon he seemed of another minde and having been with him in private discourse for the space of about two hours without any further delay then what the relating the business to his Wife and to the Prince his son made he departed with the Count from Villa Vizosa accompanied with about five hundred persons Yet others there be that affirm that he was not onely acquainted with the design of the Revolt but of Council about it and that some time before the Nobility having had a private Meeting at Lisbon it was at first propounded That they should reduce the kingdom into the form of a Commonwealth but that not being approved of by the major part the Archbishop of Lisbon stood up and in a most eloquent Speech having laid before them the miseries they had endured under the Spanish yoke recommended unto them Iohn Duke of Braganza as the indubitable Heir of the Crown and their rightful Soverign This Motion needed not to be seconded with many Arguments to induce a general Consent they all most willingly assented to it and concluded to send Gaston Cotigno a man of a fluent and voluble tongue to acquaint the Duke with their intentions and to perswade him to accept the Crown and free his Countrey Gaston being arrived with many well-coucht words acquaints him That there was now a pregnant opportunity offered to recover the indubitable right of his Ancestors to the Crown of Portugal That the Nobility and Clergy were wholly inclined to redeem themselves from the tyranny of the Castilians by securing the Crown upon his head That the universal odium of the whole people to the Spanish Government the present low condition of the House of Austria distracted on every side with War the assured Assistance that France and other Nations emulaâ—ing the greatness of Spain would lend were as so many Motives to perswade them not to let slip so fair an opportunity to regain their liberty That if he by refusal should be the sole enemy to his Countreys freedom they would effect it themselves and reduce it into a Common-wealth with many other Arguments used he which his love to the House of Braganza his hatred to the Castilians or his own ingenuity prompted to him The Duke's amazement permitted him not to return a sudden Answer but after a little pause he replied That he was highly obliged both to him and all the Nobility for their affections to him but that this was a Business required great deliberation That there was no Medium between a Throne and a Chair of Execution that therefore he would first advise with himself and not rashly attempt so hazardous a business He therefore communicates the whole business to his Dutchess Donna Lucia sister to the Duke of Medina Sidonia a woman of a noble heroick and masculine Spirit with her he consults whether he were best accept of the Propositions of the Nobility or to prevent all hazards go to Madrid and being anxious what course to take his wife nobly told him My friend if thou goest to Madrid thou dost incurre the danger of loosing thy life and if thou acceptest the Crown thou dost no more consider then whether it be not better to dye nobly at home then basely abroad These words of his Ladies say some ainmated him to a resolution to accept the Crown so he returned Gaston in answer That he would conform himself to the councels of the Nobility resolving to live and run all hazards whatever with them for the regaining of his countries liberty In the mean time the Marquess of Ferreira used his utmost endeavors for the reducing of those Castles which still heldout for his Catholique Majesty The first day the Castle of Colline was rendred which for its situation was judged in expugnable yet the Captain of it no sooner saw it besieged but moved either with Gold or fear he delivered it up on Articles The tower of Belem and that De la Cabera were suddainly surprized before they within had any notice of what was done The strong Fortress of Saint Giuliano a modern Fortification and built to defend the mouth of the river was ready
to surrender when a Castellane who was there a prisoner and under sentence of death for the surrendry of a Fort in Brazile shut out the captain who was gone to parly with the Portugueses and resolved to defend it many days he might have held it out the siege but finding neither ammunition nor provision consumed as was believed on purpose by the Captain who unwilling to have the blot of a Traytor cast upon him for so suddain a delivery thought it fitter to be forced by necessity to open the gates to the Marquess After the surrendry of Fort San Giuliano the Marquess of Ferreira in the name of the King gave the Sacrament of Fidelity or an Oath of Allegiance to all the Orders to wit to the Clergy Nobility and Commons which was received with so much readiness that had not the Marquess seen the necessary orders observed the people had run into certain inconveniences so much they strived to prevent one another in willingness to perform this duty On Thursday the sixth of February His Majesty made his entrance into Lisbon with all these applauses that a beloved King can expect from his most loving Subjects The rich Liveries given by the Nobles the Triumphal Arches the Streets hung with Tapestry the multitudes