Having propounded thus much of
constitutional law, we take a flying leap to the
renowned King of Portugal, Dom Sebastian,
whose life, though he flourished in the
sixteenth century, is almost a myth. Indeed
we leap over him, for it is not his life, but
his death, or rather disappearance, that we
require on the present occasion. Well, in
1578, King Sebastian having crossed over
to Africa to overthrow Mulay Muloch,
Emperor of Morocco, disappeared in the great
battle of Alcaçar-quivir, in which he had
been thoroughly defeated. We use the
expression disappeared advisedly, for
Sebastian of Portugal, like Harold of
England, is one of those many illustrious
monarchs whose death has never been
proved, with sufficient certainty to preclude
the superstitious belief that they may
probably turn up after the lapse of a few
centuries or so, to cheer the hearts of their
afflicted people. At all events, in 1578,
Sebastian, who had inherited the throne
from his grandfather, John the Third, was
gone, and had left no issue, and to find a
legitimate successor it was necessary to
descend the family pedigree as far as his
great-grandfather, King Manuel, whose
only surviving son was Cardinal Henry.
So far there was no difficulty; the title of
the cardinal was indisputable, and he occupied
the throne without opposition; but as
he was nearly seventy years of age, people
asked what was to happen after his death;
and during his short reign, which lasted
only sixteen months, several claimants to
the succession made their appearance. Of
these only two were important: Catherine,
Duchess of Braganza, daughter of Edward,
a deceased son of Manuel, and Philip the
Second, King of Spain, son of Manuel's
eldest daughter, the Empress Isabella.
There was this defect in Philip's title, that
his father, the Emperor Charles the Fifth,
although he had been King of Spain, did
not seem to be a Portuguese noble, within
the meaning of the law of succession.
Philip contended that he was, and certainly
the question whether the Spaniards and
Portuguese are, or are not, one nation, is
agitated at the present day. At any rate,
the fault in Philip's pedigree was not so
serious that it could not be repaired by
physical force. An army, under the
command of the Duke of Alva, marched into
Portugal, where it easily overcame all
resistance, and in 1580 Philip was duly
proclaimed the legitimate successor of Cardinal
Henry, who had died in the same year, and
Portugal was annexed to Spain. We may
here take occasion to observe that, unfortunately
for the English public, the late Mr.
Prescott's History of Philip the Second
came to its untimely end before that
admirable author had reached this important
event.

The preliminaries are now over, and the
novel or play, whichever you please to call
it, begins. The result of Philip's grand
operation was a chronic state of discontent,
in which Portugal remained for something
like sixty years; naturally enough, for she
was treated as a conquered country (which
indeed she was), the people being loaded
with excessive taxes, and the grandees
being compelled to remain in obscurity,
lest, by being conspicuous, they might
incur the suspicion of the Spaniards. No
movement, however, against the government
seems to have taken place till the
reign of Philip the Fourth, when the
administration of Olivarez, popularly called
the "Count-Duke," rendered the yoke of
the foreigner hateful beyond endurance.
Besides keeping the native nobility
estranged from public affairs, and becoming
more oppressive than his predecessors in
his burdensome exactions, Olivarez drained
the physical resources of the country by
employing in foreign wars all the men
capable of bearing arms. Especially
detestable was a Portuguese named
Vasconcellos, who, nominally secretary to the
vice-queen of Portugal, Margaret of Savoy,
Duchess of Mantua, was really the local
ruler: inasmuch as he was the immediate
agent of the Count-Duke, whereas the
vice-queen was little more than a cipher, her
position being analogous to that of her
namesake in the Netherlands about a
century before. It was the policy of this
worthy man to scatter seeds of dissension
among the Portuguese, in order to weaken
their power; but no petty difference which
he could foment for the purpose of untying
the fagot was equal in strength to the bond
of common hatred which incited all hearts
against the Spaniards.

In the middle of their troubles people
began to bethink themselves that they had
among them a certain John, Duke of
Braganza, grandson and direct heir of the
Duchess Catherine, who claimed the throne
in the time of Cardinal Henry, and who did
marry a Portuguese noble, viz., the Duke
of Braganza, named, like his grandson,
John. The young duke had manifestly
the advantage of a title to the throne far
superior to that of the detested King of
Spain, which was derived from Philip the