POD: Sebastian, the "desired" King of Portugal, is victorious in the Battle in the Battle of Alcácer-Quibir.
Kings of Portugal and Algarves
1557-1613: Sebastian I "The Desired" (House of Aviz) [1]
1613-1651: John IV of Portugal (House of Aviz) [2]
[2] He was the oldest son of Sebastian and his wife, Maria, born in 1584. He was an unpopular successor to the throne, as his mother Maria had been practically disowned from her genealogies while his father was seen as a bewitched heretic, though he himself was a pious Catholic. The rest of Europe had looked on, aghast, at what they saw as a match made in hell. Ascending to the throne, he knew well that his position was insecure. Astute in his political dealings, he established a council and pushed through laws of religious freedom, even going so far as to suggest that morganatic marriages should be more commonplace in royalty. Despite this controversial opinion, he married Margaret of Austria, who was initially betrothed to his cousin Philip III of Spain, causing great tension between the two kings. He and Margaret fell in love over time, and they had sixteen children together. The king and queen were patrons of the arts, founding dozens of schools that focused on languages and arithmetic, and he was an avid hunter and a participant in jousts and tournaments. He preserved the laws for the military that his father had created. He was a king who ruled as well as reigned. He knew the importance of war and a high international profile in staking his claim to be a great warrior-king of Portugal. He successfully continued his father's Moroccan crusade, successfully defeating Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I Saadi. In battle he was brave, if impetuous, which led equally to triumph and disaster. He bargained hard over taxation and other issues with interest groups, often by appearing not to bargain at all. He enhanced royal power and concentrated decision-making in a tight personal executive but used a wide range of offices, gifts and his own personal charisma to build up an elective personal affinity among the ranks of the nobility upon whom his reign depended. He died of old age, beloved by his people and deeply mourned.
Kings of Portugal and Algarves
1557-1613: Sebastian I "The Desired" (House of Aviz) [1]
1613-1651: John IV of Portugal (House of Aviz) [2]
[1] Born to D. John Manuel, heir of Portugal and his wife Joanna of Austria in 1554, Sebastian was called the "the Desired" at his birth, for him being born remedied the dire situation the dinasty of Aviz had found itself in recent years, with the extinction of many of it's cadet branches and the lack of fertility apparent in the main line, including the death of his father just two weeks before his birth. Heir apparent at the moment he was born, Sebastian's birth would indeed prove a blessing when his grandfather died just three years later, and Sebastian became King Sebastian the I.
Tall, slim and blond, Sebastian was raised under the iron rule of his grandmother, Catherine of Austria, who shared the regency of her grandson with his uncle, Cardinal Henry of Evora. Due to this, the church, especially the Jesuits, played a strong hand in his upbringing and the King was raised as a true crusader, whose jesuits teachers inspired in him a desire to expand christianity around Portugal's colonies but especially to the enemies of the Portuguese in Africa, the morrocan infidels. The fact that the young King started excreting seminal fluids at the age of 9 did not bypass the sight of his grandmother, the regent, and soon the head jesuit in the care of Sebastian's education was shooed off the court. It was around this time that some rumours would sprout that the young King had suffered from pedophilia, although the Portuguese court, essentially killed the rumours.
"Sebastianus Rex, a painting of the King during his early twenties, shortly before the invasion of Morocco."
During his regency, the influence of the Church in Portugal increased dramatically, as churchmen entered various positions of import in the court of the realm, and expanded the activities of the inquisition to many of the lands Portugal under it's sway. Portugal adquired some cities in India and Indonesia around this time, but most importantly, a deal was crafted with the Chinese that saw Macau become part of the growing Portuguese Empire.