of the people flocking to see him and the excellent Fire-works which were so many that a Spaniard cryed out Es possible que se quita un Reyno a el Rey D Felippe cun solas Luminarias vivas sinmas exerciâ—â— in Poder Gran senal y efeto sin Duda del Brazo de dios todo Poderoso Is it possible that King Phillip should be deprived of a Kingdom with onely lights and Fire-works without a powerful Army certainly this is an evident token that 't is the Almighty hand of God were the least demonstrations of that Cities love and joy so great was the concourse of those that flocked to see their new king that though his Majesty entred into the City by Noon he could not through the throng arrive at the Palace till two hours after Sun-set curiosity and love which usually have the force to stir up all affections made this people flock so fast to the sight of their Prince And because it is prudence in a publique joy to accomodate ones self to the will of the most even those who either for envy or some other cause hated the house of Braganza did not cease to make some demonstration of reverence and mirth and by how much the more they thought themselves observed by so much the more they strove to seem other then they were His Majesty being arrived at the Palace instead of reposing himself addicted himself wholly to consult about carrying on the war knowing well that onely labour produces true rest The first consultations were concerning the expugnation of the Tower of St. Iohn which of all the Forts in the kingdom only held out for the Catholick King To reduce this Cittadel the Marquess of Ferreira was sent in person with a numerous Army though for the most part tumultuary and ill ordered but what they wanted in discipline they supplyed in affection not refusing to engage themselves in the extreamest dangers for two days the Marquess found strong resistance but on the third day it yeilded as it is supposed forced rather by bullets of Gold then of Iron Don Antonio de Mascarendas with a Portuguese garrison was appointed commander of this Fortress which he very diligently repaired not onely of the dammages now received by Battery but with other necessary fortifications to bring it to greater perfection The Kingdom thus suddenly reduced to the devotion of King Iohn the fourth the several Governors were commanded to their Countries to levy Forces who listed the inhabitants indifferently from the age of Eighteen to Sixty in whom they found so much disposition that many offered their estates and their lives and would follow the Colours although they had licence to depart On the 25 of the same month followed the a Coronation of His Majesty accompanied with all those applauses and demonstrations of joy which could proceed from a people of infinite Riches who weary of the Command of strangers were consequently ambitious of a King of their own Nation In the publique Place before the Palace upon a most sumptuous Theater was erected a great Stage and upon that a less upon the top of which but three steps higher stood a Chair of State under a Canopy all covered over with Cloth of Gold About noon His Majesty came forth of his Palace Royal in a Suite of Chesnut coloured Velvet embroidered with Gold and buttons richly set with Diamonds about his neck was a Collar of great vallue whereunto hung the badge of the chief Order of Knight-hood called El Ordine di Christo. He was girded with a gilt Sword his Robe was Cloth of Gold lined with white wrought with Gold and flowers the Sword was born before him by Don Francisco De Alello Marquis of Ferreira High Constable of the Kingdom and before him was the Kings Banner displayed by Fernando Telles de Meneses Earl Marshal before him went D. Manrique De Silva Marquess of Govea Steward of the Kings Houshold and so in order his Nobles and Grandees of the Realm one before another before all went Portugal King at Arms with the Heralds Pursevants c. His Majesty being ascended the Stage and having placed himself in the Chair of Estate had the Crown set upon his Head and the Scepter delivered to him with the accustomed Ceremonies by the Archbishop of Lisbon which done he spoke to His Majesty to this effect Behold O most Sacred Majesty these your Subjects who do more rejoyce to see this day then of all the days of their lives They rejoyce to see the Crown of Portugal returned into its Ancient stock they rejoyce to have found a Father who will govern them like Children not Tyrannize over them like slaves They here Great SIR offer their estates their lives and oblige themselves to run through all the accidents of fortunes to establish that Crown upon your Head which now with so much devotion with so much readiness they have placed upon it They cannot sufficiently express their affections to Your Majesty could they bring their hearts and lay them down at your Majesties feet they would not refuse to do it so sure are they that they have found a King all goodness all love who will not let slip any means for the Establishing of the Crown for the quiet of His Subjects for augmenting his Dominions and for the conservation of those priviledges which have been written with the blood of our progenitors Be your Majesty graciously pleased to accept this common resentment expressed pressed by my mouth there being nothing that more comforts the mindes of good Subjects than the pleasing of their Prince The good old Prelate spoke these words with so much feeling that the tears of his eyes testified the affection of his heart To
