a passage for the Portugueze to the gold and diamond mines in Brazil,
had nearly been attended by the most fatal consequences in Paraguay, the
richest fleet which ever sailed from Brazil entered the port of Lisbon.
It contained more than a ton and a half of gold, and came most
opportunely to relieve the exigencies of don Pedro, who, foreseeing the
events that would most probably follow the death of Charles the IId of
Spain, was preparing a considerable armament, which was attended by so
great an expence, that the royal treasury being nearly exhausted, he was
under the necessity of having recourse to the _cortes_, from whom he
obtained a supply of 600,000 crowns.
Louis the XIVth, deeply interested in the motions of Portugal, was
presently informed of this new subsidy, and the apparent motives
alledged by the king to induce its being speedily granted. This
intelligence did not at first appear to make much impression on the
French monarch, but he soon after took umbrage at it, and still more
particularly on hearing that the Spanish ambassador continued living in
a great style at Lisbon, had an opera performed in his own house, gave
the most magnificent entertainments, and had succeeded in gaining the
favour of the king of Portugal.
The court of France was very well aware, that don Pedro had legitimate
claims on the crown of Spain, that his vicinity to Madrid would
facilitate his views, and that he might easily find allies to support
his pretensions; it was therefore thought expedient to dispatch an
envoy extraordinary with orders to sound the intentions of the court of
Lisbon on this subject.
The nearer Charles the IId approached towards his end, the more were the
powers of Europe employed in forming plans for dividing his inheritance.
Different treaties had been formed during the course of his illness
between France, England, and the United Provinces; but these were
presently annulled, when on the demise of that prince, his will declared
Philip, duke d'Anjou, heir to the crown of Spain. The new king was at
first acknowledged by all the powers in Europe, except the Empire: he
took upon himself the title of Philip the Vth, and departed immediately
for Spain. It was this occasion which gave rise to the following
memorable speech of Louis the XIVth; "_My son, there are now no longer
any Pyrenees_;" a speech which unhappily was but too soon forgotten,
since the first war undertaken by France, after that of the
_succession_, was against the Spaniards.
Philip the Vth entered his new dominions without the smallest
opposition; he was received with much solemnity, and with every
testimony of joy, on the 14th of April, 1701, at Madrid, where the
people took the oath of allegiance, and expressed an attachment to his
person, which neither time, nor reverse of fortune, had ever the power
to weaken. Destitute of troops sufficient to oppose the united forces of
France and Spain, and without allies to furnish him with supplies, don
Pedro gave up for the present all idea of bringing forward the claims of
the house of Braganza to the crown of Spain, and hastened to form an
alliance with Louis the XIVth and Philip the Vth, as the properest means
of preventing the kings of Spain from renewing their pretensions to that
of Portugal.
This alliance was greatly approved by the public; the Portugueze still
bearing in mind the misery of their situation, whilst under the dominion
of the house of Austria, and remembering with pleasure and gratitude the
signal services rendered them by that of Bourbon. Their great
disinclination to war, also added to their satisfaction, since they had
now every reason to flatter themselves they might be suffered to remain
neuter; but this hope, alas! was presently destroyed, for England,
having on the 7th of September, 1701, formed a league with the Empire
and Holland against France and Spain, immediately on war being
declared, commanded her fleet to commence hostilities on the coast of
Portugal. Don Pedro directly gave orders to the duke de Cadaval to
assemble a sufficient body of troops to secure the sea-ports from the
insults of the English; and at the same time informed his allies of his
situation, and the danger with which he was threatened, unless speedily
assisted. Neither France nor Spain were in a condition to equip a fleet
capable of standing against the attacks of the English, and yet these
powers insisted on Portugal's taking an active part in the war. Spain,
in particular, treated the Portugueze ambassador with insupportable
insolence, and on his urging the necessity of his master's remaining
neuter, he was answered by the cardinal Portocarrero, "_that no other
conduct could be expected from the rebel duke of Braganza_."
