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{{short description|1640–1668 war between Portugal and Spain}} | |||
{{Unreferenced|date=December 2008}} | |||
{{Infobox |
{{Infobox military conflict | ||
|conflict=Portuguese Restoration War | | conflict = Portuguese Restoration War | ||
| partof = ] and ] | |||
|partof= | |||
| image = Johannes der vierte König zu Portugal und Algarbe etc, ca 1650.png | |||
|image= | |||
| image_size = 300px | |||
|caption='']'', by ] (1814) | |||
| caption = German engraving from the 1650s representing the episodes of the Portuguese restoration of independence. Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist| | |||
|date=1 December 1640 – 13 February 1668 | |||
* The assassination of ] and the arresting of the ] | |||
|place=] | |||
* News of the '']'' reaches the Lisbon populace | |||
|result=Portuguese victory; ] | |||
* Acclamation of King ] | |||
* The ] is sworn as King of Portugal | |||
|combatant2={{flagicon|Spain|1506}} ] | |||
}} | |||
| date = 1 December 1640 – 13 February 1668<br>(27 years, 2 months, 1 week, 6 days) | |||
| place = ] and ] | |||
| result = Portuguese victory{{sfn|Anderson|2000|p=131}} | |||
*Acclamation of ] as the new ] (1640)<ref name="Torgal 1981">{{harvnb|Torgal|1981|pages=69–85}}</ref> | |||
* The Habsburgs relinquish all claims to the ] | |||
* ] (1668) | |||
* End of the ]<ref name="Torgal 1981"/>{{sfn|Birmingham|2003|p=51}} | |||
| territory = ] cedes ] to ]<br />] cedes ] to ] | |||
| combatant1 = {{plainlist| | |||
* {{flag|Kingdom of Portugal|1640|name=Portugal}} | |||
* {{flag|Kingdom of France|name=France}} <small>(1641–1659)</small>{{sfn|Davenport|2012|pages=324–328}} | |||
* {{flag|Kingdom of England|name=England}} <small>(1662–1668)</small> | |||
* {{flagicon|Dutch Republic}} ] <small>(1641–1648)</small>{{sfn|Glete|2002|p=176}}{{sfn|Pinzelli|2020|p=151}}}} | |||
| combatant2 = {{plainlist| | |||
* {{flagdeco|Spain|1506}} ] | |||
}} | |||
| commander1 = {{plainlist| | |||
* {{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Kingdom of England|blue}} ]}} | |||
| commander2 = {{plainlist| | |||
* {{flagdeco|Spain|1506}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Spain|1506}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Spain|1506}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Spain|1506}} ] | |||
* {{flagdeco|Spain|1506}} ]}} | |||
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Portuguese Restoration war}} | |||
{{Campaignbox Franco-Spanish wars}} | |||
}} | }} | ||
'''Portuguese Restoration War''' ({{lang-pt|Guerra da Restauração}}) was the name given after the 19th century by ] historians to the war between ] and ] after the revolution of 1640, that ended the sixty years period of the dual ] between Portugal and Castile under the ]. A Spanish state and a Spanish King would officially start to exist just after the French-inspired Bourbonic reforms of the 18th century. | |||
The '''Restoration War''' ({{langx|pt|Guerra da Restauração}}), historically known as the '''Acclamation War''' (''Guerra da Aclamação''),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Guerra da Aclamação |url=https://www.infopedia.pt/artigos/$guerra-da-aclamacao |access-date=22 April 2024 |website=Infopédia}}</ref> was the war between ] and ] that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the ] in 1668, bringing a formal end to the ]. The period from 1640 to 1668 was marked by periodic skirmishes between Portugal and Spain, as well as short episodes of more serious warfare, much of it occasioned by Spanish and Portuguese entanglements with non-Iberian powers. Spain was involved in the ] until 1648 and the ] until 1659, while Portugal was involved in the ] until 1663. | |||
In the 17th century and afterwards, it was simply known in Portugal and elsewhere as the '''Acclamation War''', as it simply restored the independence of Portugal's ruling dynasty, the ], deposing a tyrant king under constitutional Portuguese Law, and acclaiming (or electing) another one more suitable to the country. This had been done already several times before in Portuguese history. | |||
In the seventeenth century and afterwards, this period of sporadic conflict was simply known, in Portugal and elsewhere, as the ''Acclamation War''. The war established the ] as Portugal's new ruling dynasty, replacing the ] who had been united with the Portuguese crown since the ].<ref name="Torgal 1981"/> | |||
The bloodless Acclamation ] began in Lisbon on 1 December 1640, and was soon supported throughout the country and its colonies, bringing Portugal to the ] scene till peace was finally settled, after 28 years of war with Castile in Europe, and with ] in Asia, America and Africa, in 1668. | |||
==Events leading to revolution== | |||
], then chief adviser to ], at war with Castile at that time, had to control internal rebellions (within ]) supported and financed by Madrid, and had to send French armies to fight the Spanish Habsburgs on three different fronts, as ], former Philip III of Portugal, reigned also (under various titles) in Flanders and Franche-Comté, to the north and east of France respectively. Additionally, Philip IV controlled large territories in Italy, which could open up a fourth front at the will of the King of Spain. | |||
].]] | |||
When ] died in 1621, he was succeeded by his son ] who followed a different approach to Portuguese concerns. Portuguese merchants saw higher taxes, the Portuguese nobility began to lose its influence at the Spanish ], and Spaniards increasingly occupied the government's posts in Portugal. | |||
Moreover, Spain entangled Portugal in the efforts to suppress the independence of the ] during the ]. In response, the Dutch embarked on systematic attacks on Portuguese colonies and outposts, either pillaging or occupying them in what is known as the ]. Spanish preoccupation with defending their own empire, particularly in the ], left Portuguese interests in Asia and Brazil neglected.{{sfn|Treasure|1990|p=}} | |||
Therefore, the statesman Richelieu decided to force Philip IV to look to his own internal problems, and supported the claim of ] during the Acclamation War, in order to divert the Spanish troops, which were still said to be the best in Europe, a reputation they had gained with the introduction of the ]. This was done on the reasoning that a Portuguese war would drain Spanish resources and manpower. The alliance between Portugal and France led to the marriage of ] to a French Princess, ], cousin of Louis XIV. But Richelieu abandoned his Portuguese and Catalan allies, to sign a separate peace with Madrid, the ], in 1659, under the terms of which France recognised Philip IV as the legitimate King of Portugal. | |||
The situation culminated in a revolution organized by the nobility and '']'', executed on 1 December 1640, sixty years after the crowning of ] (Philip II of Spain), the first "dual monarch". | |||
War between the Dutch and the Portuguese continued all over the Portuguese Empire after the Acclamation, from Asia to America, and Africa - until the final expulsion of the Dutch from ], ], and ]. The Dutch signed a European truce with Portugal, helping each other somewhat against their common enemy, Castile. The Dutch resumed buying salt in the ] salt factories, restarting commerce in Europe between the two countries, which had ended in 1580 when the Habsburgs, against whom the Dutch were in revolt (see ]), had come to the Portuguese throne via the '']''. | |||
The plot was planned by ], ] and ]. They, together with several associates, known as the ], killed the ], ], and imprisoned the king's cousin, ], who had been governing Portugal in his name. Philip's troops were then fighting the ] and also facing a revolution in the ], which became known as the ]. | |||
England was, at this time, embroiled in civil war during the ]. Problems in dealing with England arose from the fact that the Parliamentarians won the war while Portugal's court had received and recognized English princes. These problems persisted during the short-lived ], the republic which had deposed ]. After the restoration of ], it became possible for Portugal to compensate for the loss of the (limited) French support, by renewing the traditional alliance between England and Portugal, via the marriage of Charles II to ], restoring outside support for the Portuguese in their conflict with Castile. It was largely due to the English alliance that peace with Spain was possible at the end of the war, as Spain had been drained by the Thirty Years' War, and had no stomach for further warfare with other European powers. | |||
The support of the people became apparent almost immediately and within a matter of hours, Philip III's third cousin ], was acclaimed as King John IV of Portugal. The news spread quickly throughout the country. By 2 December 1640, the day after the coup, John IV, acting in his capacity as sovereign of the country, had sent a letter to the Municipal Chamber of ]. | |||
Militarily, the Acclamation War consisted mainly of ongoing border skirmishes, combined with destructive annual invasions and counter-invasions; one major Castilian invasion of Portugal, ordered by Philip IV after the peace with France had been signed and commanded by his most accomplished general (the ]), and was marked by five decisive battles: | |||
The ensuing conflict with Spain brought Portugal into the Thirty Years' War as at least a peripheral player. From 1641 to 1668, the period during which the two nations were at war, Spain sought to isolate Portugal militarily and diplomatically, and Portugal tried to find the resources to maintain its independence through political alliances and maintaining its colonial income. | |||