Eventually, Sebastian came of age, although his regents continued holding influential posts in his government. Plans were crafted for Sebastian to marry Margot of France or an Austrian Princess, but Sebastian and the patrons of the respective women never came to an agreement, either due to the tense political and religious situation of France at the time or due to the overtures of the pope. Sebastian had also hinted to his uncle and neighbour, Philip of Spain, that he would be interested in marrying Isabella Clara Eugenia, his eldest daughter, or one of the younger daughters of the Spanish monarch, but no agreement was ever settled upon. Historians debate whether this was because of some kind of homosexuality, bisexuality or asexuality from Sebastian, or a simple disinterest in such matters of state. Other historians refer to some misgivings about his illnesses, or psycological scars caused by his rape as a young child. Eventually, Sebastian would indeed find a wife, but not one would think of...
But Sebastian's one main obcession remained - to crusade against the muslim infidels, and win victory in a crusade. Sebastian's youthful idealism that turned into fanaticism in his adulthood, for Morocco was in his view the one main thorn on Portuguese honour. While constructing their Empire, the Portuguese had waged many smaller wars against the Moroccans, conquering many port cities but they had never been succesful in wider endeavours - but that was about to change. The Portuguese nobility and bourgeouise had good reasons to support their King's endeavours in the country to their south - mainly for prestige, security, trade and food for Portugal's population. Thus, Sebastian eventually forged a plan when an opportunity raised itself - Sultan Abdullah Mohammed of Morocco requested Portuguese assistance from his uncles, who had amassed an army in Ottoman Algiers and were now invading the country. Thus, Sebastian and the flower of Portugal's nobility embarked on a fleet that numbered in the hundreds, and soon, almost 18000 men landed in Portuguese cities in the Moroccan coast.
In a rather dissapointing turn of events (for Sebastian), he fell ill almost as soon as he landed, and the Duke of Aveiro was thus forced to take command of the expedition. While not very experienced militarily, the young Duke was discovered to a fine logistician and a able listener, and soon, the Portuguese and their Moorish allies dragged Abd Al-Malik and his armies to the coast, where a recovered Sebastian re-invigorated the morale of his armies that handily defeated the Ottoman supported armies of Abd Al-Malik, killing both the pretender and his brother in the process. Sebastian himself was almost killed twice in the battle, but escaped the fighting wounded. It was a resounding Portuguese victory nonetheless, and one that made Sebastian's name rung through every hall in Christendom. A grateful Sultan Abdullah signed a treaty of alliance with Portugal and handed them many ports cities, but most importantly, gave the Portuguese suzerainty over the Gharb and Rif regions of the Portuguese coast, allowing Portugal to expand agricultural production to this new region with many southern portuguese immigrants setting up farms of wheat and many American crops that would serve handily in feeding Portugal - and in the Rif, the security of cities such as Tangiers and Ceuta was finally secured, and with trade with Saadi Morocco blooming, they became the very centers of the Luso-Moroccan trade and the Trans-Saharan trade.
To the surprise of many, Sebastian stayed in his new Moroccan possessions for three years, establishing a temporary capital in Tangiers. There, a mature and changed man finally escaped the shadow of his youth. Sebastian took to Kingship with a new, larger than life confidence, but a sense of wisdom not present before the conquest. Many of the German, Flemish and Italian mercenaries brought to Africa by Sebastian were given land and convinced to stay in Morocco, as were many portuguese soldiers. This policy soon gave results, and the rebellious Rifian tribes soon found a worthy enemy in these crusaders.. Many locals were also encouraged to convert to Christianity, and many did, as there seemed there was no going back to the muslim order supported by the Ottoman Empire. Anyway, the new provinces of the Portuguese Empire had needs of all kinds of people in it's bureaucracies, militaries and government, and many of the locals were given a ticket in as long as they embraced the church.
