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
and that as he had in a moment gained that kingdom so he should as soon loose it if he should but give them the least opportunity For that the people were highly discontented might easily appear by their attentive listning after old prophesies among which was one of an old Hermit who told Alphonso the first King of Portugal of the great victory that he should obtain over the five Kings of the Moors that he and his posterity should reign happily King of Portugal but that in the sixteenth generation his line should fail but that God at length should have mercy again upon them and restore them Others had respect to a Letter written by St. Bernard to the same King Alphonso the original of which is reported to have been given to the Portugal Embassadors by Lewis the Thirteenth King of France Anno 1641. the substance of which was to this effect That he rendred thanks to him for the Lands bestowed upon him that in recompence thereof God had declared unto him that there should not fail a Native of Portugal to sit upon that Throne unless for the greatness of their sins God would chastise them for a time but that this time of Chastisement should not last above sixty years Other Prophesies there were of this nature and to this effect which put the people in hopes of a Deliverance and many of them flattered themselves that Don Sebastian was yet alive and would come and deliver them nay so foolish were some of them that though they believed him slain at the battel of Alcazar in Barbary yet they thought he should live again and miraculously come to redeem them But that which most of all expressed the peoples Discontents was what was publickly spoken by the mouthes of their Orators the Priests in their Pulpits who would ordinarily in their Sermons utter speeches much in prejudice of the Spaniards Title and in favor of the Dutchess of Braganza nor were they sparing to do so in the presence of the King himself who would therefore often say That the Portuguez Clergy had made the sharpest war with him Father Lewis Alvarez a Jesuite preaching one day before the Vice-Roy took his Text Surge tolle Grabatum tuum ambula and turning himself to the Duke said Sir the meaning of that is Arise take up your pack and be gone home But above all this might the Discontents be perceived in the Noblemens Chappels especially in the Duke of Braganza's where they were wont to sing the Lamentations of Ieremy applying all the scorn and reproach of the Israelites to themselves as Aquam nostram pecunia bibimus because of the Excize put by the Spaniards upon Wine and other necessaries And that Servi Dominati sunt in nos and that Cecidit Corona Capitis nostri most commonly ending with this Invocation Recordare Domine Quid acciderit nobis Intuere respice opprobrium nostrum Haereditas nostra versa est ad alienos Yet did king Phillip bear all these Affronts with an incomparable patience dissembling with an admirable prudence his passion if he had any for these Discontents for he knew the onely way to win this Nation to an obedience and complyance must be lenity at first what ever he intended to practice afterwards and that he had by his exact keeping of his Word and Oath won much upon this people appears in that during his whole Reign and the Reign of his Successor Philip the Third who followed his fathers foot-steps though not with that craft and dissimulation they made no attempts nor were inclinable to a Revolt which the ensuing Story will evidence Don Antonio Prior of Crato the base born son of Lewis the Infante who had by the tumultuary Rabble on the Death of King Henry been elected King being expulsed Lisbon by the Forces of the Duke D' Alva fled from thence into France to the protection of that Queen who in regard that her Claim was exploded both by the Spaniard and the Portugal as an outworn Title and injurious to all the kings of Portugal ever since as unjust Possessors had long endeavored to excite Queen Elizabeth of England against the Spaniard and to forewarn her and other Princes to beware of his increasing power who now enriched with the addition of Portugal East-India and many Isles in the Atlantique sea might in time overshadow all his neighboring Princes and therefore advising that it behooved them to think of some way to curb his Ambition betimes and restrain his too far extending Power into some reasonable limits Which advice of hers Queen Elizabeth easily listned too being always providently careful of her own and her Subjects safety fore-seeing how dangerous the over-swelling Power of that Prince would be both to Her and her Dominions and therefore though she then entred not into a present War with him yet when Don Antonio came over to her with Recommendations from the French Queen she bountifully relieved him which she then thought she might do without offence considering that she acknowledged him her Kinsman descended of the Blood Royal of England and of the House of Lancaster nor was there ever any promise made in any League between the English and Spaniard that the Portugals should not be received into England Here then Don Antonio resided till the Wars breaking forth between Spain and England after the Spaniard had received that notable Overthrow of his Invincible Armado to whose power and puissance the whole World thought England would have been but a morsel Queen Elizabeth judging it more honorable to assail her Enemy then again to be assailed by him suffered a Fleet to be set forth against Spain which Sir Iohn Norris and Sir Francis Drake with some other private persons to their eternal honor rigged and set out at their own charge requiring nothing of the Queen but some few Ships of War and she granted to them that the Ships and spoils taken should be divided amongst them The Hollanders likewise to this Fleet joyned some Ships so that the number of the whole Fleet was about eleven thousand Soldiers and fifteen hundred Mariners With this Fleet Don Antonio with some few Portugals set Sayl out of England having before loaden the English with great promises of the recovery of this kingdom assuring them that the Portugueses would be ready upon his appearance to revolt from the Spainiard and that Muley Hamet King of Morocco would assist him with twenty thousand men The first place that the English Fleet put into was the Groyne in Gallicia the base town of which they easily took but attempting the higher town were twice repulsed and forced to raise their siege upon advice that the Condy di Andrada had gathered Forces at Burges Bridge and that the Condy di Altamira was coming with more purposing to besiege them in the base town and so cut off their way to their ships which Norris resolved to prevent and therefore with a sufficient force marched against them overthrew them and had
