The Marriage Treaty, or Anglo-Portuguese Treaty, was a treaty of alliance that was agreed between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Portugal and concluded on 23 June 1661. [1]
It led to the marriage of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of John IV of Portugal. It was a marriage of state, as was common in the era.
The treaty also renewed the medieval Anglo-Portuguese Alliance.
Charles had recently been restored to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland and had been lobbied by both Portugal and the Spanish, which pushed rival candidates as a potential wife. Although Charles had been allied to Spain through the Treaty of Brussels, his relations with Madrid had become increasingly strained. Spain demanded the return of possessions taken by the English Republic, notably Jamaica, which Charles accepted. Charles's decision to marry Catherine was attributed to the advice of the influential English statesman Edward Hyde, the 1st Earl of Clarendon. [2] The Portuguese match also received strong support from Charles's Irish ally James Butler, the 1st Duke of Ormonde.
As well as a cash payment, Catherine's dowry also brought with it the settlements of Bombay. England also gained Tangier, in North Africa, and so could use the port as a naval station or a commercial post for the Levante trade. [3]
The terms made England send 2,000 foot soldiers and 500 horses to assist Portugal's war against Spain. [3] The treaty, under the marriage provision, also stated that the Infanta and her whole family "shall enjoy the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion." [4]
Over time, however, the acquisition of the two territories came to be regarded as liabilities for England. Charles sold his rights over Bombay to the East India Company. Tangier was maintained until it was evacuated by 1684 under constant pressure from surrounding Moorish forces. It also became a source of political controversy in England since Whigs suggested that the garrison, which had a large number of Irish Catholics, was designed to be brought over to Britain to impose royal absolutism. [5]
In accordance with the agreement, a force of British and Irish troops under Frederick Schomberg were raised to serve in Portugal's ongoing war against Spain. Portugal secured its independence in 1668.
Charles and Catherine were unable to conceive a child and so in 1685, the throne passed to the King's brother James, Duke of York, who married Anne Hyde and later Mary of Modena.
Afonso VI, known as "the Victorious", was the second king of Portugal of the House of Braganza from 1656 until his death. He was initially under the regency of his mother, Luisa de Guzmán, until 1662, when he removed her to a convent and took power with the help of his favourite, the Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 3rd Count of Castelo Melhor.
1661 (MDCLXI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1661st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 661st year of the 2nd millennium, the 61st year of the 17th century, and the 2nd year of the 1660s decade. As of the start of 1661, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Charles II was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.
Philip II, also known as Philip the Prudent, was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He was also jure uxoris King of England and Ireland from his marriage to Queen Mary I in 1554 until her death in 1558. He was also Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555, he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.
Catherine of Braganza was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to King Charles II, which lasted from 21 May 1662 until his death on 6 February 1685. She was the daughter of John IV of Portugal, who became the first king from the House of Braganza in 1640 after overthrowing the 60–year rule of the Spanish Habsburgs over Portugal and restoring the Portuguese throne which had first been created in 1143. Catherine served as regent of Portugal during the absence of her brother Peter II in 1701 and during 1704–1705, after her return to her homeland as a widow.
The Treaty of Dover, also known as the Secret Treaty of Dover, was a treaty between England and France signed at Dover on 1 June 1670. It required that Charles II of England would convert to the Roman Catholic Church at some future date and that he would assist Louis XIV with 60 warships and 4,000 soldiers to help in France's war of conquest against the Dutch Republic. In exchange, Charles would secretly receive a yearly pension of £230,000, as well as an extra sum of money when Charles informed the English people of his conversion, and France would send 6,000 French troops if there was ever a rebellion against Charles in England. The secret treaty was signed by Arlington, Arundell, Clifford, and Bellings for England and Colbert de Croissy for France. The two kings exchanged letters of ratification and kept secret the existence of the treaty. A public treaty of Dover was also negotiated, but it was a screen designed for propaganda purposes and to hide the religious dimension of the secret treaty. The Third Anglo-Dutch War was a direct consequence of this treaty. The actual treaty was published by historians a century later.