Perhaps most importantly for Sebastian, was one particular woman who embraced the Church (eventually). A rather unknown sister of Sultan Abdullah by one of his father's other wives, the young muslim Princess and the Christian King became quick companions - something that worried his uncle Henry, who held court in Lisbon during Sebastian's absence. And Cardinal Henry's worries would prove to be right. In the woman whom history records initially as Princess Fatima of Morocco, who would eventually become Maria de Fatima, Queen of Portugal, Sebastian had found a kindred spirit upon whom he could lay down his woes. To Sebastian's close band of friends, Sebastian's closeness with the muslim woman should have been a case of worry, but as in all, the friendship they shared proved stronger than their duty to their faith, and they kept the King's secret, well, a secret.
When Sebastian landed in Lisbon in 1581, he brought many riches from Africa and many of Sultan Abdullah's courtiers and diplomats, and the news of the marriage contract between the King and the Sultan's sister spread through the Kingdom like wildfire. Surely, the King had been bewitched. It was only Queen Maria's public conversion to Christianity and her rather sizeable dowry that allowed for many gifts to be showered on the Portuguese nobility that allowed the Cortes to ratify the marriage, that was consumated shortly afterwards. But there remained a great deal of dissent and anger, both internally and internationally.
Sebastian's uncle, Philip of Spain was amongst the most outraged. Sebastian marrying a infidel princess was a source of great affront on it's own, but Philip had wished for Sebastian to marry his eldest daughter, in the hopes of forcing Portugal to join and finance his holy league. Philip led a diplomatic effort to have the pope nullify the marriage, and the pope would have agreed on it if not for the portuguese royal families visit to Rome later that year - with a heavily pregnant Queen Maria giving birth to a set of twins in the pope's own palace. Forced by Sebastian to become godfather to his first children, for he and his wife would indeed have many more in the future, the pope could not well deligitimize his own god-children, and the fact that Queen Maria's conversion seemed genuine and the increasing amounts of conversions amongst the moslems of Portugal's moroccans domains made it clear that the marriage was having some kind of positive result.
Sebastian and Philip would remain estranged for a long time, but would eventually rebuild their alliance, due to political reasons at the time. Sebastian had curtailed the inquisition, indeed, for it was amongst the inquisition itself that the doubters and "traitors" who had attempted to ruin the King's marriage had found support in, but he would continue a wide array of christianisation efforts in Portugal's colonies overseas, guided by new, better trained and equipped religious orders under the patronage of the Portuguese crown who worked to know and comprehend the populations they were trying to convert, to very succesful degrees. Soon, Christianity was making new breaks in India, Africa and Indonesia, and Macau became a center for the difusion of christianity to other places in China and Empires such as Japan and Korea. Portuguese Bandeirantes moved beyond the line of Tordesillas during his reign, starting the colonization of the Brazilian interior. When the Dutch attempted to usurp and conquer Portuguese colonies in an attempt to increase the Republic's revenues, it backfired immediatelly, as Sebastian moved to support Philip the II and the growing and very powerful Portuguese navy threw themselves like rabid dogs on Dutch shipping and trading.
In Sebastian's reign, the lesser Sunda Islands were conquered by the portuguese, ruled from Flores, Timor and Malacca, this increased base of power allowed the Portuguese to conquer more trading outposts in the Greater Sunda Islands, especially in Sumatra and Java. Portugal established many vassals in the islands, fighting off the Ottoman supported local sultanates with support from the locals. This saw many Indonesian princes convert to Christianity, thus introducing the religion to many places in the region, and increased Portuguese influence immenselly.
Other than that, Sebastian followed a rather neutral and internal policy for the rest of his reign. He was mostly interested in the produces of his Empire, and strongly invested in Portugal itself - becoming the patron of many cities and settlements in the metropolis and overseas, building ports, hospitals, churches and monasteries, roads, forts, universities and trading depots. He was an avid lover of coffee, which quickly became the national beverage during his reign, alongside having a deep taste for the cuisine of the natives of Brazil, which he had been introduced too by the native servants of a courtier. Seing an opportunity to diversefy portuguese agriculture, Sebastian had many Columbian crops introduced to Europe and to a lesser degree Africa and Asia, especially potatoes, who became a peculiar favourite of the Sebastianist royal family.