The king of Portugal, whose love of peace had even induced him to pass
over in silence the intelligence he had received from his minister at
the Hague, that by a private treaty between France and Spain, his
kingdom was to become a province of the last-mentioned country, now
thought himself justified in breaking with allies, who not only gave him
up to the power of his enemies, but were even employed in contriving
his destruction, he therefore on the 6th of May, 1703, entered into the
league styled the _grand alliance_, and obtained the most favourable
conditions; the emperor promising to keep in pay 14,000 Portugueze, and
the queen of England engaging herself to maintain a fleet ready at all
times to defend Portugal and its colonies. There were also secret
articles in this treaty, which treaty itself was not to be made public
till the archduke Charles arrived at Lisbon, by which don Pedro was to
be put into possession of Badajos, Alcantara, Albaquerque, Valentia in
Estremadura; Bayonne, Vigo, Tuy, and Gardia, in Gallicia.
Louis the XIVth was presently made acquainted with this convention, and
gave orders to his ambassador to demand an explanation, which he was
constantly refused.
On the 9th of May, 1704, an English fleet appeared off Lisbon, and
landed the archduke Charles, together with 10,000 men. A very few months
after his arrival, the court of Portugal was plunged into the deepest
distress by the death of the infanta, a child of eight years old, who
was betrothed to the archduke. It being of the greatest importance to
lose no time in commencing hostilities, the troops were scarcely landed
before they were employed in actual service. Nothing decisive occurred
during the first campaign; good and ill success equally attended their
arms; and the English alone gained a conquest, which they have
constantly preserved. The Spaniards, from the most unpardonable
negligence, having left Gibraltar with only a garrison of a hundred men,
it was taken on the 4th of August by the English, who fought under the
command of the prince of Darmstadt, and admiral Rooke.
The second campaign in 1705 was of very little importance; and the
advantages obtained in that of the following year, were much more
brilliant than solid. On the 16th of June, lord Galway and the marquis
de Minas entered Madrid without resistance, and caused the archduke
Charles to be proclaimed king of Spain: the greater part of the people,
however, faithful to their first engagements, ventured even on the same
day to shout out "Long live Philip the Vth, our lawful sovereign." Such
marks of affection, testified by the Spaniards, and at such a moment,
were a certain presage that the triumph of the archduke would be but of
short duration.
The English and Portugueze armies quitted Madrid on the 1st of August,
and prudently avoided engaging the Spanish and French troops, commanded
by marshal Berwick, having been informed, that they had recently
received a powerful reinforcement from France. The English and
Portugueze generals were on this occasion condemned or excused,
according to the dictates of party spirit, for not having taken greater
advantage of so fortunate a beginning.
The Portugueze troops being returned to their winter quarters, the king
gave orders for the levying of twelve thousand men, being determined to
carry on the war with the greatest spirit and activity; but
unfortunately for Portugal and its allies, don Pedro departed this life,
after a very short illness, on the 9th of December, 1706.
An historian of merit[30] has ventured to blame this prince for not
remaining neuter in the _war of the succession_; but we have already
seen that he was forced into hostile measures, by the conduct of the
different parties. Other historians, still more severe, accuse him of
not attending sufficiently to the important objects of agriculture and
commerce. Nothing can be more unjust in most particulars than these
reproaches, since it was during his reign that vegetables, and the most
delicious fruits first flourished in Portugal,[31] and that the famous
treaty was made with England, by which the latter power entered into
engagements to take Portugueze wines in exchange for English
manufactures.
Cotemporary writers have done more justice to the merits of this
sovereign, and allowed him not only the eminent virtues which ought to
adorn a great monarch, but the superior talents of a wise administrator.
Posterity has gone still farther, attributing to him the double merit of
having, by his first alliance with Spain, gloriously terminated a
dangerous revolution in the state, and of having carried his point, by
quietly effecting another revolution in his own family.
