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Revision as of 06:36, 16 March 2009
| War of the Portuguese Succession | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 António I of Portugal |
 Philip II of Spain | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| António, Prior of Crato and the 3rd Count of Vimioso | Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva | ||||||
The War of the Portuguese Succession was fought from 1580 to 1583 between the two main claimants to the Portuguese throne: Anthony I of Portugal, proclaimed initially as the 18th King of Portugal, and Felipe II, who eventually succeeded in claiming the crown as the 19th King of Portugal reining as Filipe I of Portugal.
Background
The Cardinal-King's death (January 31, 1580) caused the 1580 Portuguese succession crisis, with several candidates setting up their claims as his succesors. Initially, (the Infanta Catherine of Guimarães and her husband John I, 6th Duke of Braganza) were expected to launch an attempt to claim the Portuguese crown. However, given their indifference, Dom António, Prior of Crato, was the only one to challenge Felipe II's claims.
Both Dom António and Don Felipe were the grandchildren of King Manuel I of Portugal grand children:
- Dom António was viewed as having wider support in Portugal and throughout the nascent Portuguese Empire. This was in part due to his lifetime in Portugal. However he was a claimaint through a bastard line (an illegitimate grand child through his father Infante Louis, 5th Duke of Beja).
- Don Felipe, in contrast, was the eldest grand child, but he descended from a legitimate (albeit female) line, through his mother, Infanta Isabella of Portugal, Queen of Spain. Although he spent his entire life in Spain, the Portuguese high-nobility and high-clergy supported Philip II's claim.
War
On July 24 1580, Dom António proclaimed himself as António I, King of Portugal and of the Algarves, in Santarém, which was followed by popular acclamation in several locations of the country. However, he governed in Continental Portugal for only 33 days, culminating in his defeat at the Battle of Alcântara by the Spanish armies led by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba on August 25.
In early 1581, he fled to France and, as the Philip’s armies had not yet occupied the Azores, he sailed there with a number of French adventurers under Philip Strozzi, a Florentine exile in the service of France, but was utterly defeated at sea by the Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz at the Battle of Ponta Delgada off Terceira Island on July 26, and off São Miguel Island on July 27, 1582.
António still accompanied an English expedition, under the command of Francis Drake and Norris, to the coasts of Spain and Portugal but the expedition failed and Anthony’s attempt to rule Portugal from Terceira Island, in the Azores (where he even minted coins) came to an end in 1583.
Meanwhile, King Felipe II was recognized as Filipe I, King of Portugal and of the Algarves by the Portuguese Cortes of Tomar (1581), resulting in a period often referred to retrospectively as the Iberian Union.
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