Many Catholics from the Germanies, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the British isles found refuge and welcome in Portugal during his reign, numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Many of these men and women brought with them new ways of thinking and technology, and they integrated quickly into the portuguese population, greatly boosting the manpower of the Portuguese crown. Sebastian is famous for becoming the first of Portugal's absolute monarchs, starting a period known as the "Sebastianist Autocracy". He would eventually die, surrounded by his wife, many children and grandchildren. He was suceeded by his son, John.
Tall, slim and blond, Sebastian was raised under the iron rule of his grandmother, Catherine of Austria, who shared the regency of her grandson with his uncle, Cardinal Henry of Evora. Due to this, the church, especially the Jesuits, played a strong hand in his upbringing and the King was raised as a true crusader, whose jesuits teachers inspired in him a desire to expand christianity around Portugal's colonies but especially to the enemies of the Portuguese in Africa, the morrocan infidels. The fact that the young King started excreting seminal fluids at the age of 9 did not bypass the sight of his grandmother, the regent, and soon the head jesuit in the care of Sebastian's education was shooed off the court. It was around this time that some rumours would sprout that the young King had suffered from pedophilia, although the Portuguese court, essentially killed the rumours.
"Sebastianus Rex, a painting of the King during his early twenties, shortly before the invasion of Morocco."
During his regency, the influence of the Church in Portugal increased dramatically, as churchmen entered various positions of import in the court of the realm, and expanded the activities of the inquisition to many of the lands Portugal under it's sway. Portugal adquired some cities in India and Indonesia around this time, but most importantly, a deal was crafted with the Chinese that saw Macau become part of the growing Portuguese Empire.
Eventually, Sebastian came of age, although his regents continued holding influential posts in his government. Plans were crafted for Sebastian to marry Margot of France or an Austrian Princess, but Sebastian and the patrons of the respective women never came to an agreement, either due to the tense political and religious situation of France at the time or due to the overtures of the pope. Sebastian had also hinted to his uncle and neighbour, Philip of Spain, that he would be interested in marrying Isabella Clara Eugenia, his eldest daughter, or one of the younger daughters of the Spanish monarch, but no agreement was ever settled upon. Historians debate whether this was because of some kind of homosexuality, bisexuality or asexuality from Sebastian, or a simple disinterest in such matters of state. Other historians refer to some misgivings about his illnesses, or psycological scars caused by his rape as a young child. Eventually, Sebastian would indeed find a wife, but not one would think of...
But Sebastian's one main obcession remained - to crusade against the muslim infidels, and win victory in a crusade. Sebastian's youthful idealism that turned into fanaticism in his adulthood, for Morocco was in his view the one main thorn on Portuguese honour. While constructing their Empire, the Portuguese had waged many smaller wars against the Moroccans, conquering many port cities but they had never been succesful in wider endeavours - but that was about to change. The Portuguese nobility and bourgeouise had good reasons to support their King's endeavours in the country to their south - mainly for prestige, security, trade and food for Portugal's population. Thus, Sebastian eventually forged a plan when an opportunity raised itself - Sultan Abdullah Mohammed of Morocco requested Portuguese assistance from his uncles, who had amassed an army in Ottoman Algiers and were now invading the country. Thus, Sebastian and the flower of Portugal's nobility embarked on a fleet that numbered in the hundreds, and soon, almost 18000 men landed in Portuguese cities in the Moroccan coast.