*the ] on May 26, 1644, | |||
*the ] on January 14, 1659, | |||
*the ] on June 8, 1663, | |||
*the ] on July 7, 1664, and | |||
*the ] on June 17, 1665. | |||
==Preparations for war== | |||
The Portuguese were victorious in all of these battles and peace was concluded, with ] mediation, in the ] in 1668. | |||
Immediately after assuming the Portuguese throne, John IV took several steps to strengthen his position. On 11 December 1640, a 'Council of War' was created to organize all of the operations. Next, the king created the 'Junta of the Frontiers' to take care of the fortresses near the border, the hypothetical defense of Lisbon, and the garrisons and sea ports.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=24}} | |||
A year later, in December 1641, he created a tenancy to assure that all of the country's fortresses would be upgraded and that the improvements would be financed with regional taxes. He also organized the army, re-established the 'Military Laws of ]',{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=24}} and undertook a diplomatic campaign focused on restoring good relations with England. | |||
After gaining several small victories, John tried to make peace quickly.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=27}} However, his demand that Philip recognize the new ruling dynasty in Portugal was not fulfilled until the reign of his son, ], during the regency of Peter of Braganza, another of his sons, who later became King ]). Confrontations with Spain lasted 28 years. | |||
==Context: relations among the European powers== | |||
], waged the Restoration War and was acclaimed King John IV.]] | |||
===Relations between France and Spain=== | |||
], the chief adviser to ], was fully aware of the fact that France was operating under strained circumstances. Louis was at war with Spain at that time; he had to control rebellions within ] that were supported and financed by Madrid and had to send French armies to fight the Spanish Habsburgs on three different fronts. In addition to their shared frontier at the ], ], formerly Philip III of Portugal as well, reigned, under various titles, in ] and the ], to the north and east of France. In addition, Philip IV controlled large territories in Italy, where he could, at will, impose a fourth front by attacking French-controlled ].{{efn|In Savoy, ] was acting as regent on behalf of her young son, ].}}{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=31}} | |||
Spain had enjoyed the reputation of having the most formidable military force in Europe, with the introduction of the ] and the so-called "Spanish School", but that reputation and tactic had diminished with the Thirty Years' War. Nevertheless, the consummate statesman, Richelieu, decided to force Philip IV to look to his own internal problems. To divert the Spanish troops besieging France, Louis XIII, on the advice of Richelieu, supported John's claim during the Acclamation War on the reasoning that a Portuguese war would drain Spanish resources and manpower. | |||
===Relations between Portugal and France=== | |||
To fulfill the common foreign policy interests of Portugal and France, a treaty of alliance between the two countries was concluded at Paris on 1 June 1641. It lasted eighteen years before Richelieu's successor as unofficial foreign minister, ], broke the treaty and abandoned his Portuguese and ] allies to sign a separate peace with Madrid.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=31}} The ] was signed in 1659. Under its terms, France received the portion of the ] north of the Pyrenees, known as the ], and part of the ] (]). Most important to the Portuguese, the French recognised Philip IV of Spain as the legitimate king of Portugal. | |||
Seven years later, in the late stages of the Portuguese Restoration War, relations between the two countries thawed to the extent that the young (but sickly) ] married a French princess, ]. | |||
===Relations between Portugal and the Dutch Republic=== | |||
], Queen Consort of England, Scotland, and Ireland.]] | |||
At the time of the revolution in Lisbon (1 December 1640), the Portuguese had been at war with the Dutch for nearly forty years. A good deal of the conflict can be attributed to the fact that Spain and the ] were concurrently engaged in the ] (1568–1648), and, ever since hostilities between Portugal and the Dutch Republic erupted in 1602, Portugal had been ruled by a Spanish monarch. | |||
The ] was fought almost entirely overseas, with the Dutch mercantile surrogates, the ] and the ], repeatedly attacking Portugal's colonial possessions in the Americas, in Africa, in India, and in the Far East. Portugal was in a defensive posture throughout, and it received very little military help from Spain. | |||
After the acclamation of John, the pattern persisted all over the Portuguese Empire until the final expulsion of the Dutch from ] (1648), ] (1649), and ] (1654). The Dutch signed a European truce with Portugal, helping each other somewhat against their common enemy, Spain. The Dutch resumed buying salt in the ] salt factories, restarting commerce between the two countries for the first time since 1580, when the Spanish branch of the ], against whom the ], had assumed the Portuguese throne. However, Dutch attacks on Portuguese territories persisted until 1663, even after the signing of the ] in 1661. | |||
===Relations between Portugal and England=== | |||
England was then embroiled in ]. Portuguese problems in dealing with England arose from the fact that the English Parliament fought and won its anti-royalist war while, at the same time, Portugal's royal court continued to receive and recognize ] princes and nobles. The strained relations persisted during the short-lived ], when the republican government that had deposed ] ruled England and then Ireland and Scotland. | |||
After the restoration of the ], it became possible for Portugal to compensate for the lack of French support by renewing its alliance with England,{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=36}} with experienced soldiers and officers available from the demobilised ]. That took the form of a dynastic marriage in 1662 between ] and ]'s sister, ], which assured Portugal of outside support in its conflict with Spain. The English alliance helped peace with Spain, which had been drained by the ] and had no stomach for further warfare with other European powers, especially a resurgent England. | |||
==War== | |||
Militarily, the Portuguese Restoration War consisted mainly of border skirmishes and cavalry raids to sack border towns, combined with occasional invasions and counter-invasions, many of them half-hearted and under-financed. There were only five major set-piece battles during twenty-eight years of hostilities. | |||
The war may be considered to have had three periods: | |||
* ''first'', an early stage (1640–1646) when a few major engagements demonstrated that the Portuguese could not be easily returned to submission to the Spanish Habsburgs,{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=29}} | |||
* ''second'', a long period (1646–1660) of military standoffs, characterized by small-scale raiding, while Spain concentrated on its military commitments elsewhere in Europe,{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=30}} | |||
* ''third'', a final period (1660–1668) during which the Spanish king, Philip IV, unsuccessfully sought a decisive victory that would bring an end to hostilities.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=31}} | |||
===First stage: battles=== | |||
], led victories at the Lines of Elvas.]] | |||
Hoping for a quick victory in Portugal, Spain immediately committed seven regiments to the Portuguese frontier, but delays by the Count of Monterrey, a commander with more interest in the comforts of life at camp than the battlefield, squandered any immediate advantage. A Portuguese counter-thrust in late 1641 failed, and the conflict soon settled into a stalemate. | |||
====Battle of Montijo==== | |||
On 26 May 1644, a large column of Spanish troops and mercenaries, commanded by Neapolitan ], marquis of Torrecuso, was stopped at the ] by the Portuguese, who were led by the ], one of a number of experienced Portuguese colonial officers who rose to prominence during the war. | |||
====Scope of the war==== | |||
], Queen Consort of Portugal, previously ].]] | |||
Three theaters of warfare were eventually opened, but most activity focused on the northern front, near Galicia, and on the central frontier between Portuguese ] and Spanish ]. The southern front, where the Portuguese ] abuts Spanish ], was a logical target for Portugal, but it was never the focus of a Portuguese attack, probably because the Portuguese queen, ], was the sister of the ], the leading noble of Andalusia. | |||
====Attrition and corruption==== | |||
Spain, at first, made the war a defensive one. Portugal, for its part, felt no need to take Spanish territory in order to win, and it too was willing to make the war a defensive contest. Campaigns typically consisted of ''correrias'' (cavalry raids) to burn fields, sack towns, and steal large herds of enemy cattle and sheep. Soldiers and officers, many of them mercenaries, were primarily interested in booty and prone to desertion. For long periods, without men or money, neither side mounted formal campaigns, and when actions were taken, they were often driven as much by political considerations, such as Portugal's need to impress potential allies, as by clear military objectives. Year after year, given the problems of campaigning in the winter, and the heat and dry conditions of summer, most of the serious fighting was confined to two relatively short "campaigning seasons" in the spring and autumn.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=29}} | |||
