PORTUGAL. 



131 



: tinguished victories; and at length, in 1668, 



"Y"*' were terminated in favour i-f Portuguese indeprml.mre, 



through tin- intcrpoMtimi of Charles II. king of Kng- 



l.ind, who had married .1 princess of Portugal. For a 



full and intrri'Miiig account of this revolution, and the 



nts connected with it, the reader may consult lln- 



loire dex Revolutions dc Portugal, par Vertot. 



Alphonso was successor to the Duke of Braganza, 

 >\ho had reigned under the title of John IV. Al- 

 phonso being of a weak constitution, of great imbe- 

 cility of mind, ill-educated, and addicted to mean com- 

 pany and low pleasures, his mother endeavoured by 

 every artifice and intrigue to get him deprived of the 

 crown, which she meant to place on the head of his 

 younger brother Don Peter. This she was unable to 

 accomplish : but after her death, Alphonso, from va- 

 rious circumstances, was compelled to sign a resigna- 

 tion of the kingdom ; and his brother was declared re- 

 gent, and invested with all the powers of royalty. 

 Alphonso's wife having transferred her affections to 

 Don Peter a circumstance which had led her to in- 

 duce her husband to submit to the resignation their 

 marriage having been declared null by the chapter 

 of Lisbon, and the regent having gained a papal dis- 

 pensation, and the consent of the states, married the 

 lady who had been his brother's wife. On the death 

 of Alphonso, the regent succeeded by the title of Peter 

 II. Peter having died in 1706, was succeeded by his 

 son John V. In 1750, on the death of John, Don 

 h. Joseph ascended the throne, a prince whose reign, 

 though not distinguished for any thing enterprising or 

 heroic, is probably one of the most memorable, but 

 most revolting periods in Portuguese history. It is 

 deeply stained with domestic blood, and rendered 

 odious by the most shocking cruelty. In 1758, the 

 king was attacked by assassins, and narrowly escaped 

 with his life. The families of Aveira and Tavora, in 

 consequence of an accusation (afterwards proved to be 

 unfounded) exhibited against them of having conspir- 

 ed against his majesty's life, were cruelly destroyed by 

 torture. On various pretences, execution succeeded 

 execution with awful rapidity. An earthquake over- 

 whelmed the city of Lisbon, and shook the whole king- 

 dom to its centre. A famine threatened to accomplish 

 what this visitation had left undone. And in addition 

 to these and similar calamities, the Portuguese domi- 

 nions were invaded by Spain with a powerful army ; 

 their capital threatened; their prince almost determined 

 to save himself by flight; evils from which they could 

 not have been saved, had not England interposed to 

 bring about a peace, which was concluded in 1763. 

 During this reign, the management of public affairs 

 was in the hands of the celebrated Marquis de Pom- 

 bal, a minister of unbounded authority, which he not 

 unfrequently directed to the most cruel and arbitrary 

 proceedings, and whose removal from office in the sub- 

 sequent reign excited joy throughout all ranks of the 

 community. 



Joseph, who died in 1777. having left no sons, was 

 succeeded by his daughter Mary, whom he had mar- 

 ried, by dispensation from the Pope, to Don Peter 

 her uncle, with a view of preventing the crown from 

 falling into a foreign family. The queen having fallen 

 into a state of religious melancholy, the prince of Bra- 

 zil published an edict, (1792) declaring, that as his 

 mother, from her unhappy situation, was incapable of 

 managing the affairs of government, he would place his 

 signature to public papers till the return of her health, 



but that no other change fchould takf place in cpnse- Portugal, 

 quence of her indisposition. From this unhappy state **'' - 

 she was doomed never to recover ; she attained, how* 

 ever, to very advanced yean*; and at her death was 

 succeeded by her son, the present reigning monarch. j |, n vf. 

 In the beginning of the late war with France, Portugal 

 took a feeble part conjunctiy with England and Spain; 

 but after Spain had made peace with France, a war 

 took place between the former country and Portugal, 

 which however wan productive of no very important 

 events, and which was terminated by treaty in 1801. 

 On the rupture of the peace of Amiens, and the renew- 

 al of the French war, Portugal remained for some time 

 neutral ; but having at length determined in favour of 

 France, she advanced from time to time Urge sums of 

 money to that power, and at last went so far as to or- 

 der her ports to be shut against the ships of war, and 

 merchant vessels of England. She now found herself 

 placed in peculiar and extremely dangerous circumstan- 

 ces, virtually at war with Great Britain, a power with 

 which she had for centuries been intimately connected, 

 whose friendship had often averted from her impending 

 ruin, and from whose hostility she had every thing to 

 dread, and leagued with France her ancient enemy, 

 in whom she could place no confidence, and whose ar- 

 mies, having invaded Spain, were rapidly advancing to 

 Lisbon, to possess or to destroy it. In such circum- 

 stances the government hesitated long what steps to 

 adopt. Distrustful of Bonaparte, expecting no as- 

 sistance from any foreign power, and aware that the 

 internal resources of the nation were inadequate to its 

 defence, the royal family of Braganza abandoned a j{ a | fo. 

 kingdom which they could not defend, and emigrated mil/ rr- 

 to Brazil. In November 1807, they sailed from the moe 10 

 Tagus, in a fleet of eight sail of the line, carrying with Brazil, 

 them about 18,000 Portuguese subjects, including many 

 persons of distinction. And from this period, Rio de 

 Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, may be regarded as the 

 seat jpf the Portuguese government. On the removal 

 of the royal family, the councils of state attended 

 them ; and the king was represented in Lisbon by a 

 regency, and the councils by committees ; and no other 

 important alteration took place in consequence of the 

 departure of the court to the Brazilian colony. 



Nor were the views of the king of Portugal in re- French in- 

 gard to the views of Bonaparte unfounded. The French vasion of 

 immediately took possession of Lisbon, and the admi- 1'ortugal. 

 nistration of the new government was conferred on 

 Junot, now dignified with the title of Duke of Abran- 

 tes. They were not, however, allowed long to retain 

 possession of the Portuguese territories. England, 

 having resolved to assist Spain ami Portugal in their 

 resistance to French usurpation, despatched an army to 

 the latter country, and having defeated the enemy at 

 Vimeira, compelled them to evacuate Portugal by the 

 convention of Cintra. Portugal, however, was not yet 

 freed from foreign aggression. The invading armies of 

 France having met with considerable success in Spain, 

 having taken Madrid, and forced Sir John Moore to 

 make a precipitate retreat from the peninsula, Portugal 

 was again attempted to be overrun and subdued. Three 

 armies were collected on its frontiers, one under Mar- 

 shal Soult in Gallicia, another under General Lapisse 

 at Salamanca, and a third on the banks of the Tagus, 

 under Marshal Victor. Had these armies "been con- 

 centrated, and placed under the management of one 

 commander, the object the French had in view, not- 

 withstanding the bravery of the Portuguese and Eng- 