John the Vth, the son of don Pedro (or Pedro the IId) succeeded to the
throne on the 9th of December, 1706, but was not solemnly proclaimed
king till the 1st of January, 1707. This young prince, aged only
seventeen years, continued faithful to the engagements taken by his
father with the allied powers, against France and Spain, and put every
thing in order to carry on the war with the greatest vigour. Success,
however, did not wait upon his arms, for Philip the Vth having returned
to his capital on the 8th of October, 1706, gave the command of the army
destined to act against Portugal to marshal Berwick, who on the 15th of
April, 1707, gained a complete victory over the allied armies, under the
command of lord Galway, at the celebrated battle of Almanza, where the
greater part of the Portugueze present on the occasion were either
killed or taken prisoners. An extraordinary circumstance, and the only
one of the kind to be met with in history, took place at this battle,
where the English, under the command of a French general,[32] were
beaten by an English one who commanded the French army.
The year 1708, though it affords nothing very interesting relative to
the actions which took place between Spain and Portugal, must always
recal to our memory the noblest victory ever obtained by humanity over
the ravages of war; since the kings of those two countries, by mutual
agreement, prevented hostilities of any kind being committed against
husbandmen and vine-dressers.
John the Vth, in the same year, united himself by still closer ties to
the house of Austria; and on the 8th of October formed an alliance with
the second daughter of the emperor Leopold. The joy occasioned by this
marriage was greatly augmented by the arrival of a fleet of merchantmen,
consisting of a hundred sail, from Brazil, having on board to the amount
of six millions sterling in gold, diamonds and tobacco.
Nothing could be more timely than this supply; the subsidies promised to
the Portugueze being very ill paid, and their army having suffered
considerably, on the 7th of May, 1709, when the Portugueze were defeated
on the banks of the _Caya_, by the marquis de Bay, in the campaign of
Gudina.[33] The king was also obliged to withstand the instances of his
allies, in an affair which he was decided not to give up; and the
ambassadors from the Empire and England, together with the
States-General, having remonstrated in the strongest manner about the
franchises of foreign ministers, which his father had abolished twenty
years before, he resisted all their arguments with a firmness they
little expected, and, forced them to lay aside their claims. The year
1709, which began so prosperously for the archduke Charles, ended in the
most disastrous manner for him and for Portugal.
General Stanhope on the 27th of July, defeated the French and Spanish
armies at Almenara, and afterwards greatly contributed to gaining the
great victory of Saragossa; on this occasion the marquis de Bay was so
completely beaten by the count de Staremberg, that Philip the Vth was
obliged to quit Madrid, and the archduke entered the capital without
striking a blow. No monarch, however, ever met with a worse reception
from his subjects; they treated him with every possible mark of
aversion, avoiding his sight, shutting themselves up in their own
apartments, and even disdaining to pick up the money he threw into the
streets. All his endeavours were fruitless to extort the oath of
allegiance from several of the nobility, and having commanded the
marquis de Mancera,[34] president of the council of Castille, an old man
turned of a hundred years of age, to come and kiss his hand, he
received the following reply: "I have but one faith and one king, which
is Philip the Vth to whom I have sworn allegiance. I acknowledge the
archduke as a great prince, but not as my sovereign, and having lived a
hundred years without failing in any of my duties; I will not, for the
short space of time I have yet to pass in this world, blast my spotless
reputation by a dishonourable action."
The archduke, irritated at such opposition, proposed giving up the town
to be pillaged, but the generous Stanhope representing the cruelty as
well as impolicy of such vengeance, "Well," replied Charles, "if we
cannot plunder the city, let us at least quit it." If, indeed, the
approach of the duke de Vendôme had not made this retreat necessary,
circumstances alone must, sooner or later, have forced the archduke to
take this step; since both he and his partizans began to perceive the
impossibility of preserving a crown, which the people were decided, at
the risk of their lives and properties, to replace on the head of him
whom they had acknowledged as its lawful possessor. The reverse of
fortune which Philip had experienced, far from weakening the attachment
of the Spaniards, had very much contributed to increase it; so great,
indeed, was the affection they bore him, that they preferred burning
their provisions to selling them to his enemies. Such conduct gave rise
to Stanhope's remark, "that a victorious army might indeed march through
Spain, but that it required a still stronger one to keep possession of
it."