The war settled into a pattern of mutual destruction. As early as December 1641, it was common to hear Spaniards throughout the country lament that "] is finished." Tax collectors, recruiting officers, billeted soldiers, and ] by Spanish and foreign troops were loathed and feared by the Spanish population as much as raids by the enemy. In Extremadura, local militias bore the brunt of the fighting until 1659, and the absence of these part-time soldiers was extremely harmful to agriculture and local finances. Since there was often no money to pay or support the troops (or to reward their commanders), the Spanish crown turned a blind eye to the smuggling, contraband, profiteering, disorder, and destruction that had become rampant on the frontier. Similar conditions also existed among the Portuguese. | |||
===Second stage: defensive standoff=== | |||
] was instrumental in leading the Habsburg forces.]] | |||
The war was also expensive. In the 1650s, there were over 20,000 Spanish troops in Extremadura alone, compared to 27,000 in ]. Between 1649 and 1654, about 29 percent (over six million ]) of Spanish defence spending was appropriated for fighting Portugal, a figure that rose during the major campaigns of the 1660s.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=28}} Portugal was able to finance its war effort because of its ability to tax the spice trade with Asia and the sugar trade from Brazil, and it received some support from the European opponents of Spain, particularly France and England.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=27}} | |||
The 1650s were indecisive militarily but important on the political and diplomatic fronts, with the brief exception of the ] in 1659. The death of John IV in 1656 signalled the beginning of the regency of his wife, followed by a succession crisis and a palace coup (1662). Despite these domestic problems, the expulsion of the Dutch from Brazil (1654) and the signing of a treaty with England (also in 1654) improved Portugal's diplomatic and financial position temporarily and gave it needed protection against a naval raid on Lisbon. | |||
Nonetheless, the overriding goal, a formal pact with France, continued to evade Portugal, whose weakness and isolation had been driven home by its virtual exclusion at the negotiations for the European settlement-of-settlements, the new '']'' of the ] (1648). | |||
With this treaty and the end of hostilities in Catalonia in 1652, Spain was again ready to direct its efforts against Portugal, but it faced a lack of men, resources, and, especially, good military commanders.{{sfn|Riley|2014|pages=27–28}} | |||
====Atrocities==== | |||
During the second stage, the war became a ] confrontation characterized by attrition, often featuring local forces composed of familiar neighbors, yet this intimacy failed to temper the brutality exhibited by both sides. Soldiers and officers, many mercenaries facing payment shortages, turned to looting and desertion. The Portuguese sought retribution for grievances accumulated during sixty years of Spanish rule, whereas the Spanish viewed their adversaries not as legitimate combatants deserving of honorable treatment but as rebels.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=30}} | |||
===Third stage: Portuguese victory=== | |||
{{further|English expedition to Portugal (1662–1668)}} | |||
], who was in command of the English contingent brigade in Portugal]] | |||
Following the indecisive campaigns of 1662, Spain launched a major effort to win the war. In April 1663, ], Philip IV's illegitimate son, invaded ], commanding an army of 20,000 provisioned for six weeks.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=74}} In May, he successfully captured Évora, sparking a surge of emotion in Lisbon and raising alarm throughout Portugal, as there was now no major barrier to impede a Spanish advance on Lisbon.{{sfn|Riley|2014|pages=86–93}} | |||
The Portuguese, under ], were bolstered by the arrival of a British brigade which numbered 3,000 in August 1662. Many were veterans of the ] and the Dutch Revolt.{{sfn|Hardacre|1960|pages=112–125}} For King ], this was a convenient way of getting rid of demobilized soldiers of Cromwell's ] and removing them from English territory. They were led by the German ], ], ], The brigade, under Schomberg's leadership, proved a decisive factor in winning back Portugal's independence.{{sfn|Riley|2014|p=xix}} | |||
They defeated the Spanish in a major engagement at ] on 8 June 1663, and this forced John of Austria to abandon Évora and retreat across the border with heavy losses. | |||
The Portuguese now had some 30,000 troops in the Alentejo-Extremadura theatre, but they could not draw the Spanish again into a major engagement until June 1665, when a new Spanish commander, the ], took over ] with about 23,000 men, including recruits from Germany and Italy.{{sfn|Riley|2014|pages=134–147}} | |||
The Portuguese relief column under António Luís de Meneses and Schomberg met them at ] on 17 June 1665. The Portuguese infantry and artillery emplacements broke the Spanish cavalry, and the Spanish force lost over 10,000 men, including casualties and prisoners. Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese retook Vila Viçosa. These were the last major engagements of the war. | |||
Both sides returned to skirmishing campaigns. Portugal, with the intercession of its English ally, had sought a truce, but after the decisive Portuguese victory at Montes Claros and with the signing of a ], the Spanish Habsburgs finally agreed to recognize the House of Braganza as Portugal's new ruling dynasty on 13 February 1668. | |||
===Recapitulation=== | |||
The five major battles of the war were: | |||
* ] on 26 May 1644 | |||
* ] on 14 January 1659 | |||
* ] on 8 June 1663 | |||
* ] on 7 July 1664 | |||
* ] on 17 June 1665 | |||
The Portuguese were victorious in almost all of these engagements, and peace was concluded, with the help of English mediation, by the ] in 1668. | |||
==Timeline== | ==Timeline== | ||
].]] | |||
*1640, December 1: a small group of conspirators storms the Palace in Lisbon and deposes the Spanish Governor, the ]. The ], head of the senior family of the Portuguese nobility accepts the throne as Dom ''']'''. His entire reign will be dominated by the struggle to establish and maintain independence from Spain. A first counter-revolution mounted by the ] fails, quelled by ], who has the ringleaders executed, but it initiates a 28-year-long war of independence against Spain punctuated by frequent internal threats to the stability of the new regime. | |||
]'s reign was managed by the ].]] | |||
*1644 - ] withstands a nine-day siege by Spanish troops. | |||
]]] | |||
*1654 - Anglo-Portuguese treaty between João IV and ] signed at ]. João agrees to prevent the molestation of the traders of the English Protector; they are allowed to use their own bible and bury their dead according to Protestant rites on Catholic soil. | |||
], future King ].]] | |||
*1656 - Death of João IV after a reign of 15 years. His Queen now reigns as Regent for their son, ''']'''. She seeks an accommodation with Spain. | |||
{{multiple image | |||
*1659 - The ] ends Spain's long war with France, and Spanish troops are freed once more to suppress the Portuguese ‘rebellion’. The Spaniards besiege ] and are driven off by the ]. | |||
| width = 200 | |||
*1660 - On the restoration of ] in Britain, the Queen-Regent re-negotiates the treaty of 1654. Portugal is allowed to recruit soldiers and horses in England for the fight against Spain; and to seek out 4,000 fighting men in Scotland and Ireland and charter 24 English ships to carry them. The expeditionary force is to be issued with English weapons on arrival in Portugal and guaranteed religious freedom of worship. | |||
| direction = vertical | |||
*1661 - ] initiates the final, successful phase of the Portuguese Acclamation War of with the aid of the Franco-German ], who brilliantly commands an international mercenary army against the Spanish forces. Castelo Melhor plans to prosecute the war to take ] at the end of it to the Portuguese crown as war indemnities, and the fact contributes to the deposition of King Afonso VI, and his exile into France. | |||
| image1 = Bandeira da Restauração (branco).svg | |||
*1665 - 17 June, Portugal is again victorious at the ], in which Marialva and Schomberg defeated the Spanish army under the ]; Spain ceases to make war, but peace will not be signed for another three years. | |||
| image2 = Bandera cruz de Borgoña 5.svg | |||
*1668 - Peace ] with Spain ends nearly 29 years of war. Spain finally recognizes the independence of Portugal and the legitimity of its monarch. Portugal keeps all of its ], with the exception of ] in Africa. | |||
| caption2 = The Cross of the ] and the ], under white background (or varied background colors, like quarters in green and white in some Portuguese regiments) were the standards more used by the Portuguese and Spanish regiments in the battlefields, respectively<ref>{{cite web|title=Bandeiras, estandartes, e guiões – exército português (3)|url=https://guerradarestauracao.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/bandeiras-estandartes-guioes-exercito-portugues-3/|website=Guerra da Restauração Blog de História Militar dedicado à Guerra da Restauração ou da Aclamação, 1641–1668|date=20 April 2008}}</ref>}} | |||
{{Main|Timeline of Portuguese history}} | |||
