T HIS volume is written on a different plan to that adopted in most of the volumes in the same Series which have preceded it, and attempts to give a short chronological history of Portugal. An episodical history, though more interesting than a consecutive narrative, in that it treats only of the most striking events, demands from the reader a groundwork of accurate knowledge. This is not given with regard to the history of Portugal in any book in the English language with which the author is acq

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T HE Story of Portugal possesses a peculiar interest from the fact that it is to its history alone that the country owes its existence as a separate nation Geographically, the little kingdom is an integral portion of the Iberian peninsula, with no natural boundaries to distinguish it from that larger portion of the peninsula called Spain; its inhabitants spring from the same stock as the Spaniards, and their language differs but slightly from the Spanish. Its early history is merged in that of t

C OUNT H ENRY of Burgundy, his wife Theresa, and his son Affonso Henriques, were the three founders of Portugal, and they were all of them individuals of marked personality. They were typical figures of their epoch, possessing the curious mixture of virtues and vices which characterized the age of chivalry. Count Henry was the second son of Henry, who was the third son of Robert, first Duke of Burgundy, and he was like his father and grandfather, a knight of the old French school, combining a pa

A FFONSO H ENRIQUES , the only son of Count Henry and Donna Theresa, who at the age of seventeen, after the battle of S. Mamede, began his long and prosperous reign, was one of the heroes of the Middle Ages. He succeeded to the government of Portugal when it was still regarded generally, in spite of Theresa’s claims, as a county of Gallicia, and after nearly sixty years of incessant fighting he bequeathed to his son a powerful little kingdom, whose independence was unquestioned, and whose fame w

CONVENTO DE CHRISTO AT THOMAR. (After a Photograph.) CONVENTO DE CHRISTO AT THOMAR. (After a Photograph.) S ANCHO I., the Povoador or City-builder, had already won his reputation as a warrior in his father’s life-time, and his fame as king rests rather on the success of his internal administration of his country. But before he had time to gratify his inclination towards the more peaceful duties of government, he had to continue the life and death struggle with the Moors. The great victory won th

N O better ruler than Diniz, or Denis, could be found for a country which, after centuries of war, needed to have a period of peace and quiet. He was a poet, and loved literature; he was a great administrator, and loved justice; he was a statesman, and avoided foreign wars; he was a far-seeing man, and prepared for the extension of Portuguese energies beyond the sea by encouraging commerce; and, above all, he saw the need of agriculture and of the arts of peace to take the place of incessant war

KING JOHN THE GREAT. (From his recumbent statue over his tomb at Batalha.) KING JOHN THE GREAT. (From his recumbent statue over his tomb at Batalha.) T HE reigns of John I., surnamed “the Great,” and of his two successors, occupy nearly a century, during which Portugal was learning to become the greatest nation in Europe. It was the age of exploration and discovery, during which the acutest intellects and the most daring natures in Portugal were dreaming of a new route to India, and were endeavo

T HE internal history of Portugal under the rule of John “the Great,” his son Edward, and his grandson Affonso V., has an interest of its own, yet it is not at home that the most important development of Portuguese energy is to be perceived. Great as were the services rendered to Portugal by King John, they mark no stages in the progress of Europe as the achievements of Dom Henry, his son, have done. Around the name of this prince, the discoveries of the Portuguese navigators may best be grouped

J OHN II., surnamed “the Perfect,” the only son of Affonso V., succeeded his father as King of Portugal in 1481, and his short reign was marked by events of the utmost importance at home, as well as by the great discoveries of Diogo Cam and Bartholomeu Diaz. He had shown himself a gallant soldier in his father’s last African expedition, when he was knighted, and at the battle of Toro, and also a capable ruler, as regent, during the absence of Affonso V. in France, and during that king’s frequent

T HERE is no subject that calls more loudly for an historian than the history of the Portuguese in India during the sixteenth century. There are Portuguese authorities in plenty, for, with a vivid perception of the picturesque, many of the greatest writers of the golden age of Portuguese literature devoted themselves to this fascinating subject. João de Barros, the Portuguese Livy, and a contemporary of the great Indian viceroys, wrote a history of the first half century of Portuguese conquest i

T HE history of the Portuguese in South America differs greatly from the story of the growth of their power in Asia; in America they found no wealthy cities and civilized peoples, only poor natives, and it was no wonder that their chief efforts in the sixteenth century were devoted to the development of the lucrative Eastern trade and to Asiatic exploration. Had any one told King Emmanuel that the country which Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered by a mere chance on his way to Asia, would prove of m

T HE germs of the rapid decline of Portugal have been already noticed in discussing the reigns of Emmanuel and John III.; the country, exhausted by its efforts to conquer Asia and colonize Brazil, and deprived of liberty of thought by the deadly influence of the Inquisition, was fast losing its old vitality; and what Portuguese were left in Portugal were either enervated by luxury in the upper classes and slaves to the Court, or in the lower beggars upon the charity of the King and the Church. T

I T has always been the case in the history of a nation which can boast of a golden age, that the epoch of its greatest glory is that in which its literature chiefly flourished. The energies of a nation at its zenith cannot be bounded by the vastest schemes of conquest, but develop in other directions as well. It was so with Portugal. The age which witnessed the careers of its famous captains and conquerors was also the age of its greatest poets and prose writers. The establishment of the Inquis

T HE death of the Cardinal-King Henry brought the people of Portugal face to face with the problem which all had been discussing ever since the melancholy fate of Dom Sebastian. There were seven candidates for the throne, but only five of them need be seriously considered, for the claims of Pope Gregory XIII., as heir-general to a cardinal, and of Catherine de’ Medici, through the first marriage of Affonso III. to the Countess of Boulogne in the thirteenth century, need no further notice. The re

T HE Portuguese people groaned under the powerlessness and poverty which fell to their lot during the Sixty Years’ Captivity. None of the advantages which had been so eloquently prophesied by Christovão de Moura as the inevitable result of a union with Spain had been experienced. Instead of being protected by great Spanish armies, the colonies and trade of Portugal had been left an open prey to the enemies of Spain; it was on account of her union with Spain that the Dutch and English attacked th

T HE death of John IV., and the accession of the boy Affonso VI., proved to be anything but a disaster to the House of Braganza. The queen became sole regent, and this energetic and able woman, who had always been the courageous supporter of her weak husband, determined to prosecute the war against Spain with redoubled vigour. She, too, hankered after a close alliance with France, and distrusted the promises of Mazarin; but she felt that it was no good to wait for allies until Spain was at liber

T HE eighteenth century exhibits fewer features of interest than any other throughout the whole history of Portugal. The country remained in a political sense a mere province of England, and was bound by the Methuen treaty to take a part in all the wars in which England was engaged, and the importance of this arrangement became more and more evident, when France and Spain were united by the close connection brought about by the “Pacte de Famille.” The commercial relation was the cause of more in

W HEN Dom John took the government of Portugal into his hands in 1792, popular attention was concentrated throughout Europe on the progress of the French Revolution. The interest excited in Portugal was as great as it was everywhere else, for the ideas, which were at the bottom of the most important movement of modern times, had been eagerly received in the literary circles of Lisbon. It is absurd to suppose that there was any great democratic party in the country, for as long as the administrat

T HE history of Portugal, after the conclusion of the Peninsular War, affords a melancholy example of the evil effects of all prolonged wars. The people, without great monarchs or great ministers, was divided into many parties, which quarrelled and fought; numerous civil wars distressed the country; commerce and agriculture were neglected; local rivalry and class jealousy were allowed to grow to serious proportions; the government of the country and the administration of justice went from bad to