In a rather dissapointing turn of events (for Sebastian), he fell ill almost as soon as he landed, and the Duke of Aveiro was thus forced to take command of the expedition. While not very experienced militarily, the young Duke was discovered to a fine logistician and a able listener, and soon, the Portuguese and their Moorish allies dragged Abd Al-Malik and his armies to the coast, where a recovered Sebastian re-invigorated the morale of his armies that handily defeated the Ottoman supported armies of Abd Al-Malik, killing both the pretender and his brother in the process. Sebastian himself was almost killed twice in the battle, but escaped the fighting wounded. It was a resounding Portuguese victory nonetheless, and one that made Sebastian's name rung through every hall in Christendom. A grateful Sultan Abdullah signed a treaty of alliance with Portugal and handed them many ports cities, but most importantly, gave the Portuguese suzerainty over the Gharb and Rif regions of the Portuguese coast, allowing Portugal to expand agricultural production to this new region with many southern portuguese immigrants setting up farms of wheat and many American crops that would serve handily in feeding Portugal - and in the Rif, the security of cities such as Tangiers and Ceuta was finally secured, and with trade with Saadi Morocco blooming, they became the very centers of the Luso-Moroccan trade and the Trans-Saharan trade.
To the surprise of many, Sebastian stayed in his new Moroccan possessions for three years, establishing a temporary capital in Tangiers. There, a mature and changed man finally escaped the shadow of his youth. Sebastian took to Kingship with a new, larger than life confidence, but a sense of wisdom not present before the conquest. Many of the German, Flemish and Italian mercenaries brought to Africa by Sebastian were given land and convinced to stay in Morocco, as were many portuguese soldiers. This policy soon gave results, and the rebellious Rifian tribes soon found a worthy enemy in these crusaders.. Many locals were also encouraged to convert to Christianity, and many did, as there seemed there was no going back to the muslim order supported by the Ottoman Empire. Anyway, the new provinces of the Portuguese Empire had needs of all kinds of people in it's bureaucracies, militaries and government, and many of the locals were given a ticket in as long as they embraced the church.
Perhaps most importantly for Sebastian, was one particular woman who embraced the Church (eventually). A rather unknown sister of Sultan Abdullah by one of his father's other wives, the young muslim Princess and the Christian King became quick companions - something that worried his uncle Henry, who held court in Lisbon during Sebastian's absence. And Cardinal Henry's worries would prove to be right. In the woman whom history records initially as Princess Fatima of Morocco, who would eventually become Maria de Fatima, Queen of Portugal, Sebastian had found a kindred spirit upon whom he could lay down his woes. To Sebastian's close band of friends, Sebastian's closeness with the muslim woman should have been a case of worry, but as in all, the friendship they shared proved stronger than their duty to their faith, and they kept the King's secret, well, a secret.
When Sebastian landed in Lisbon in 1581, he brought many riches from Africa and many of Sultan Abdullah's courtiers and diplomats, and the news of the marriage contract between the King and the Sultan's sister spread through the Kingdom like wildfire. Surely, the King had been bewitched. It was only Queen Maria's public conversion to Christianity and her rather sizeable dowry that allowed for many gifts to be showered on the Portuguese nobility that allowed the Cortes to ratify the marriage, that was consumated shortly afterwards. But there remained a great deal of dissent and anger, both internally and internationally.
Sebastian's uncle, Philip of Spain was amongst the most outraged. Sebastian marrying a infidel princess was a source of great affront on it's own, but Philip had wished for Sebastian to marry his eldest daughter, in the hopes of forcing Portugal to join and finance his holy league. Philip led a diplomatic effort to have the pope nullify the marriage, and the pope would have agreed on it if not for the portuguese royal families visit to Rome later that year - with a heavily pregnant Queen Maria giving birth to a set of twins in the pope's own palace. Forced by Sebastian to become godfather to his first children, for he and his wife would indeed have many more in the future, the pope could not well deligitimize his own god-children, and the fact that Queen Maria's conversion seemed genuine and the increasing amounts of conversions amongst the moslems of Portugal's moroccans domains made it clear that the marriage was having some kind of positive result.