* '''1640''': A small group of conspirators stormed the royal palace in Lisbon and deposed the ], ] on 1 December 1640. She famously tried to calm the Portuguese people during demonstrations in the '']'', at the time, Lisbon's main square, but her efforts failed. The ], head of the senior family among the Portuguese nobility, accepted the throne as John IV of Portugal later the same day. John's entire reign was dominated by the struggle to maintain Portuguese independence. | |||
* '''1641''': A counter-revolution mounted by the ] failed. It was quelled by ], who had its leaders executed. Miguel Luís de Menezes, 2nd Duke of Caminha, was executed for continuing to support the Habsburgs' claim to the Portuguese throne. | |||
* '''1641''': Portugal signed alliances with France (1 June 1641) and ] (August 1641). | |||
* '''1641''': Portugal and the Dutch Republic signed a 'Treaty of Offensive and Defensive Alliance', otherwise known as the ], on 12 July 1641. The treaty was not respected by either party; as a consequence, it had no effect on the Portuguese dependencies of Brazil and Angola that were under Dutch occupation. | |||
* '''1641''': The Dutch began their occupation of ] and of ] on 16 October 1641, where they remained until 6 January 1649. This was clearly a violation of the agreement made with Portugal only three months earlier. | |||
* '''1641''': Portugal was ] by the Dutch. | |||
* '''1642''': The Dutch took over all of the ] (now Ghana). | |||
* '''1643''': At the ] (19 May 1643), in the ], the French defeated the Spanish. | |||
* '''1644''': The ''']''' near ], between the Portuguese and the Spanish, was fought on 26 May 1644. | |||
* '''1644''': The Portuguese city of ] withstood a nine-day siege by Spanish troops. | |||
* '''1648''': Portuguese troops from the ] under ] landed in ], ], and expelled the Dutch, thereby restoring the African colony to Portugal. | |||
* '''1649''': The Dutch were ousted from ]. | |||
* '''1650''': The ], allied with the Dutch, captured ], which had been a Portuguese trading outpost on the Arabian Peninsula. | |||
* '''1654''': The Anglo-Portuguese treaty between John IV and ] was signed at ]. John agreed to prevent the molestation of English traders in Portugal and its possessions and to allow them to use their own bible and to bury their dead according to Protestant rites even though they were on Catholic soil. | |||
* '''1654''': Portuguese troops from the colony of Brazil ] of northeastern Brazil, re-establishing the territorial integrity of Portugal's South American holdings. | |||
* '''1656''': Portugal lost control of ] in ] to the Dutch. | |||
* '''1656''': John IV died on 6 November 1656 after a reign of fifteen years. His queen, who was born ] (1613–1666), the eldest daughter of the Spanish ], the ], then reigned as regent for their son, ]. She began seeking an accommodation with Spain. | |||
* '''1658''': The Dutch took ]patam, Portugal's last colony in Ceylon. | |||
* '''1659''': The ''']''' was fought on 14 January 1659. Portuguese troops, under the command of the ], and ], scored a resounding victory over the Spanish. | |||
* '''1659''': The Spanish besieged the Portuguese town of ]. The town fell on 7 February. | |||
* '''1659''': The ] was signed on 7 November 1659, ending Spain's long war with France, and Spanish troops were free once more to suppress the Portuguese 'rebellion'. The Spaniards besieged ], and they were driven off by ] once again. | |||
* '''1660''': Upon the restoration of ] in England, the Queen-Regent re-negotiated the treaty of 1654. Portugal was allowed to recruit soldiers and horses in England for the fight against Spain, to seek the conscription of four thousand mercenaries in Scotland and Ireland, and to charter twenty-four English ships to carry them. The expeditionary force was issued English weapons upon arrival in Portugal and guaranteed freedom of worship. | |||
* '''1660''': The English began to dominate the trade in port wine from Portugal after a political spat with the French denied them Bordeaux wines. Brandy was added to the Portuguese wines to fortify them for the Atlantic voyage. Together with the restoration of Charles II in England, the "port connection" had an increasingly positive influence on Anglo-Portuguese relations. | |||
* '''1661''': ] and ] were ceded to England on 23 June 1661 as a dowry for Afonso's sister, ], who had married King Charles II of England on 25 May 1661. In addition to the deeds to Bombay and Tangier, Catherine arrived in London, where she popularized the practice of ], with a dowry of two million gold pieces. Servicing this wedding debt burdened the Portuguese exchequer for the next half-century. The marriage with a Protestant monarch was deeply unpopular with those among the Portuguese nobility who favoured alliance with France. An ] party and a ] party developed at the Portuguese court. | |||
* '''1661''': English mediation induced the Netherlands to acknowledge, on 6 August 1661, Portuguese rule in Brazil, in return for uncontested control of Ceylon and eight million guilders. This agreement was formalized in the ]. | |||
* '''1662''': Shortly after Afonso VI's coming-of-age, ], saw an opportunity to gain power at court by befriending the mentally deficient king. He managed to convince the king that his mother, Luisa of Medina-Sidonia, was plotting to steal his throne and exile him from Portugal. As a result, Afonso asserted his right to rule and dispatched his mother to a convent. The king appointed Castelo Melhor his secret notary (''escrivão da puridade''), a position in which Castelo Melhor was able to exercise the functions of first minister. Because of the weakness of the king, Castelo Melhor became the virtual "dictator of Portugal". | |||
* '''1662''': Castelo Melhor commenced the final (successful) phase of the Portuguese Acclamation War with the aid of the ], who brilliantly commanded the international mercenary army that had been assembled with the assistance of England. | |||
* '''1663''': The ''']''' was fought on 8 June 1663. After they had spent nearly all spring overrunning the south of Portugal, the Spanish army, under ], took the Portuguese city of ]. Less than three weeks later, they were soundly defeated by ] and ]. | |||
* '''1663''': The Dutch ousted the Portuguese from the ], even though this was a clear violation of their 1661 treaty. | |||
* '''1663''': The Siege of Évora occurred when the Portuguese army led by Sancho Manoel de Vilhena and by the Count of Mértola retook the city from the Spanish occupiers, with little to no casualties. The entire Spanish garrison surrendered. | |||
* '''1664''': The ''']''' was fought on 7 July 1664. A regional military commander, Pedro Jacques de Magalhães, defeated the ]. | |||
* '''1664''': The Siege of Valencia de Alcántara results in the successful conquest of the Spanish town of ] by Portugal in July 1664. | |||
* '''1665''': Portugal was again victorious at the ''']''' (on 17 June 1665), in which ] and Schomberg defeated the Spanish army under the ]; Spain ceased hostilities, but a true peace treaty was not signed for another three years. Montes Claros is considered one of the most important battles in Portuguese history. | |||
* '''1666''': In an attempt to establish an alliance with France, Castelo Melhor arranged for Afonso VI to marry ], the daughter of the ], but this marriage would not last long. | |||
* '''1666''': The ambitious Castelo Melhor planned to prosecute the war to the extent of taking ] and presenting it to the Portuguese crown as a war indemnity, but he was dissuaded. | |||
* '''1667''': Marie Françoise petitioned for an annulment of her marriage to Afonso VI, based on the impotence of the king. The Church granted her the annulment. | |||
* '''1667''': King ], Castelo Melhor, and his francophile party were overthrown by the king's younger brother, Pedro, Duke of Beja, (who later ruled as ].) Pedro first installed himself as his brother's regent and then arranged Afonso's ] to the island of ] in the ] on the pretense that he was incapable of governing. Castelo Melhor fled into exile; ironically, he chose to live in England. | |||
* '''1667''': The French alliance had been imperilled by the annulment of Afonso's marriage, but Pedro strengthened his political position by marrying his brother's estranged queen. | |||
* '''1668''': The ] with Spain ended twenty-eight years of war. The regent of Spain, ], acting in the name of her young son ], finally recognized the legitimacy of the Portuguese monarch. Portugal kept all of its remaining ], with the exception of ] on the north African coast, which didn't recognize the Braganza Dynasty during the war.{{sfn|Ames|2000|p=24}} | |||
==Results of the war== | |||
] in Macau, with a plaque in which the city's name, title and honours are inscribed.]] | |||
For Portugal, its restoration of independence from Spain was clearly established, and it proved that it could fend for itself, albeit with difficulty. Its victories on the battlefield had re-awakened Portuguese nationalism. | |||
Economically, Portugal's restoration of independence freed it to pursue the course mapped out by the pioneers of commercial imperialism. During the seventeenth century, its economy depended largely upon ] trade in tobacco and sugar, and the export of salt. During the eighteenth century, even though staples were not abandoned, the Portuguese economy came to be based more upon enslaved people, gold, leather, and wine. Portuguese trade, centered in the busy port of Lisbon, was most influenced by Anglo-Dutch capitalism and by the colonial economy in Brazil.{{sfn|Treasure|1990|pages=338–339}} | |||