DomPedro II, nicknamed "the Pacific", was King of Portugal from 1683 until his death, previously serving as regent for his brother Afonso VI from 1668 until his own accession. He was the fifth and last child of John IV and Luisa de Guzmán.
The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is one of the oldest military alliances that is still in force by political bilateral agreement. It was established by the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Portugal, though the countries were previously allied via the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373.
English Tangier was the period in Moroccan history in which the city of Tangier was occupied by England as part of its colonial empire from 1661 to 1684. Tangier had been under Portuguese control before Charles II of England acquired the city as part of the dowry when he married the Portuguese infanta Catherine. The marriage treaty was an extensive renewal of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance. It was opposed by Spain, then at war with Portugal, but clandestinely supported by France.
The Anglo-Spanish War was a conflict between the English Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, and Spain, between 1654 and 1660. It was caused by commercial rivalry. Each side attacked the other's commercial and colonial interests in various ways such as privateering and naval expeditions. In 1655, an English amphibious expedition invaded Spanish territory in the Caribbean. In 1657, England formed an alliance with France, merging the Anglo–Spanish war with the larger Franco-Spanish War resulting in major land actions that took place in the Spanish Netherlands.
John, Prince of Asturias and Girona, was the only son of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, and heir apparent to both their thrones for nearly his entire life.
The Portuguese Restoration War was the war between Portugal and Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, bringing a formal end to the Iberian Union. The period from 1640 to 1668 was marked by periodic skirmishes between Portugal and Spain, as well as short episodes of more serious warfare, much of it occasioned by Spanish and Portuguese entanglements with non-Iberian powers. Spain was involved in the Thirty Years' War until 1648 and the Franco-Spanish War until 1659, while Portugal was involved in the Dutch–Portuguese War until 1663.
British–Portuguese relations are foreign relations between Portugal and the United Kingdom. The relationship, largely driven by the nations' common interests as maritime countries on the edge of Europe and close to larger continental neighbours, dates back to the Middle Ages in 1373 with the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance. The two countries now enjoy a friendly and close relationship.
The Tangier Garrison was the land force which oversaw the defence of English Tangier between 1661 and 1684 when it was evacuated. It was part of the English Army, the de facto standing army that Charles II established following the Restoration. Charles II received Tangier as part of the Marriage Treaty with Portugal in 1661. He appointed Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough as governor and, on 30 January 1662, the new garrison took up its duties. Peterborough was not a successful appointment as governor, and Andrew, Lord Rutherford, was appointed in 1662/1663 to replace him.
The English overseas possessions, also known as the English colonial empire, comprised a variety of overseas territories that were colonised, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the former Kingdom of England during the centuries before the Acts of Union of 1707 between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland created the Kingdom of Great Britain. The many English possessions then became the foundation of the British Empire and its fast-growing naval and mercantile power, which until then had yet to overtake those of the Dutch Republic, the Kingdom of Portugal, and the Crown of Castile.
The Treaty of Brussels was an agreement between representatives of Philip IV of Spain and Charles II, the leader of the exiled royalists of England, Ireland, and Scotland. It was signed in Brussels, in the Spanish Netherlands, on 2 April 1656. Marquess of Ormonde and the Earl of Rochester signed on behalf of Charles. Alonso de Cárdenas, a former Spanish ambassador to London, signed on behalf of Philip.
Sir John Fitzgerald was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century, best known for serving as Governor of Tangier during the 1660s. He commanded the Tangier Garrison during this time. He later participated in the Williamite War in Ireland (1689–91) on the Jacobite side.
The Sale of Dunkirk took place on 27 October [O.S. 17 October] 1662 when Charles II of England sold his sovereign rights to Dunkirk and Fort-Mardyck to his cousin Louis XIV of France.
The Treaty of Madrid, also known as the Earl of Sandwich's Treaty, was signed on 23 May, 1667 by England and Spain. It was one of a series of agreements made in response to French expansion under King Louis XIV.
The Royalist Army in Exile was the army formed by those loyal to Charles II from 1656 to 1660 during his exile from the throne. They were a mixture of Royalist troops from his three Kingdoms including men from England and Scotland, with the bulk being Catholics from Ireland, many of whom had previously served in the Irish Confederate armies.