every year besides those aforementioned the Crown of Portugal has several Towns on the Coast of Africa so strongly fortified that the Moors of the Country could never yet recover them such as Tangeer c. In America they possess the famous Country of Brazile which stretcheth it self one thousand four hundred leagues upon the Sea coast containing fourteen Governments and many principal Cities St. Salvador Pernambuco c. Thus great a loss did the Spanish Monarchy suffer by the revolt of Portugal which the Catholique King Phillip the fourth was very solicitous to recover and to that end and purpose did not onely consult with the greatest Statesmen at home but likewise with those abroad from one of whom he to that effect received the ensuing Letter BY the Letter which your Majesty was pleased to write to me on the 6. of March past I am commanded to deliver my advice touching the best expedient for the recovery of Portugal Sir the clemency used by King Phillip the second your Majesties Grand-father towards the kingdom of Portugal was a fatal presage of the present calamities and future destruction not onely of Spain but the whole Spanish Monarchy because that kingdom was onely in name but never really conquered remaining rich and abundant with the same if not greater priviledges then before the Grandees and Nobles at home the people not at all crushed and which is more then all the Government in the hands of Natives and all his Majesties other Subjects excluded from all places of Power Honor or Profit Sir the Holy Scripture which is the mirror and rule of our actions teacheth that when Salmanazar conquered the kingdom of Israel he did carry away not onely the Royal Family but transported all the Nobility and people into divers Provinces of his kingdoms and into the new Conquests sent new Inhabitants yet the Israelites were never such inveterate enemies to the Assyrians as the Portugals with devilish madness have shewed themselves against the Interest and conveniencies of this Monarchy Moreover in the same Scripture it is read that Nebuchadonosor having conquered Ierusalem transplanted all that he found in that kingdom leaving onely a few miserable inconsideraâ—le people to remain there So Athalia Queen of Iudah saw no other way to preserve a kingdom newly conquered but by extinguishing all the Generation upon whom the Jews could cast their eyes in hopes of revolt And Iehu King elected by God extinguished all the Family of Ahab together with all his dependants friends and acquaintance not sparing so much as the Priests These Sir are the Rules that the Holy Scripture teacheth to be practised upon the families and people that abhor the Dominion of their own Soveraigns It was Sir very fatal to stand expecting and hoping for better times and opportunities for the securing of Portugal In the year 1639. observing the ill affection of that Nation my advice was that without any delay that kingdom was to be secured by force of Arms others were of the same judgements but fate would have it that for fear of new troubles by delays way should be made for Rebellion then which there could not have been a greater although that form of Government which was expedient for the Spanish Monarchy and was always held necessary for the preserving that Crown had been put in execution with the greatest violence imaginable But when a Jewel is gone the main inquery should be by what means it may be found again not how it came to be lost The first means of recovering that Crown may be what your Majesties Grand-father made use of to buy your rights of your own subjects by gifts and promises wherein your Majesty is to be as Prodigal as the Portugals are insolent in expecting or demanding and indeed experience teacheth that that Nation is so addicted to their own Interest that more may be effected this way then by a powerful Army to him will they be subject who will give most or from whom most can be expected herein prodigality will be good husbandry for when Portugal shall be returned to the obedience of your Majesty all that wealth which hath been bestowed amongst them will return likewise The second means is by course of Arms but this will be difficult at present by reason of the several engagements of this Monarchy elsewhere I suppose Sir that in case Portugal should be conquered by force all their Conquests in the East Indies c. will remain in their hands for thither will they all flye and from thence will they be always ready to assist our enemies wherefore it would be very expedient for your Majesties service that a Truce were first made with the Hollanders upon condition that they make War upon the Portugal in the Indies and have what ever they can conquer whence will arise this commodity that they will want the wealth of their Conquests your Majesty being disengaged with the Hollander will sooner conquer them at home and the Hollander will onely come to