Luís de Meneses, the ], economic adviser to the ''prince regent'', advocated the development of a native textile industry based on a Flemish model. Factories were established at ], in an area of central Portugal where there was easy access to flocks of sheep and clean mountain water, but they were highly unpopular with both local consumers and traditional weavers. Meanwhile, Portuguese attempts to develop a silk industry were undercut by the French, who wanted to monopolize that market. | |||
More importantly, after 1668, Portugal increasingly cultivated intellectual ties with Western Europe, especially France and England, marking a shift away from its Iberian roots and towards cultural and political independence from Spain. Fear of Spanish invasion remained a powerful tool in reinforcing Portuguese nationalism and fueling hostility towards Spain and anything perceived as Spanish, as independence became synonymous with resistance against Castilian influence.{{sfn|Wheeler|1978|p=6}} | |||
], the Portuguese colony in the Far East, remained loyal to the Portuguese monarch during the entire occupation period. Thus it was awarded the title “''Cidade do Nome de Deus, Macau, Não Há Outra Mais Leal''”, or “City by the Name of God, Macau, There Is None More Loyal” by King ] in 1654.<ref>{{cite news|title=Step onto Senado Square and into the past: Walking tours bring Macau's Chinese, Portuguese history in focus|url=https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/experience-macau/article/1848586/step-senado-square-and-past-walking-tours|publisher=]}}</ref> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* ] | |||
*] | |||
* ], 1602–1663 | |||
*] | |||
*] | * ] | ||
*] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
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==Notes== | |||
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{{notelist}} | |||
==References== | |||
===Citations=== | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
===Sources=== | |||
*{{cite book |last1=Ames |first1=Glenn Joseph |author-link=Glenn J. Ames|title=Renascent Empire?: The House of Braganza and the Quest for Stability in Portuguese Monsoon Asia, ca. 1640–1683 |date=2000 |url=https://archive.org/details/renascentempireh0000ames|publisher=Amsterdam University Press |location=Amsterdam |isbn=9053563822}} | |||
*{{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=James Maxwell|title=The history of Portugal|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2000|isbn=0313311064}} | |||
*{{cite book|last1=Birmingham|first1=David|title=A concise history of Portugal|publisher=Publisher|year=2003|isbn=978-0521536868}} | |||
*{{cite book |last=Davenport |first=Frances Gardiner |title=European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies to 1648 |location=Clark, New Jersey |publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. |year= 2012 |isbn=978-1584774228}} | |||
*{{Cite book |title=Warfare at Sea, 1500–1650 Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe |last=Glete |first=Jan |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2002 |isbn=978-1134610785 |edition=E-book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c4SEAgAAQBAJ&dq=dutch+portugues+battle+1640&pg=PA176}} | |||
*{{cite book|first=Paul|last=Hardacre|title=The English Contingent in Portugal, 1662–1668'', Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, volume 38''|date=1960|pages= 112–125}}{{ISBN?}} | |||
* {{cite book|last1=McMurdo|first1=Edward|title=The History of Portugal – From the Reign of D. Joao II. to the Reign of D. Joao V. – Volume III|date=2010|publisher=Read Books Design|isbn=978-1444695694}} | |||
*{{Cite book |title=Masters of Warfare Fifty Underrated Military Commanders from Classical Antiquity to the Cold War |last=Pinzelli |first=Eric G. L. |year=2020 |isbn=978-1399070157 |edition=E-book |pages=151 |publisher=Pen and Sword Military |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W62ZEAAAQBAJ&dq=portuguese+restoration+war+1641+dutch&pg=PA151}} | |||
* {{cite book |author-link=Jonathon Riley (British Army officer) | |||
|last1=Riley|first1=Jonathon|title=The Last Ironsides: The English Expedition to Portugal, 1662–1668|date=2014|publisher=Helion & Company|isbn=978-1909982208 |url=https://archive.org/details/lastironsideseng0000rile}} | |||
*{{cite book |last=Torgal |first=Luís Reis |year=1981 |chapter=A Restauração – Sua Dinâmica Sócio-política |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WIKrsgWG91gC&pg=PA69 |title=Ideologia Política e Teoria do Estado na Restauração |location=] |publisher=] |language=pt |volume=I |hdl=10316/665 |isbn=978-9726160823}} | |||
*{{cite book |title=The Making of Modern Europe, 1648–1780 |last=Treasure |first=Geoffrey Russell Richards |year= 1990 | |||
|publisher= Routledge}}{{ISBN?}} | |||
*{{cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Douglas L. |title=Republican Portugal: A Political History, 1910–1926 by Douglas L. Wheeler |url= https://archive.org/details/republicanportug0000whee |location=Madison |year=1978|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0299074500 }} | |||
==External links== | |||
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{{Portuguese Monarchy Topics}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 21:45, 27 December 2024
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German engraving from the 1650s representing the episodes of the Portuguese restoration of independence. Clockwise from top left:
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The Restoration War (Portuguese: Guerra da Restauração), historically known as the Acclamation War (Guerra da Aclamação), was the war between Portugal and Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, bringing a formal end to the Iberian Union. The period from 1640 to 1668 was marked by periodic skirmishes between Portugal and Spain, as well as short episodes of more serious warfare, much of it occasioned by Spanish and Portuguese entanglements with non-Iberian powers. Spain was involved in the Thirty Years' War until 1648 and the Franco-Spanish War until 1659, while Portugal was involved in the Dutch–Portuguese War until 1663.
In the seventeenth century and afterwards, this period of sporadic conflict was simply known, in Portugal and elsewhere, as the Acclamation War. The war established the House of Braganza as Portugal's new ruling dynasty, replacing the House of Habsburg who had been united with the Portuguese crown since the 1580 succession crisis.
Events leading to revolution
When Philip II of Portugal (III of Spain) died in 1621, he was succeeded by his son Philip III of Portugal (IV of Spain) who followed a different approach to Portuguese concerns. Portuguese merchants saw higher taxes, the Portuguese nobility began to lose its influence at the Spanish Cortes, and Spaniards increasingly occupied the government's posts in Portugal.
Moreover, Spain entangled Portugal in the efforts to suppress the independence of the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years' War. In response, the Dutch embarked on systematic attacks on Portuguese colonies and outposts, either pillaging or occupying them in what is known as the Dutch–Portuguese War. Spanish preoccupation with defending their own empire, particularly in the Thirty Years War, left Portuguese interests in Asia and Brazil neglected.
The situation culminated in a revolution organized by the nobility and bourgeoisie, executed on 1 December 1640, sixty years after the crowning of Philip I (Philip II of Spain), the first "dual monarch".
The plot was planned by Antão Vaz de Almada, Miguel de Almeida and João Pinto Ribeiro. They, together with several associates, known as the Forty Conspirators, killed the Secretary of State, Miguel de Vasconcelos, and imprisoned the king's cousin, Margaret of Savoy, who had been governing Portugal in his name. Philip's troops were then fighting the Thirty Years' War and also facing a revolution in the Principality of Catalonia, which became known as the Reapers' War.
The support of the people became apparent almost immediately and within a matter of hours, Philip III's third cousin John, 8th Duke of Braganza, was acclaimed as King John IV of Portugal. The news spread quickly throughout the country. By 2 December 1640, the day after the coup, John IV, acting in his capacity as sovereign of the country, had sent a letter to the Municipal Chamber of Évora.
The ensuing conflict with Spain brought Portugal into the Thirty Years' War as at least a peripheral player. From 1641 to 1668, the period during which the two nations were at war, Spain sought to isolate Portugal militarily and diplomatically, and Portugal tried to find the resources to maintain its independence through political alliances and maintaining its colonial income.
Preparations for war
Immediately after assuming the Portuguese throne, John IV took several steps to strengthen his position. On 11 December 1640, a 'Council of War' was created to organize all of the operations. Next, the king created the 'Junta of the Frontiers' to take care of the fortresses near the border, the hypothetical defense of Lisbon, and the garrisons and sea ports.
A year later, in December 1641, he created a tenancy to assure that all of the country's fortresses would be upgraded and that the improvements would be financed with regional taxes. He also organized the army, re-established the 'Military Laws of King Sebastian', and undertook a diplomatic campaign focused on restoring good relations with England.
After gaining several small victories, John tried to make peace quickly. However, his demand that Philip recognize the new ruling dynasty in Portugal was not fulfilled until the reign of his son, Afonso VI, during the regency of Peter of Braganza, another of his sons, who later became King Peter II of Portugal). Confrontations with Spain lasted 28 years.