If a retreat through a country so ill disposed towards Charles, was in
itself so dangerous, how infinitely more so must it be on the arrival of
such an enemy as the duke de Vendôme, who, having reconducted Philip to
Madrid, on the 3d of December, went immediately in pursuit of the
archduke and Stanhope, who were making every possible effort to regain
Portugal.
Vendôme, having swam his troops across the Tagus, attacked general
Stanhope, who was shut up in _Briguegua_, and on the 9th of December
forced him to surrender himself prisoner, together with 5000 English.
His success did not stop here, for having joined the count de
Staremberg the same day at Villaviciosa, he, the following one, gave the
battle which is known in history by the name of the above-mentioned
place.
Philip the Vth, who had not hitherto joined his generals in the field of
battle, commanded, on that day, the right wing of his army, whilst the
duke de Vendôme appeared at the head of the left: and thus a victory was
obtained which ended all conflicts, and put him in the unrivalled
possession of the crown of Spain. It was after this engagement that
Philip, being unprovided with a bed, Vendôme exclaimed, "I will
presently form you the most glorious bed on which a sovereign ever
slept;" and he gave orders that a mattress should be made of the
standards and colours taken from the enemy.
The defeat at Villaviciosa having placed the Portugueze in a most
critical situation, it was thought highly necessary, in 1711, to defend
their own frontiers as much as possible, without ever attempting to
attack those of their neighbours. The intelligence received of the
capture of Rio Janeiro by Guy Trouin, cut off every hope of carrying on
the war any longer. This place surrendered after eleven days siege, on
the 23d of September, and the loss on this occasion was estimated at
twenty-five millions of French livres; which made it impossible for
Brazil (for some time at least) to furnish supplies to the mother
country: a circumstance the more to be regretted, as Portugal never
stood in greater need of assistance.
A peace was now their only resource, and an unexpected event took place,
which not only gave them an opening to make propositions, but
accelerated the negociations. The emperor Joseph dying, the archduke
Charles succeeded him in the imperial dignity; and from that moment it
became contrary to the interest, not only of the allies, but of the
whole of Europe, to place the crown of Spain upon his head. To preserve
the _balance of power_ had been the _pretext_ alledged for the war,
which could certainly never have been maintained, had the vast
possessions of the emperor Charles the Vth been once more united under
the dominion of one and the same person. The real and only motive,
however, for this war, appears to be the ancient hatred entertained
against the name of Louis the Great.
In the course of this same year (1711) France began to enter into
correspondence with England: the duke of Marlborough had been recalled
by the court of St. James's, whose views tended towards peace, in as
high a degree as his led towards war. In this situation of affairs the
Portugueze had the prudence to attach themselves more closely than ever
to the interests of Great Britain: they were accordingly admitted to the
conferences held at Utrecht, on the 29th of January, 1712, and on the
11th of April, in the same year, France made peace by five different
treaties; the first with England, signed at _three_ o'clock in the
afternoon; the second with the duke of Savoy, at _four_ o'clock; the
third with the king of Portugal, at _eight_; the fourth with the king of
Prussia, at _midnight_; and the fifth with the States-General, at a
_quarter past one_ the next morning.
By the treaty with Portugal, France engaged that Spain should lay no
claim to any part of that country; and at the same time renounced her
pretensions on the river of the Amazons. Nothing now remained for the
tranquillity of John the Vth, but to conclude peace with Philip the Vth,
and all difficulties being done away by the mediation of the court of
Versailles, it was at last signed at Utrecht, on the 13th of February,
1715.
The people of Portugal, thus delivered from the horrors of war, remained
in the greatest tranquillity during the reign of John the Vth, who never
took the smallest part in any war, except that which arose between the
Ecclesiastical States, the Venetians, and Turks, shortly after the peace
of Utrecht. On this occasion the king of Portugal sent out a squadron to
assist the former; and the pope, in acknowledgment of so essential a
service, divided the archbishopric of Lisbon into two dioceses, and
raised the royal chapel to the dignity of a metropolitan, patriarchal
church: since which time the city of Lisbon has been separated into two
great districts, distinguished by the name of eastern and western.