receive to day at the hand of your Majesty what to morrow the Portugal must deliver up to them At the same time the Hollanders and Flemings may scour the Coast of Portugal and the English may be invited to a more frequent Navigation in the East Indies and China whereby the Portugal Trade may easily be ruined The third way is that the Pope be perswaded to thunder his Excommunications against the house of Braganza and against the whole kingdom as perjured and perturbators of the publique Peace animating all Christian Princes to assist in the regaining that kingdom upon pretence of advancing the Catholique Faith Moreover diffidencies and jealousies between the Duke of Braganza and other people may easily be fomented by means of Merchants Strangers and by Flemings and Burgundians under the name of French And to effect these diffidencies the better a Treaty may really be begun with the Duke which being discovered by the people though it be before the Duke could know thereof they will destroy him and all his Family and in such case the civil dissentions will open a way for your Majesty to recover your rights desperate evils must have desperate remedies the kingdom of Portugal is the Canter of the Spanish Monarchy therefore Eâ—se recidendum ne pars symera trahatur Let not your Majesty defer the right remedy the greatest rigor is here the greatest Charity and to have no Charity is to have much prudence to bury this Hydra in its own ashes will be triumph enough to live without this arm will be better then to have it employed against ones own head Let your Majesty never believe or hope better of that Nation then you have seen these 60. years past never think to keep that Country if not planted with other people the detestation against your Majesties Government is hereditary The Interest of the King Sir is very ample and hath no bounds against Rebels every action is just and honourable that tends to the recovery of
their reception yet not out of any of the Spaniards Allegations but upon pretence that certain of the Church Rites had been violated in Portugal the Arch-bishop of Braga and other Ecclesiastical persons being kept in durance though it was for very good reasons as hereafter shall appear Yet the Spaniards were not content with this resolution of his Holiness but whilst the Portugals were endeavoring to prove their cause by both Political and Legal Declarations Allegations and Arguments fearing lest the Pope might chance to alter his mind resolved to to make a quick dispatch of the business and to that purpose two hundred Banditi were hired to seize upon the Bishop of Lamego and carry him to Naples as the Prince of Sans had been before served by them and there put to death But this design themselves at length could not agree upon for the Marquess De Los Velos thought it would be better and less dangerous to give the Portugals a publique affront in the City which was concluded to be put in effect and to that purpose it was communicated to the rest of the Nation whereof upon several occasions there are always many in Rome who assembled together well armed at the Ambassadors Palace and so great is the power of Revenge that to the end they might the better effect their design and yet not appear as souldiers though there were many Gentlemen of quality amongst them they condescended to go under the name of Foot-men to the Marquess The Popes Holiness hearing of the great preparations of the Spaniard sent to them to let them know that he could not but be very much distasted to see such disorders attempted in a peaceable City and therefore desiring them for his honors sake to desist and withal sent a Messenger to the Bishop of Lamego to assure him that he need not fear any thing for upon the word of his Holiness he should walk the streets undisturbed But do the Pope what he could either by threats desires or perswasions the Spaniards were resolved to prosecute their deâ—ign which they put in execution to their own cost on the twenty of August 1642. On which day the Bishop of Lamego going to visit the French Ambassadoâ— one of his retinue observed that he was dog'd by a Spanish spie whereupon a Counter-spy was sent to the Marquesses to bring intelligence what they were doing there who brought word to the French Ambassadors that there was great preparations of Coaches and Men whereupon the French Portugals and Catalonians assembled and armed themselves with Pistols and Fire-locks to convoy home the Bishop By the way they were met by the Spanish Ambassador accompanied with about eight Coaches full of Captains and Officers come from Naples and guarded with about sixty Foot-men besides divers others of that Nation No sooner came they in sight of the Bishops Coach but they cryed aloud Che si fermassero all' Ambasciatore di Spagna that they should stop for the Ambassador of Spain but the Portugals driving on answered Che si fermassero Loro that they should stop Hereupon both sides with their Swords drawn leapt out of the Coaches and making a stand one Gun was first fired by the Spaniards side and immediately seconded with a brave volley on both sides when they fell into Swords point the Bishops side soon getting the better of it yet there