Context: relations among the European powers
Relations between France and Spain
Cardinal Richelieu, the chief adviser to Louis XIII of France, was fully aware of the fact that France was operating under strained circumstances. Louis was at war with Spain at that time; he had to control rebellions within France that were supported and financed by Madrid and had to send French armies to fight the Spanish Habsburgs on three different fronts. In addition to their shared frontier at the Pyrenees, Philip IV of Spain, formerly Philip III of Portugal as well, reigned, under various titles, in Flanders and the Franche-Comté, to the north and east of France. In addition, Philip IV controlled large territories in Italy, where he could, at will, impose a fourth front by attacking French-controlled Savoy.
Spain had enjoyed the reputation of having the most formidable military force in Europe, with the introduction of the arquebus and the so-called "Spanish School", but that reputation and tactic had diminished with the Thirty Years' War. Nevertheless, the consummate statesman, Richelieu, decided to force Philip IV to look to his own internal problems. To divert the Spanish troops besieging France, Louis XIII, on the advice of Richelieu, supported John's claim during the Acclamation War on the reasoning that a Portuguese war would drain Spanish resources and manpower.
Relations between Portugal and France
To fulfill the common foreign policy interests of Portugal and France, a treaty of alliance between the two countries was concluded at Paris on 1 June 1641. It lasted eighteen years before Richelieu's successor as unofficial foreign minister, Cardinal Mazarin, broke the treaty and abandoned his Portuguese and Catalan allies to sign a separate peace with Madrid. The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659. Under its terms, France received the portion of the Principality of Catalonia north of the Pyrenees, known as the Roussillon, and part of the Cerdanya (French Cerdagne). Most important to the Portuguese, the French recognised Philip IV of Spain as the legitimate king of Portugal.
Seven years later, in the late stages of the Portuguese Restoration War, relations between the two countries thawed to the extent that the young (but sickly) Afonso VI of Portugal married a French princess, Marie Françoise of Nemours.
Relations between Portugal and the Dutch Republic
At the time of the revolution in Lisbon (1 December 1640), the Portuguese had been at war with the Dutch for nearly forty years. A good deal of the conflict can be attributed to the fact that Spain and the Dutch Republic were concurrently engaged in the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), and, ever since hostilities between Portugal and the Dutch Republic erupted in 1602, Portugal had been ruled by a Spanish monarch.
The Dutch-Portuguese War was fought almost entirely overseas, with the Dutch mercantile surrogates, the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, repeatedly attacking Portugal's colonial possessions in the Americas, in Africa, in India, and in the Far East. Portugal was in a defensive posture throughout, and it received very little military help from Spain.
After the acclamation of John, the pattern persisted all over the Portuguese Empire until the final expulsion of the Dutch from Angola (1648), São Tomé (1649), and Brazil (1654). The Dutch signed a European truce with Portugal, helping each other somewhat against their common enemy, Spain. The Dutch resumed buying salt in the Setúbal salt factories, restarting commerce between the two countries for the first time since 1580, when the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, against whom the Dutch were in revolt, had assumed the Portuguese throne. However, Dutch attacks on Portuguese territories persisted until 1663, even after the signing of the Treaty of The Hague in 1661.
Relations between Portugal and England
England was then embroiled in its own civil war. Portuguese problems in dealing with England arose from the fact that the English Parliament fought and won its anti-royalist war while, at the same time, Portugal's royal court continued to receive and recognize English princes and nobles. The strained relations persisted during the short-lived Commonwealth period, when the republican government that had deposed Charles I ruled England and then Ireland and Scotland.
After the restoration of the Stuart dynasty, it became possible for Portugal to compensate for the lack of French support by renewing its alliance with England, with experienced soldiers and officers available from the demobilised New Model Army. That took the form of a dynastic marriage in 1662 between Charles II and Afonso VI's sister, Catherine of Braganza, which assured Portugal of outside support in its conflict with Spain. The English alliance helped peace with Spain, which had been drained by the Thirty Years' War and had no stomach for further warfare with other European powers, especially a resurgent England.
War
Militarily, the Portuguese Restoration War consisted mainly of border skirmishes and cavalry raids to sack border towns, combined with occasional invasions and counter-invasions, many of them half-hearted and under-financed. There were only five major set-piece battles during twenty-eight years of hostilities.
The war may be considered to have had three periods:
- first, an early stage (1640–1646) when a few major engagements demonstrated that the Portuguese could not be easily returned to submission to the Spanish Habsburgs,
- second, a long period (1646–1660) of military standoffs, characterized by small-scale raiding, while Spain concentrated on its military commitments elsewhere in Europe,
- third, a final period (1660–1668) during which the Spanish king, Philip IV, unsuccessfully sought a decisive victory that would bring an end to hostilities.
First stage: battles
Hoping for a quick victory in Portugal, Spain immediately committed seven regiments to the Portuguese frontier, but delays by the Count of Monterrey, a commander with more interest in the comforts of life at camp than the battlefield, squandered any immediate advantage. A Portuguese counter-thrust in late 1641 failed, and the conflict soon settled into a stalemate.
Battle of Montijo
On 26 May 1644, a large column of Spanish troops and mercenaries, commanded by Neapolitan Carlo Andrea Caracciolo, marquis of Torrecuso, was stopped at the Battle of Montijo by the Portuguese, who were led by the Matias de Albuquerque, one of a number of experienced Portuguese colonial officers who rose to prominence during the war.
Scope of the war
Three theaters of warfare were eventually opened, but most activity focused on the northern front, near Galicia, and on the central frontier between Portuguese Alentejo and Spanish Extremadura. The southern front, where the Portuguese Algarve abuts Spanish Andalusia, was a logical target for Portugal, but it was never the focus of a Portuguese attack, probably because the Portuguese queen, Luisa de Guzmán, was the sister of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the leading noble of Andalusia.
Attrition and corruption
Spain, at first, made the war a defensive one. Portugal, for its part, felt no need to take Spanish territory in order to win, and it too was willing to make the war a defensive contest. Campaigns typically consisted of correrias (cavalry raids) to burn fields, sack towns, and steal large herds of enemy cattle and sheep. Soldiers and officers, many of them mercenaries, were primarily interested in booty and prone to desertion. For long periods, without men or money, neither side mounted formal campaigns, and when actions were taken, they were often driven as much by political considerations, such as Portugal's need to impress potential allies, as by clear military objectives. Year after year, given the problems of campaigning in the winter, and the heat and dry conditions of summer, most of the serious fighting was confined to two relatively short "campaigning seasons" in the spring and autumn.
The war settled into a pattern of mutual destruction. As early as December 1641, it was common to hear Spaniards throughout the country lament that "Extremadura is finished." Tax collectors, recruiting officers, billeted soldiers, and depredations by Spanish and foreign troops were loathed and feared by the Spanish population as much as raids by the enemy. In Extremadura, local militias bore the brunt of the fighting until 1659, and the absence of these part-time soldiers was extremely harmful to agriculture and local finances. Since there was often no money to pay or support the troops (or to reward their commanders), the Spanish crown turned a blind eye to the smuggling, contraband, profiteering, disorder, and destruction that had become rampant on the frontier. Similar conditions also existed among the Portuguese.
Second stage: defensive standoff
The war was also expensive. In the 1650s, there were over 20,000 Spanish troops in Extremadura alone, compared to 27,000 in Flanders. Between 1649 and 1654, about 29 percent (over six million ducats) of Spanish defence spending was appropriated for fighting Portugal, a figure that rose during the major campaigns of the 1660s. Portugal was able to finance its war effort because of its ability to tax the spice trade with Asia and the sugar trade from Brazil, and it received some support from the European opponents of Spain, particularly France and England.
The 1650s were indecisive militarily but important on the political and diplomatic fronts, with the brief exception of the Battle of the Lines of Elvas in 1659. The death of John IV in 1656 signalled the beginning of the regency of his wife, followed by a succession crisis and a palace coup (1662). Despite these domestic problems, the expulsion of the Dutch from Brazil (1654) and the signing of a treaty with England (also in 1654) improved Portugal's diplomatic and financial position temporarily and gave it needed protection against a naval raid on Lisbon.
Nonetheless, the overriding goal, a formal pact with France, continued to evade Portugal, whose weakness and isolation had been driven home by its virtual exclusion at the negotiations for the European settlement-of-settlements, the new realpolitik of the Peace of Westphalia (1648).
With this treaty and the end of hostilities in Catalonia in 1652, Spain was again ready to direct its efforts against Portugal, but it faced a lack of men, resources, and, especially, good military commanders.