The patriarch received permission from the pope to officiate habited
like his holiness; whilst the canons of his church had the privilege of
wearing habits resembling those of cardinals.
The king immediately caused a most superb patriarchal church to be
erected, and greatly beautified the fine palace of his predecessors: he
also constructed an aqueduct, which was still more useful than
magnificent, Lisbon having been hitherto very ill supplied with water;
whilst on the other hand he built the sumptuous convent of Mafra, which
may be termed with equal justice more _magnificent_ than _useful_.[35]
The taste displayed by his majesty for architecture, did not divert his
attention from the cultivation of arts and sciences. On the 8th of
December, 1720, he issued a decree for the institution of the _Royal
Academy of the History of Portugal_.[36] He gave orders for the
purchasing of a variety of curious and valuable articles from foreign
countries, such as pictures, statues, books, and manuscripts. He
encouraged and rewarded artists of every description, and succeeded in
inspiring them with that noble emulation so necessary to the progress of
talents; but he did not sufficiently interest himself about artificers,
and the means of improving the industry of his people, and making it
turn out to the greatest advantage: this neglect may probably be
attributed to lord Tyrawley, the English ambassador, who had obtained a
very great ascendance over the mind of this prince; who, however, paid
the strictest attention to every other branch of the administration. He
was possessed of much firmness of character, was a rigorous observer of
justice, and knew much better than any of his predecessors how to
maintain the necessary subordination between the people and the nobles,
who had formerly been very absolute, nay, indeed almost independant. He
proved his strict adherence to justice on several occasions; especially
in the following instance; when Cæsar de Ménézes, the son of the viceroy
of Bahia having, with the assistance of several other gentlemen,
forcibly rescued one of his attendants from the hands of the corregidor,
the king immediately deprived the latter of his employment, as a
punishment for his want of firmness; banished Ménézes to Africa, and
either exiled or imprisoned all the gentlemen concerned in the business.
This monarch, though slavishly attached to the fair sex, still retained
the inflexible justice of his character, even in moments when the
greatest men have sometimes yielded to the seductions of beauty. The
relations of a gentleman condemned to work in the mines, contrived to
interest the king's mistress in his favour: but this prince presently
put a stop to her entreaties, by observing, "that the pardon she
solicited depended on the king of Portugal, who resided in the _Terreiro
de Paco_: but that in her house he appeared in no other character than
that of her lover."
The convents, and different houses of the grandees, which had hitherto
served as sanctuaries for criminals, were in this reign deprived of that
privilege, which indeed had only served to screen the most notorious
villains from the punishments due to their crimes. His humanity was
equal to his justice, for during an epidemical malady in Lisbon, which
in the year 1723 carried off a thousand persons in a month, he gave
audience three times a week to every description of his subjects,
whether blacks or whites, freemen or slaves; he also forbid the nobles
who composed his court to quit the capital, and insisted on their
seconding his benevolence, and aiding him in the distribution of his
charities.
A dreadful tempest, in the following year, destroyed more than a hundred
vessels in the Tagus: immediately the beneficent hand of this humane
monarch, was stretched forth, to repair, to the utmost of his power, the
cruel losses sustained on this fatal occasion.
The great abuses which had for a long time taken place in the
administration of the holy office, called for the attention of a just
and merciful sovereign. John the Vth succeeded in making a most
important reform. Before his reign, the prisoners detained in the
inquisition were never allowed counsel to plead their cause; so great an
abuse of power sensibly affected the king, who obtained a bull from pope
Benedick the XIIIth, in 1725, by which these unhappy prisoners were
granted every assistance that justice made necessary in their situation:
this was followed up by a decree, obliging the inquisitors to
communicate the sentences they pronounced to the king's council, before
they were put in execution.
Such was the conduct of John the Vth, that he was equally beloved and
feared by his people. The grandees, indeed, viewed him with sentiments
of fear rather than of love; a truth of which he was so well convinced,
that he is said to have declared, that though his grandfather feared the
grandees, and his father both loved and feared them, that he himself
neither feared nor loved them.