17th Century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1621 | Philip IV of Spain becomes Philip III of Portugal. | |
| 1640 | 1 December | A small group of conspirators storms the Palace in Lisbon and deposes the Vicereine of Portugal, Margaret of Savoy. The Duke of Bragança, head of the senior family of the Portuguese nobility (and descended from a bastard of João I), accepts the throne as Dom João IV of Portugal, despite deep personal reluctance, by popular acclaim and at the urging of his wife. His entire reign will be dominated by the struggle to establish and maintain independence from Spain. Francisco de Lucena, secretary to the governing council of Portugal for the past 36 years and thus the most experienced bureaucrat in the country, smoothly changes his loyalties and becomes chief minister of the restored monarchy. |
| 1641 | The Inquisition attempts to derail the national restoration by giving its support to a counter-revolution mounted by a duke, a marquis, three earls and an archbishop. The plot fails, quelled by Francisco de Lucena, who has the ringleaders executed, but it initiates a 28-year-long war against Spain punctuated by frequent internal threats to the stability of the new regime. Meanwhile the Dutch renew their attack on Angola and capture the most extensive Portuguese slaving grounds in Africa, including the Angolan port of Luanda. The Portuguese garrison flees upriver while trying to decide whether to declare continuing loyalty to the Habsburgs, accept Dutch rule or declare for João IV. They choose the House of Bragança and appeal to the Portuguese colony of Brazil for help in fending off African and Dutch attacks on their enclave. Salvador de Sá, leader of Rio de Janeiro, persuaded by the Jesuits in Brazil, also declares for King João and responds to the Angolan appeal. | |
| 1644 | Elvas withstands a nine-day siege by Spanish troops. | |
| 1648 | The Portuguese from Brazil under Salvador de Sá land in Angola, expel the Dutch and restore the African colony to Portugal. | |
| 1654 | Anglo-Portuguese treaty between João IV and Oliver Cromwell signed at Westminster. 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. The Portuguese in Brazil drive the Dutch out of the great plantation colonies of the north-east, re-establishing the territorial integrity of Portugal’s South American empire. | |
| 1656 | Death of João IV after a reign of 15 years. His Queen now reigns as Regent for their son, Afonso VI of Portugal. She seeks an accommodation with Spain. Portugal loses control of Colombo in Portuguese Ceylon when it is captured by the Dutch. | |
| 1659 | The Treaty of the Pyrenees ends Spain’s long war with France, and Spanish troops are freed once more to suppress the Portuguese ‘rebellion’. The Spaniards besiege Monção and are driven off by the Countess of Castelo Melhor. | |
| 1660 | On the restoration of Charles II 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. | |
| 1661 | Catarina da Bragança, sister of Afonso VI, marries Charles II of Great Britain on 31 May She brings to London a dowry of 2,000,000 gold pieces, the practice of drinking afternoon tea, and England is given colonial toe-holds in the Portuguese Empire at Tangier and Bombay. Servicing the wedding debt burdens the Portuguese exchequer for the next half-century, and this marriage with a Protestant monarch is deeply unpopular with that section of the Portuguese nobility which favours alliance with France. | |
| 1662 | In a palace coup d’etat in Lisbon a restive younger faction of the nobility, supported by the young Afonso VI, overthrows the Queen Regent and installs the 26-year-old Count of Castelo Melhor as ‘dictator’ to prosecute the war with Spain. The adolescent king is married to a French princess and the young dictator models his government on the royal absolutism of the Bourbon dynasty. Opposition to this pro-French absolutism (from the King’s sister the Queen of England, and his younger brother Prince Pedro) is swept aside, and Castelo Melhor initiates the final, successful phase of the Portuguese war of restoration with the aid of the Franco-German Marshal Schomberg, who brilliantly commands an international mercenary army against the Spanish forces. | |
| 1665 | 17 June | Portugal is victorious at the decisive Battle of Montes Claros, in which António Luís de Menezes defeats the Spanish army under the Prince of Parma; Spain ceases to make war, but peace will not be signed for another three years. |
| 1667 | Castelo Melhor and his Francophile party are overthrown in a new palace revolution. Prince Pedro, leader of the Anglophile party, becomes Regent for Afonso VI, who is declared incapable of governing and removed to the Azores. The French alliance is rejected, though Pedro shores up his political position by marrying his brother’s estranged Queen. Castelo Melhor flees into exile (ironically, to England). | |
| 1668 | Peace treaty with Spain ends nearly 30 years of war. Portugal keeps all his possessions and territory with the exception of Ceuta in Morocco, which is ceded to Spain. Portugal remains economically weak, however, agriculturally undeveloped and dependent on British grain and trade goods generally, especially woven cloth. The Count of Ericeira, economic adviser to the Prince Regent, advocates the development of a native textile industry modelled on Flemish lines. ‘Factories’ are established at Covilhã with easy access to flocks of sheep and clean mountain water, but are highly unpopular with both town consumers and traditional weavers. Meanwhile Portuguese attempts to develop a silk industry are fiercely resisted by the French, who wish to monopolize that market. | |
| 1683 | Death of Afonso VI. Pedro II of Portugal becomes king. | |
| 1690 | Suicide of Luís de Meneses, Count of Ericeira. | |
| 1692 | Great drought disrupts Portuguese silk production. | |
| 1697 | Discovery of gold in the interior of São Paulo province, Brazil. | |
| 1700 | Brazil now producing 50,000 ounces of gold per year. |
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Portuguese History
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