was slain a Knight of Malta an Italian and a French and Portugal page but on the Spanish Marquesses side there were eight killed upon the place and above twenty wounded the Marquess leaving his Coach-horses dead escaped out of the back of the Coach which stood upon the place till next day and got into the next shop without his hat and trembling for fear from whence he was carried to the Spanish Cardinal Albornoz palace The Portuguese Ambassador returned first to the French Palace and from thence went safely home His Holiness the Pope was extreamly perplexed at these disturbances and therefore to prevent the like for the future Commanded a guard of Souldiers to be put upon the houses both of the Bishop and the Marquess But shortly after when the Bishop of Lamego had again pressed the Pope by a large memorial of the reasons why he should be received and was absolutely refused he was by his Master the King of Portugal called home Whilst these things were acting abroad the Castilians begun to make continual in-roads into the borders of Portugal which made King Iohn look more narrowly into the defence of his kingdom fortifie all the Frontiers and train up his Subjects to military excerises The Spaniards in one in-road which they made into Portugal laid waste all before them sparing neither sex nor age wheresoever they came which made the Portugals in revenge commit the like out rages in an inroad they made into Gallicia But these were publick enmities and therefore more easice to be opposed but there was a private serpent that lay lurking at home which was so much the likelyer to do mischief by how much it was more secretly hidden Some few there were who thought themselves so highly obliged to the Catholick King as to endeavour the reuniting of the Crown of Portugal to his vast dommions and again inslave their country to forreigners The principal of these was the Archbishop of Braga always a great creature and favourite of the Count Olivares who had at the beginning of the revolt show'd himself so opposite to the freedom of his country that many Gentlemen were once resolved to make him suffer the same fate with Vasconsello's the Secretary Nor had he ceased ever since to show visible signs of his discontentment at the Government In this Archbishops head was the whole conspiracy first hatch't and by him communicated to D. Lewis de Meneses Marquess of Villa Reale and the Duke of Comigna his son two persons sufficiently ambitious and both discontented as not thinking themselves sufficiently rewarded according to their merit These the Archbishop tampered with perswading them That it was a low and unworthy thing much beneath their birth and greatness to suffer themselves to be subject to a fellow Subject That it would be much more Noble and Generous in them to return their Allegiance to the King of Spain their ancient Soveraign who was able to bestow more upon a person deserving in one day then the Duke of Braganza could in a hundred years These few other arguments were sufficient to draw those who before out of their envy to the house of Braganza were inclinable to a change These made sure the Arch-Bishop next draws into this Plot a Gentleman of a Noble blood named D. Augustine Emanuel a man of excellent parts but somewhat necessitated nor had ever been looked upon or put into any employment which without any other incentives were motives sufficient to move a man to any desperate design Next him was added to this conspiracy Pietro Baeza a lately converted Jew whom the Portugueses call Upstart Christians
immutable unity of the Portuguese Nation was a strong Tower and invincible Fortress against the Spanish Power but so extreamly was the House of Austria involved in wars disasters on every side thaâ— that vast Body was rather in a condition to crave help and assistance from others then indeed to oppress them For besides the Wars in Catalonia which had put it self under the protection of the most potenâ— King of France in the Low-countreys which had proved so tedious and so chargeable a war to Spain in Italy in this Kingdom and in Germany there happened several Commotions and popular Tumults in some of the King of Spains Dominions which not onely robbed that King of a present supply of Treasure but were otherwise retardments to the prosecution of his Wars in other places The first of these Commotions began in the Island of Sicily where the people gathering together in a tumultuous maner forced the Viceroy to take off all new Imposts and Taxes which the Kings present necessities had enforced him to lay upon them This encouraged their neighbors on the adjacent Continent the Inhabitants of the famous City of Naples in hopes to rid themselves of their oppressions to rise in like maner in Arms which they did encouraged and commanded by one Thomas Aniello or vulgarly Masaniello who though of so mean and obscure a birth as a poor Fisher-boy yet to the wonder of the world for ten dayes commanded this mighty City and freed it from all Gabels so that ever since these two kingdoms of Naples and Sicily have rather been a great charge than any benefit to the Spanish Monarchy These Troubles and the Austrian Families being every where encompassed