Atrocities
During the second stage, the war became a frontier confrontation characterized by attrition, often featuring local forces composed of familiar neighbors, yet this intimacy failed to temper the brutality exhibited by both sides. Soldiers and officers, many mercenaries facing payment shortages, turned to looting and desertion. The Portuguese sought retribution for grievances accumulated during sixty years of Spanish rule, whereas the Spanish viewed their adversaries not as legitimate combatants deserving of honorable treatment but as rebels.
Third stage: Portuguese victory
Further information: English expedition to Portugal (1662–1668)Following the indecisive campaigns of 1662, Spain launched a major effort to win the war. In April 1663, John of Austria the Younger, Philip IV's illegitimate son, invaded Alentejo, commanding an army of 20,000 provisioned for six weeks. In May, he successfully captured Évora, sparking a surge of emotion in Lisbon and raising alarm throughout Portugal, as there was now no major barrier to impede a Spanish advance on Lisbon.
The Portuguese, under António Luís de Meneses, 1st Marquess of Marialva, were bolstered by the arrival of a British brigade which numbered 3,000 in August 1662. Many were veterans of the English Civil War and the Dutch Revolt. For King Charles II, this was a convenient way of getting rid of demobilized soldiers of Cromwell's New Model Army and removing them from English territory. They were led by the German soldier of fortune, Friedrich Hermann von Schönberg, Count of Mértola, The brigade, under Schomberg's leadership, proved a decisive factor in winning back Portugal's independence.
They defeated the Spanish in a major engagement at Ameixial on 8 June 1663, and this forced John of Austria to abandon Évora and retreat across the border with heavy losses.
The Portuguese now had some 30,000 troops in the Alentejo-Extremadura theatre, but they could not draw the Spanish again into a major engagement until June 1665, when a new Spanish commander, the Marquis of Caracena, took over Vila Viçosa with about 23,000 men, including recruits from Germany and Italy.
The Portuguese relief column under António Luís de Meneses and Schomberg met them at Montes Claros on 17 June 1665. The Portuguese infantry and artillery emplacements broke the Spanish cavalry, and the Spanish force lost over 10,000 men, including casualties and prisoners. Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese retook Vila Viçosa. These were the last major engagements of the war.
Both sides returned to skirmishing campaigns. Portugal, with the intercession of its English ally, had sought a truce, but after the decisive Portuguese victory at Montes Claros and with the signing of a Franco-Portuguese treaty in 1667, the Spanish Habsburgs finally agreed to recognize the House of Braganza as Portugal's new ruling dynasty on 13 February 1668.
Recapitulation
The five major battles of the war were:
- Battle of Montijo on 26 May 1644
- Battle of the Lines of Elvas on 14 January 1659
- Battle of Ameixial on 8 June 1663
- Battle of Castelo Rodrigo on 7 July 1664
- Battle of Montes Claros on 17 June 1665
The Portuguese were victorious in almost all of these engagements, and peace was concluded, with the help of English mediation, by the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668.
Timeline
The Cross of the Order of Christ and the Cross of Burgundy, under white background (or varied background colors, like quarters in green and white in some Portuguese regiments) were the standards more used by the Portuguese and Spanish regiments in the battlefields, respectively Main article: Timeline of Portuguese history- 1640: A small group of conspirators stormed the royal palace in Lisbon and deposed the Vicereine of Portugal, Margaret of Savoy on 1 December 1640. She famously tried to calm the Portuguese people during demonstrations in the Terreiro do Paço, at the time, Lisbon's main square, but her efforts failed. The Duke of Bragança, head of the senior family among the Portuguese nobility, accepted the throne as John IV of Portugal later the same day. John's entire reign was dominated by the struggle to maintain Portuguese independence.
- 1641: A counter-revolution mounted by the Inquisition failed. It was quelled by Francisco de Lucena, who had its leaders executed. Miguel Luís de Menezes, 2nd Duke of Caminha, was executed for continuing to support the Habsburgs' claim to the Portuguese throne.
- 1641: Portugal signed alliances with France (1 June 1641) and Sweden (August 1641).
- 1641: Portugal and the Dutch Republic signed a 'Treaty of Offensive and Defensive Alliance', otherwise known as the Treaty of The Hague, on 12 July 1641. The treaty was not respected by either party; as a consequence, it had no effect on the Portuguese dependencies of Brazil and Angola that were under Dutch occupation.
- 1641: The Dutch began their occupation of São Tomé and of Ano Bom on 16 October 1641, where they remained until 6 January 1649. This was clearly a violation of the agreement made with Portugal only three months earlier.
- 1641: Portugal was ousted from Malacca by the Dutch.
- 1642: The Dutch took over all of the Portuguese Gold Coast (now Ghana).
- 1643: At the Battle of Rocroi (19 May 1643), in the Ardennes, the French defeated the Spanish.
- 1644: The Battle of Montijo near Badajoz, between the Portuguese and the Spanish, was fought on 26 May 1644.
- 1644: The Portuguese city of Elvas withstood a nine-day siege by Spanish troops.
- 1648: Portuguese troops from the colony of Brazil under Salvador Correia de Sá landed in Angola, retook Luanda, and expelled the Dutch, thereby restoring the African colony to Portugal.
- 1649: The Dutch were ousted from São Tomé.
- 1650: The Sultan of Oman, allied with the Dutch, captured Muscat, which had been a Portuguese trading outpost on the Arabian Peninsula.
- 1654: The Anglo-Portuguese treaty between John IV and Oliver Cromwell was signed at Westminster. John agreed to prevent the molestation of English traders in Portugal and its possessions and to allow them to use their own bible and to bury their dead according to Protestant rites even though they were on Catholic soil.
- 1654: Portuguese troops from the colony of Brazil drove the Dutch out of the great plantation colonies of northeastern Brazil, re-establishing the territorial integrity of Portugal's South American holdings.
- 1656: Portugal lost control of Colombo in Portuguese Ceylon to the Dutch.
- 1656: John IV died on 6 November 1656 after a reign of fifteen years. His queen, who was born Luisa de Guzman (1613–1666), the eldest daughter of the Spanish grandee, the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, then reigned as regent for their son, Afonso VI of Portugal. She began seeking an accommodation with Spain.
- 1658: The Dutch took Jaffnapatam, Portugal's last colony in Ceylon.
- 1659: The Battle of the Lines of Elvas was fought on 14 January 1659. Portuguese troops, under the command of the marquis of Marialva, António Luís de Meneses, and Sancho Manoel de Vilhena, scored a resounding victory over the Spanish.
- 1659: The Spanish besieged the Portuguese town of Monção. The town fell on 7 February.
- 1659: The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed on 7 November 1659, ending Spain's long war with France, and Spanish troops were free once more to suppress the Portuguese 'rebellion'. The Spaniards besieged Elvas, and they were driven off by António Luís de Meneses once again.
- 1660: Upon the restoration of Charles II in England, the Queen-Regent re-negotiated the treaty of 1654. Portugal was allowed to recruit soldiers and horses in England for the fight against Spain, to seek the conscription of four thousand mercenaries in Scotland and Ireland, and to charter twenty-four English ships to carry them. The expeditionary force was issued English weapons upon arrival in Portugal and guaranteed freedom of worship.
- 1660: The English began to dominate the trade in port wine from Portugal after a political spat with the French denied them Bordeaux wines. Brandy was added to the Portuguese wines to fortify them for the Atlantic voyage. Together with the restoration of Charles II in England, the "port connection" had an increasingly positive influence on Anglo-Portuguese relations.
- 1661: Bombay and Tangier were ceded to England on 23 June 1661 as a dowry for Afonso's sister, Catherine of Braganza, who had married King Charles II of England on 25 May 1661. In addition to the deeds to Bombay and Tangier, Catherine arrived in London, where she popularized the practice of drinking tea, with a dowry of two million gold pieces. Servicing this wedding debt burdened the Portuguese exchequer for the next half-century. The marriage with a Protestant monarch was deeply unpopular with those among the Portuguese nobility who favoured alliance with France. An anglophile party and a francophile party developed at the Portuguese court.
- 1661: English mediation induced the Netherlands to acknowledge, on 6 August 1661, Portuguese rule in Brazil, in return for uncontested control of Ceylon and eight million guilders. This agreement was formalized in the Treaty of The Hague (1661).
- 1662: Shortly after Afonso VI's coming-of-age, Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 3rd Count of Castelo Melhor, saw an opportunity to gain power at court by befriending the mentally deficient king. He managed to convince the king that his mother, Luisa of Medina-Sidonia, was plotting to steal his throne and exile him from Portugal. As a result, Afonso asserted his right to rule and dispatched his mother to a convent. The king appointed Castelo Melhor his secret notary (escrivão da puridade), a position in which Castelo Melhor was able to exercise the functions of first minister. Because of the weakness of the king, Castelo Melhor became the virtual "dictator of Portugal".
