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Portugal Restoration
João IV was proclaimed king by a cortes convoked in
164l.
Faced with the general ruin of the realm and threats to
his crown
from Spain, his first act was to defend the kingdom. He
immediately created a council of war, appointed military
governors in the provinces, recruited soldiers, rebuilt
forts,
and constructed an arms foundry. At the same time, he
vigorously
sought diplomatic recognition of his monarchy and
Portugal's
independence from Spain. On June 1, 1641, João IV signed
an
alliance with Louis XIII of France and soon made peace
with
Holland and England. By the time of his death in 1656,
João IV
had consolidated and restored the monarchy by making peace
with
former enemies, recouped some lost colonial possessions,
and
defeated Spanish attempts to reincorporate Portugal into
the
Iberian Union.
When João died, his queen, Luísa de Gusmão, became
regent
because the royal couple's oldest son, Teodósio, had died
three
years before his father and their youngest son, Afonso,
was only
ten years old. Although a disease in infancy had left
Afonso
partially paralyzed and had impaired his intelligence, his
mother
succeeded in having him proclaimed king. Afonso VI
(r.1662-67)
grew into a degenerate who preferred riding, coursing
bulls, and
watching cockfights. His marriage to Marie-Françoise
Isabelle of
Savoy was annulled, and, in 1667, aware of the need for a
successor, Afonso consented to his own abdication in favor
of his
brother, Pedro. During this period, the Portuguese managed
to
fight off the last attempt by Spain to reincorporate them
into
the Iberian Union by defeating the Spanish invaders at
Ameixial
near Estremós. In 1666, three years after this victory,
Spain at
last made peace and recognized Portugal's independence.
When Afonso abdicated, he was banished to Terceira
Island in
the Azores and his brother, who had married
Marie-Françoise,
assumed the regency of the throne until Afonso's death in
1683,
after which he ruled in his own right as Pedro II until
1706.
During his regency, Pedro had given the task of producing
a
coherent economic policy to Luís de Menenses, count of
Ericeira,
who was appointed head of the treasury. Known as the
"Portuguese
Colbert," Ericeira implemented mercantilist policies in
Portugal
similar to those of France. These policies sought to
protect
Portuguese industries against foreign competition. He
published
laws to enforce sobriety and criticized luxury. Ericeira
organized the textile industry and imported looms from
England.
He stimulated the national production of wool and silk by
decreeing that only Portuguese woolens and silks could be
worn.
Data as of January 1993
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