Sebastian and Philip would remain estranged for a long time, but would eventually rebuild their alliance, due to political reasons at the time. Sebastian had curtailed the inquisition, indeed, for it was amongst the inquisition itself that the doubters and "traitors" who had attempted to ruin the King's marriage had found support in, but he would continue a wide array of christianisation efforts in Portugal's colonies overseas, guided by new, better trained and equipped religious orders under the patronage of the Portuguese crown who worked to know and comprehend the populations they were trying to convert, to very succesful degrees. Soon, Christianity was making new breaks in India, Africa and Indonesia, and Macau became a center for the difusion of christianity to other places in China and Empires such as Japan and Korea. Portuguese Bandeirantes moved beyond the line of Tordesillas during his reign, starting the colonization of the Brazilian interior. When the Dutch attempted to usurp and conquer Portuguese colonies in an attempt to increase the Republic's revenues, it backfired immediatelly, as Sebastian moved to support Philip the II and the growing and very powerful Portuguese navy threw themselves like rabid dogs on Dutch shipping and trading.
In Sebastian's reign, the lesser Sunda Islands were conquered by the portuguese, ruled from Flores, Timor and Malacca, this increased base of power allowed the Portuguese to conquer more trading outposts in the Greater Sunda Islands, especially in Sumatra and Java. Portugal established many vassals in the islands, fighting off the Ottoman supported local sultanates with support from the locals. This saw many Indonesian princes convert to Christianity, thus introducing the religion to many places in the region, and increased Portuguese influence immenselly.
Other than that, Sebastian followed a rather neutral and internal policy for the rest of his reign. He was mostly interested in the produces of his Empire, and strongly invested in Portugal itself - becoming the patron of many cities and settlements in the metropolis and overseas, building ports, hospitals, churches and monasteries, roads, forts, universities and trading depots. He was an avid lover of coffee, which quickly became the national beverage during his reign, alongside having a deep taste for the cuisine of the natives of Brazil, which he had been introduced too by the native servants of a courtier. Seing an opportunity to diversefy portuguese agriculture, Sebastian had many Columbian crops introduced to Europe and to a lesser degree Africa and Asia, especially potatoes, who became a peculiar favourite of the Sebastianist royal family.
Many Catholics from the Germanies, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the British isles found refuge and welcome in Portugal during his reign, numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Many of these men and women brought with them new ways of thinking and technology, and they integrated quickly into the portuguese population, greatly boosting the manpower of the Portuguese crown. Sebastian is famous for becoming the first of Portugal's absolute monarchs, starting a period known as the "Sebastianist Autocracy". He would eventually die, surrounded by his wife, many children and grandchildren. He was suceeded by his son, John.
[2] He was the oldest son of Sebastian and his wife, Maria, born in 1584. He was an unpopular successor to the throne, as his mother Maria had been practically disowned from her genealogies while his father was seen as a bewitched heretic, though he himself was a pious Catholic. The rest of Europe had looked on, aghast, at what they saw as a match made in hell. Ascending to the throne, he knew well that his position was insecure. Astute in his political dealings, he established a council and pushed through laws of religious freedom, even going so far as to suggest that morganatic marriages should be more commonplace in royalty. Despite this controversial opinion, he married Margaret of Austria, who was initially betrothed to his cousin Philip III of Spain, causing great tension between the two kings. He and Margaret fell in love over time, and they had sixteen children together. The king and queen were patrons of the arts, founding dozens of schools that focused on languages and arithmetic, and he was an avid hunter and a participant in jousts and tournaments. He preserved the laws for the military that his father had created. He was a king who ruled as well as reigned. He knew the importance of war and a high international profile in staking his claim to be a great warrior-king of Portugal. He successfully continued his father's Moroccan crusade, successfully defeating Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I Saadi. In battle he was brave, if impetuous, which led equally to triumph and disaster. He bargained hard over taxation and other issues with interest groups, often by appearing not to bargain at all. He enhanced royal power and concentrated decision-making in a tight personal executive but used a wide range of offices, gifts and his own personal charisma to build up an elective personal affinity among the ranks of the nobility upon whom his reign depended. He died of old age, beloved by his people and deeply mourned.