João IV of Portugal
João IV led the revolt that restored Portuguese independence after sixty years of Spanish rule. Born in Vila Viçosa in 1604, he was the eighth Duke of Braganza, the wealthiest man in Portugal and the great-grandson of a claimant passed over when Philip II of Spain took the throne in 1580 — which made him the natural focus of any opposition and which he spent his adult life avoiding. He was interested in music. He assembled one of the largest libraries in Europe, composed, and wrote a defence of Palestrina. Spanish rule had begun with guarantees of Portuguese autonomy and had eroded them. The Count-Duke of Olivares taxed Portugal for wars it had no interest in, staffed offices with Castilians, and let the Dutch take Portuguese possessions in Brazil, Africa and Asia while providing no protection. Olivares then ordered Portuguese nobles to serve against the Catalan revolt, and a group of conspirators acted first. On 1 December 1640 about forty of them seized the palace in Lisbon, killed the secretary of state and arrested the vicereine. João, who had been informed and had committed himself reluctantly, was acclaimed king. The war that followed lasted twenty-eight years. He rebuilt the army and the fortresses, allied with France, England and the Dutch, and won at Montijo in 1644 and Elvas in 1659. He recovered Brazil from the Dutch and married his daughter Catherine to Charles II of England, taking Bombay and Tangier as her dowry. He died in 1656, twelve years before Spain recognised the outcome.
- Lived: 1604 CE – 1656 CE
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Roles: king, head_of_state
