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were dispersed on the first attack. The prince himself escaped, and wandering about through the kingdom for several months, though a price was set on his head, at last escaped to France.

CHAP. III.

History of Portugal under the Kings of Spain.

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N the defeat of Don Antonio, prince of Crato, the whole kingdom submitted to Philip of Spain, together with the garrisons in Barbary, the settlements on the western coast of Africa, of Brazil, and in the East Indies. Madeiras, however, held out for Don Antonio till they were reduced, and the French navy which came to favour their resistance was entirely defeated and destroyed.

As Philip had sufficient policy not to wish to appear a conqueror, he did not enter Portugal till it had made its full submission to his power. At last he arrived at Lisbon, where he was received with sullen pomp without acclamations. It was easy to see that force not choice made him their king; and, sensible of this, he endeavoured to conciliate the affections of the people by confirming the advantageous terms which he had previously offered by letters. These conditions were, that he should take a solemn oath to maintain the liberties and immunities of the people; that the states should be assembled within the realm, and nothing proposed in any other council, relative to Portugal;

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that the viceroy should be a native, unless the king should delegate that charge to one of the royal family; that the household should be kept on its ancient footing; that the post of first president, and of all offices, civil, military, and judicial, should be filled with Portuguese; that all dignities in the church and orders of knighthood should be confined to the same; that the commerce of Ethiopia, Africa, and the Indies, should be carried on by their merchants and vessels alone; that all duties on the frontiers should be annulled; and lastly, that Philip should advance 300,000 ducats to redeem prisoners, repair cities, and relieve the miseries, which pestilence and other calamities had brought on the nation.

These, with other collateral conditions of similar import, formerly offered, and rejected by the Portuguese, Philip now confirmed in person: but when the duke of Ossuna proposed, that in case of his violating the compact, the states should be freed from their allegiance, and might defend their rights by the sword, without incurring the crime of treason or perjury, he absolutely refused to ratify the clause; which in a manner impeached his sincerity in what he had done, and vitiated all his professions.

All these concessions, however, with the most lavish distribution of honours and employments, failed to reconcile the Portuguese to a foreign master. This profuse conduct on the part of the sovereign had also an effect which was not immediately foreseen: it weakened the power, and absorbed the revenues of the crown; and by putting it out of the power of his successors to shew equal liberality, it excited only a shortlived

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lived gratitude in a few, and made a number of malecontents, to which time was continually adding.

Thus Philip, with every appearance of a refined policy and of an anxious desire to please, found his new subjects still more and more disgusted with his government; particularly when they perceived that the partisans of Don Antonio were treated with a degree of rigour, which the forlorn state of his fortunes could not either justify or require. The exiled prince, however, still retained and used the title of king of Portugal; and, after conciliating the good will of France, to which he had retired, with a fleet of 60 sail and a considerable body of troops furnished by that crown, he made an attempt on the Terceras. The Spaniards, however, repulsed him with great loss, and inflicted exemplary punishment on the Portuguese prisoners found in his service.

Nevertheless Don Antonio retained possession of a few places, coined money, and exercised other acts of regal power; but his affairs becoming more and more desperate, with some difficulty he made a second escape into France. From thence he passed over into England, where he was well received; and as Elizabeth was equally hostile to the Spaniards, many privateers were covertly fitted out against them, under the commission of Antonio. After Philip, however, had weakened his power by the equipment of the armada, and lessened his credit by seeing it totally defeated, the queen of England openly espoused the cause of Don Antonio, as much with a view of avenging herself as of serving him; and Sir John Norris and Sir Francis

Drake

Drake were sent with a powerful squadron and army to attempt seating him on the throne of Portugal.

It was on this occasion that he agreed to borrow 200,000 ducats of Muley Hamet, king of Fez and Morocco, for the repayment of which he delivered up his son Don Christopher as an hostage. But Philip, aware of the correspondence between them, by a deep stroke of policy surrendered Arzila to the Moors, in order to put an end to the negotiation; and disputes arising between Norris and Drake, in consequence of an ill-concerted attack upon Corunna, the expedition, which had been undertaken with such favourable omens, terminated in nothing.

Antonio returned to England with the fleet, which imported the plague, the only memorable circumstance attending the expedition; but finding himself little regarded, he withdrew once more into France, where he fell into great poverty and distress. At length, after various vicissitudes of fortune, he departed this life in the 64th year of his age, and was buried in the church of the nuns of Ave Maria. He left several children behind him; but having taken the vows of celibacy and chastity before their birth, they were regarded as illegitimate. To the last, he maintained a considerable interest in Portugal, and had at different times drawn immense sums of money from that kingdom; all which he squandered away in fruitless negotiations, and ineffectual attempts to disturb the Spanish possessions in every part of the globe.

But Don Antonio was not the only person who set up claims to the crown of Portugal. The nation, as much from a detestation of the Spanish

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Spanish yoke as a predilection for its hereditary kings, were continually amusing themselves with the hopes that Don Sebastian would appear, like another Messiah, for their deliverance. So strong was this prepossession, and such a degree of credulity reigned among the populace, that it was proverbially said, they would have taken a negro for Don Sebastian. This humour was sure to be gratified by the ambition of some and the folly of others. Without adverting again to that Sebastian who acted such a remarkable part at Venice, and whose pretensions as well as his ultimate fate are covered with an impenetrable veil, there were several pseudo Sebastians appeared in the heart of Portugal itself, two of whom we shall particularize. One was the son of a tiler at Alcobaza, who, after a short career of profligacy, turned hermit, and from his solitude burst forth as the real Sebastian. This ignorant pretender had two associates in his folly or his villany, for it is doubtful which predominated most, one of whom was styled Don Christopher de Tavora, the other the bishop of Guarda. These began to collect money, and were in a fair way of exciting serious disturbances, had not the cardinal arch-duke caused them to be apprehended, and after exposing the pretended Sebastian with every mark of ignominy, sentenced him to the gallies for life, while his friend, the self-consecrated bishop of Evora, was condemned to be hanged.

The second representative of Don Sebastian was Gonsalo Alvarez, the son of a mason. This man having promised to make the daughter of a rich yeoman his queen, through the influence of his intended father-in-law, raised a banditti of

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