publique thanks to be given and Te Deum to be sung in all Churches Hopes to revenge the late defeat given by the Lord Therimicourt and desire to do some valiant act before he departed from his Government made the Marquess of Leganez governour of the Spanish forces at Estramadura give an Alarum to the Portuguese Frontiers and enter into the Country with two thousand horse and 6000 foot but the valiant Count of St. Laurence assaulting him forced him to retire with shame and excuse himself that he marched out onely to meet the Marquess of Mortare who was appointed to succeed him in the Government Yet this small and worthless Alarum made the King of Portugal who knew that too much care could not be had of the safety of his Kingdom to send Orders to the Governors to look more exactly to the countries committed to their charges then formerly and strictly to give charge to Don Iuan de Menezez Governour of Porto The Viscount Ponte de Lima Governour of the countries between Douro and Mimbo to the Count of Arogna Governor of Trasmontes and Don Roderigo de Castro Governour of Beira to repair with all expedition to their several Commands Nor was his Majesty less careful of his dominions abroad then of those neer home which made him dispatch the Baron of Alviro to be Governour of Tanger and D. Franciso De Norogna to Mazagan both strong Forts in Africa the last of which had been neer surprized by the Moors of Barbary but the Commander of that party which assaulted it being slain by a valorous French-man they were beaten off with loss for which service the King bestowed upon the French-man a pension of six hundred Crowns per annum And whilst His Majesty was distributing his bounties he could not forget the Lady Dona Maria Manuel widdow to the some-time before deceased D. Antonio Coello D. Caravallio who had ever since His Majesties coming to the Crown been one of His Privy-Councellors and was one of the chief persons that went Ambassadors into France to renew the Alliance and conclude a firm League between the King of Portugal and Lewis the thirteenth King of France His Majesty therefore in consideration of his services bestowed a valuable pension on his aforesaid widdow There was almost dayly inroads made upon the Frontiers in some places or other amongst the rest the Baron of Themericourt entred with a strong party into the Spanish Territories surprized the Suburbs of the City of Albuquerque and brought away a very rich booty without the loss of so much as one souldier upon the place and not above twenty wounded The succor of the distressed Subjects of the more distressed King of England about the year 1650. gave occasion to the King of Portugal to manifest his affection to the English Nation which he did by giving assistance to the gallant Prince Rupert who being by His Majesty of England made Admiral of those few ships which in the year 1648. returned to their Allegiance had ever since been pursued by the more poâ—ent Fleets of the English Rebels and was now by them driven to seek the protection of his Portugal Majesty who notwithstanding that the Fleet of the Rebels with threatning Bravado's demanded the said Kings leave either to assault them in his port or to force them to come out bravely protected them under his Castles In revenge of which the Rebels of England who stiled themselves a Parliment proclaimed an open War with the Portugal Nation which His Majesty notwithstanding his great engagement at that present both against the Spaniards at home and the Hollanders on the other side the Line resolved to endure rather then deliver up the faithful Subjects of England into the hands of Murther Tyranny and Treason and therefore in part to cry quittance with the English who had taken Prize several Ships belonging to this Nation he made seizure of all the English Ships and goods within his whole dominions but onely those he had before protected But at length Prince Rupert finding a clear passage from out his ports where he had for many months been blocked up the King by reason of his other large expences in defence of his Kingdom finding himself unable to maintain a War against the English and nature dictating us to the preservation of our selves resolved more moved out of necessity then inclination to send an Agent into England to conclude a peace The person deputed to go on this unpleasant imployment viz to court Rebels was D. Suarez de Gimeraines who had for his assistance and interpreter Mr. Myles and English Merchant these two embarqued upon a Hamburger hired for that purpose by the King of Portugal arrived in England in Ianuary 1650. About the beginning of Feburary D. Suarez had audience before a Committee of the pretended Parliament to whom he made a Speech in Latine to this effect THe Serenissimo King of Portugal my Master sends me hither to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England that on his behalf and in his name having first most friendly saluted you as I now do with the greatest affection of my heart that I am able I may joyntly tender and make known to you the Royal desire which my Master feels within himself to conserve and more and more to knit the knot of that Amity which uninterrupted hath ever been between the Serenissimo Kings of Portugals their Ancestors and this renowned English Nation It being my part to endeavor what lies in me to remove all obstacles that may hinder the most vigorous effect of this hearty union and conjunction of minds so to preserve inviolably the ancient peace between us This I come to continue hoping and wishing all happy success therein this I come to intimate and offer unto the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England with that sincere and pristine affection which hitherto the experience of many ages hath made manifest Nor shall you need to scruple the sincerity of my intention and purpose by reason of the divers past attempts not to say fights between your power and ours since they have not been such as have broken or dissolved our amity nor have had their rise or approbation from the King my Master nor as we believe from the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England but more probably carried on either by the impulse of their own private affections or by the defect of that circumspection which in such cases is ever necessary But as I hope particularly and fully to prove indeed to demonstrate this truth unto the Parliament of the Republique of England so I am assured they will not onely rest satisfied therein but shall also have accruing to them a newer force and sence of mutual friendship between us since the jarrs that happen amongst friends are oftentimes justly accounted as certain redintigrations of love And I do admire our enemies have not made this reflection whilst fed with vain hope they have thought it in their power to sow and
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