Count of Castelo Melhor
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Portuguese royal favourite
Favourite
A favourite , or favorite , was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler...
who, as effective governor of Portugal from 1662 to 1667 during the reign of Afonso VI, was responsible for the successful prosecution of the war against Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, which led, in 1668, to Spanish recognition of Portugal's independence.
Shortly after Afonso VI's coming-of-age in 1662, Castelo Melhor saw an opportunity to gain power at court by befriending the mentally unstable king. He managed to convince the king that his mother, Luisa of Medina-Sidonia
Luisa of Medina-Sidonia
Luisa Maria Francisca of Guzman was a Queen consort of Portugal. She was the spouse of King John IV, the first Braganza ruler, as well as the mother of two Kings of Portugal and a Queen of England...
, was out to steal his throne and exile him from Portugal. As a result, Afonso took control of the throne and his mother was sent to a convent.
The King appointed Castelo Melhor his secret notary (escrivão da puridade), a position in which the favourite was able to exercise the functions of first minister.
Castelo Melhor overcame the difficulties which had hitherto beset Portugal in the war against Spain, reorganizing the troops (now reinforced by an English contingent by virtue of the English king Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
's marriage to Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza was a Portuguese infanta and queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles II.She married the king in 1662...
) and entrusting their command to competent generals. Consequently the Portuguese Restoration War
Portuguese Restoration War
Portuguese Restoration War was the name given by nineteenth-century 'romantic' historians to the war between Portugal and Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon . The revolution of 1640 ended the sixty-year period of dual monarchy in Portugal...
entered a victorious phase for Portugal (1663–65) and Spain began peace negotiations.
Agreement proved difficult to attain and meanwhile the internal political situation in Portugal deteriorated. Castelo Melhor and his Francophile party were losing ground to the Anglophile party. The King was obliged to dismiss Castelo Melhor on September 9, 1667, in a palace coup organized by the king's wife Maria Francisca of Nemours and brother Pedro . Shortly afterwards, the king himself was also deprived of power.
Castelo Melhor went into exile in Paris and then London, but in 1685 he was permitted to return to Portugal and, two years after that, to court. On the accession of John V (1706), he was appointed a councillor of state and he continued to occupy a position of distinction until his death.