and embroiled in Wars together with the earnest desire of the King of Castile to prosecute a vigorous War against Catalonia and Portugal were I suppose the motives which perswaded the Catholique King to end those Wars which had lasted in the low Countries for above ninety years by owning now at last what he had so long refused the united Provinces free States so an absolute peace was concluded on and proclaimed at all the chief towns in the Netherlands on the 5. of Iune 1648. a Peace no less advantagious to the Spaniards then disadvantagious to the Portugals by reason of the pretences the Dutch had to Brazile and other places in the West-Indies King Iohn of Portugal about the beginning of the year 1649. thought his Son the Prince Theodosio arrived at an age fitting to keep a Court of himself Lodgings were therefore appointed for him divided from the Royal Palace and Officers of his houshold nominated and appointed by the King amongst whom the Earls of Villa nova of Miranda of Valdereis Fernando Tellez de Menezez who had formerly been governour of the City of Port were entrusted as the principal Gentlemen of his Chamber The King likewise thought fit to adde a third to the two former Superintendents of his Revenue whom he nominated to be D. Rey de Moure Tellez whose former Office of Steward to the Queen was at the same time conferred on D. Antonio de Silva Lord of Billas Notwithstanding the Truce the Hollanders still continued their outrages on the other side the Line but principally in Brazile where they seized upon many of the Portugal forts impeded the Traffick abused and murthered the Subjects which made His Majesty resolve to call the Earl of Castle Melhor from his charge of being General of the Portugal Forces upon the Frontiers of Gallicia and committing that to the young Viscount de Villanova de Servera that the Earl might be imployed as Viceroy to Brazile to curb the Flemings insolencies and to secure the Portuguese Merchants Ships from their pyracies the King appointed a Fleet of forty Ships of War and six thousand Men to attend that service as Convoys His Holiness the Popes anger as yet continued towards the Kingdom of Portugal for he had not onely hitherto refused to receive Ambassadors from thence but to supply those Archbishopricks Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Offices of the Kingdom which by the death of the former possessors were vacant this the King found a great inconveniency in and therefore thought fit once more to attempt his Holiness and to present him the names of such of his own Subjects whose piety learning or other sufficiencies he thought might make them capaof such dignities as first for the Archbishoprick of Braga formerly acknowledged to be the primacy of all Spain notwithstanding the pretensions of Toledo he nominated Don Pedro de Lancastro president of the Justice of the Palace of the house of Ameiro and descended from Iohn the second King of Portugal For the Archbishoprick of Evora His Majesty nominated D. Francisco Barrez Bishop of the Algarez Bishoprick he bestowed upon the Father Denis Des Anges an Augustine Monk and Confessor to His Maâ—esty for the Bishoprick of Guarda was appointed D Antonio Pobo great Prior of the military order of St. Iames for the Bishoprick of Lamego D. Antonio de Mendosa Commissary of the Bula de la Croisaida for the Bishoprick of Lerida D. Deigo de Souza Inquifitor of the holy Office for that of Conimbria Don Sebastian Casar de Menerez who was before nominated for the Bishoprick of Porto but that was given by his Majesty to D. Pedro de Menerez once named Bishop of Miranda of which last place D. Pedro de Porros tutor of the Prince D. Theodosio was now named Bishop These choices of his Majesty the Pope after sometime confirmed D. Francisco de Souza who was sent as extraordinary Ambassador notwithstanding the opposition of the Spaniards received not unlikely out of a fear that they would officiate without his confirmation and so in a manner renounce the power of the Sea of Rome But in the middest of this setling of Ecclesiastical affairs Arms were not silent for upon the borders there happened askirmish between the Castilians and Portuguese about the latter end of April 1649. Lord of Themer Court Lieutenant General of the Portuguese horse and Monsieur Du Quesne the Commissary General gained a victory over a small Army of the Spaniards defeating seven hundred of the Spaniards and taking divers prisoners amongst whom was the Nephew of the Marquess of Melinguen Lieutenant General of the Castilian Army at Badajox who was after exchanged for the Count Fiesque Lauagna who for some years past had been prisoner in Castile in this conflict the Portuguese lost but twenty five men the chief of which was Sieur de la Touche a French Captain who had behaved himself most valorously The commotions of the Parisians against the King of France had given the Spaniard great hopes of better success then they had many years had but the middle of the year 1649. happily concluding them the news of their pacification and that of a great victory gained by the Portugueses against the Hollanders in Brazile caused a general joy over all Portugal for the King appointed