- 1662: Castelo Melhor commenced the final (successful) phase of the Portuguese Acclamation War with the aid of the Count of Mértola, who brilliantly commanded the international mercenary army that had been assembled with the assistance of England.
- 1663: The Battle of Ameixial was fought on 8 June 1663. After they had spent nearly all spring overrunning the south of Portugal, the Spanish army, under John of Austria the Younger, took the Portuguese city of Évora. Less than three weeks later, they were soundly defeated by Sancho Manoel de Vilhena and Count of Mértola.
- 1663: The Dutch ousted the Portuguese from the Malabar coast, even though this was a clear violation of their 1661 treaty.
- 1663: The Siege of Évora occurred when the Portuguese army led by Sancho Manoel de Vilhena and by the Count of Mértola retook the city from the Spanish occupiers, with little to no casualties. The entire Spanish garrison surrendered.
- 1664: The Battle of Castelo Rodrigo was fought on 7 July 1664. A regional military commander, Pedro Jacques de Magalhães, defeated the Duke of Osuna.
- 1664: The Siege of Valencia de Alcántara results in the successful conquest of the Spanish town of Valencia de Alcántara by Portugal in July 1664.
- 1665: Portugal was again victorious at the Battle of Montes Claros (on 17 June 1665), in which António Luís de Meneses and Schomberg defeated the Spanish army under the Marquis of Caracena; Spain ceased hostilities, but a true peace treaty was not signed for another three years. Montes Claros is considered one of the most important battles in Portuguese history.
- 1666: In an attempt to establish an alliance with France, Castelo Melhor arranged for Afonso VI to marry Marie Françoise of Nemours, the daughter of the Duke of Nemours, but this marriage would not last long.
- 1666: The ambitious Castelo Melhor planned to prosecute the war to the extent of taking Galicia and presenting it to the Portuguese crown as a war indemnity, but he was dissuaded.
- 1667: Marie Françoise petitioned for an annulment of her marriage to Afonso VI, based on the impotence of the king. The Church granted her the annulment.
- 1667: King Afonso VI, Castelo Melhor, and his francophile party were overthrown by the king's younger brother, Pedro, Duke of Beja, (who later ruled as Pedro II of Portugal.) Pedro first installed himself as his brother's regent and then arranged Afonso's exile to the island of Terceira in the Azores on the pretense that he was incapable of governing. Castelo Melhor fled into exile; ironically, he chose to live in England.
- 1667: The French alliance had been imperilled by the annulment of Afonso's marriage, but Pedro strengthened his political position by marrying his brother's estranged queen.
- 1668: The Treaty of Lisbon with Spain ended twenty-eight years of war. The regent of Spain, Mariana of Austria, acting in the name of her young son Charles II of Spain, finally recognized the legitimacy of the Portuguese monarch. Portugal kept all of its remaining overseas colonies, with the exception of Ceuta on the north African coast, which didn't recognize the Braganza Dynasty during the war.
Results of the war
For Portugal, its restoration of independence from Spain was clearly established, and it proved that it could fend for itself, albeit with difficulty. Its victories on the battlefield had re-awakened Portuguese nationalism.
Economically, Portugal's restoration of independence freed it to pursue the course mapped out by the pioneers of commercial imperialism. During the seventeenth century, its economy depended largely upon entrepôt trade in tobacco and sugar, and the export of salt. During the eighteenth century, even though staples were not abandoned, the Portuguese economy came to be based more upon enslaved people, gold, leather, and wine. Portuguese trade, centered in the busy port of Lisbon, was most influenced by Anglo-Dutch capitalism and by the colonial economy in Brazil.
Luís de Meneses, the Count of Ericeira, economic adviser to the prince regent, advocated the development of a native textile industry based on a Flemish model. Factories were established at Covilhã, in an area of central Portugal where there was easy access to flocks of sheep and clean mountain water, but they were highly unpopular with both local consumers and traditional weavers. Meanwhile, Portuguese attempts to develop a silk industry were undercut by the French, who wanted to monopolize that market.
More importantly, after 1668, Portugal increasingly cultivated intellectual ties with Western Europe, especially France and England, marking a shift away from its Iberian roots and towards cultural and political independence from Spain. Fear of Spanish invasion remained a powerful tool in reinforcing Portuguese nationalism and fueling hostility towards Spain and anything perceived as Spanish, as independence became synonymous with resistance against Castilian influence.
Macau, the Portuguese colony in the Far East, remained loyal to the Portuguese monarch during the entire occupation period. Thus it was awarded the title “Cidade do Nome de Deus, Macau, Não Há Outra Mais Leal”, or “City by the Name of God, Macau, There Is None More Loyal” by King John IV of Portugal in 1654.
See also
- 1580 Portuguese succession crisis
- Dutch-Portuguese War, 1602–1663
- History of Portugal (1640–1777)
- Monument to the Restorers
- Restauradores Square
Notes
- In Savoy, Christine Marie of France was acting as regent on behalf of her young son, Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy.
References
Citations
- Davenport 2012, pp. 324–328.
- Glete 2002, p. 176.
- Pinzelli 2020, p. 151.
- Anderson 2000, p. 131.
- ^ Torgal 1981, pp. 69–85
- Birmingham 2003, p. 51.
- "Guerra da Aclamação". Infopédia. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
- Treasure 1990, p. 337.
- ^ Riley 2014, p. 24.
- ^ Riley 2014, p. 27.
- ^ Riley 2014, p. 31.
- Riley 2014, p. 36.
- ^ Riley 2014, p. 29.
- ^ Riley 2014, p. 30.
- Riley 2014, p. 28.
- Riley 2014, pp. 27–28.
- Riley 2014, p. 74.
- Riley 2014, pp. 86–93.
- Hardacre 1960, pp. 112–125.
- Riley 2014, p. xix.
- Riley 2014, pp. 134–147.
- "Bandeiras, estandartes, e guiões – exército português (3)". Guerra da Restauração Blog de História Militar dedicado à Guerra da Restauração ou da Aclamação, 1641–1668. 20 April 2008.
- Ames 2000, p. 24.
- Treasure 1990, pp. 338–339.
- Wheeler 1978, p. 6.
- "Step onto Senado Square and into the past: Walking tours bring Macau's Chinese, Portuguese history in focus". South China Morning Post.
Sources
- Ames, Glenn Joseph (2000). Renascent Empire?: The House of Braganza and the Quest for Stability in Portuguese Monsoon Asia, ca. 1640–1683. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 9053563822.
- Anderson, James Maxwell (2000). The history of Portugal. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313311064.
- Birmingham, David (2003). A concise history of Portugal. Publisher. ISBN 978-0521536868.
- Davenport, Frances Gardiner (2012). European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies to 1648. Clark, New Jersey: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 978-1584774228.
- Glete, Jan (2002). Warfare at Sea, 1500–1650 Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe (E-book ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1134610785.
- Hardacre, Paul (1960). The English Contingent in Portugal, 1662–1668, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, volume 38. pp. 112–125.
- McMurdo, Edward (2010). The History of Portugal – From the Reign of D. Joao II. to the Reign of D. Joao V. – Volume III. Read Books Design. ISBN 978-1444695694.
- Pinzelli, Eric G. L. (2020). Masters of Warfare Fifty Underrated Military Commanders from Classical Antiquity to the Cold War (E-book ed.). Pen and Sword Military. p. 151. ISBN 978-1399070157.
- Riley, Jonathon (2014). The Last Ironsides: The English Expedition to Portugal, 1662–1668. Helion & Company. ISBN 978-1909982208.
- Torgal, Luís Reis (1981). "A Restauração – Sua Dinâmica Sócio-política". Ideologia Política e Teoria do Estado na Restauração (in Portuguese). Vol. I. Coimbra: Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra. hdl:10316/665. ISBN 978-9726160823.
- Treasure, Geoffrey Russell Richards (1990). The Making of Modern Europe, 1648–1780. Routledge.
- Wheeler, Douglas L. (1978). Republican Portugal: A Political History, 1910–1926 by Douglas L. Wheeler. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0299074500.
External links
Categories:- Portuguese Restoration War
- 17th-century conflicts
- 17th century in Portugal
- 17th-century military history of Spain
- 17th-century military history of the Kingdom of England
- 17th century in France
- Dutch–Portuguese War
- Wars involving Portugal
- Wars involving Spain
- Wars involving England
- Wars involving France
- Portugal–Spain relations
- Warfare of the early modern period