64 TREATIES OF OLIVA AND COPENHAGEN. [BOOK V. every endeavour to thwart the negociations, which were conducted under French mediation in the convent of Oliva, near Dantzic. The TREATY OF OLIVA, which is as celebrated in the North of Europe as those of Münster and Osnabrück in the South, was signed May 3rd 1660. John Casimir renounced his claim to the Swedish crown, but was allowed to retain the title of King of Sweden, which, however, was not to be borne by his successors. Thus an end was put to the pretensions of the Polish Wasas. All Livonia beyond the Dwina was ceded to Sweden, but Poland retained the southern and western districts. The Duke of Courland, whom Charles had carried off, was to be liberated and restored to his dominions, and Sweden gave up all the places which she had seized in Prussia.29 The Treaty of Oliva also established peace between the Emperor Leopold, the Elector of Brandenburg, and Sweden. The Emperor restored to Sweden all the places in Mecklenburg and Pomerania occupied by his troops. Sweden abandoned to the Elector her claim of suzerainty for the Duchy of Prussia; and thus the ambitious scheme of Charles X. for uniting his German possessions with those on the Gulf of Finland was finally frustrated. The TREATY OF COPENHAGEN between Sweden and Denmark, after being long adjourned, not only by the disputes of the principals, but also of the three mediators, France, England, and Holland, was at length signed, June 6th 1660. It was essentially a confirmation of the Treaty of Roskild, but with the omission of the clause which shut the Baltic to foreign fleets, as well as of that which gave Sweden an immunity from the Sound dues. Sweden restored all her Danish conquests.30 The war still continued between Russia and Poland, nor had any definitive treaty of peace yet been made between Sweden and Russia. In 1658 the Poles, being no longer in danger from the Swedes, had renewed the war with Russia: they seemed to forget the promise of their throne to the son of Alexis, and assisted the revolted Cossacks against him. The campaign of 1660, after the Peace of Oliva, was very disastrous to the Russians, who were defeated in several battles. The Czar now became desirous of a definitive arrangement with Sweden. Negociations were opened at Kardis on the frontiers of Esthonia, but it was not till July 1st 1661, that the PEACE OF KARDIS was signed.31 By this 29 Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. p. 303. 30 Theatrum Europ., t. viii. p. 1269; Dumont, vi. pt. ii. p. 319. There is an extract of the Treaty of Kardis, or Pleyssemond, in Dumont, Ibid. treaty the Russians restored all that they had taken in Livonia, and the treaty of Stolbova was confirmed, except in a few points. After this, the war between the Poles and Russians lingered on some years, without any very remarkable events; till at length, in January 1667, both parties being equally weary of the struggle, a truce of thirteen years was concluded at Andrusoff, to terminate in June 1680.32 The Cossacks were now divided into two tribes, one under Polish government, the other under that of Russia; with two distinct Hetmans to be named respectively by the King of Poland and the Czar. This thirteen years' war with Poland (1654-1667) first stamped Russia as a European Power. While the old system of warfare was partly retained by the Russians, modern improvements had been introduced which placed it on a new basis; but these were still very imperfect. 66 ALPHONSO VI. OF PORTUGAL. [Book V. CHAPTER III. ONE of the principal motives with the Spanish Court for concluding the Treaty of the Pyrenees, before recorded, was the desire to prosecute with vigour the war with Portugal, and again to reduce that kingdom under the crown of Spain. The Portuguese throne was now occupied by a new sovereign. John IV., the founder of the House of Braganza, had died in 1656; and as his eldest son Theodosio had gone before him to the tomb, he was succeeded by his second son, Alphonso VI., then only thirteen years of age. In the Queen-Mother, Donna Luisa de Gusman, who now assumed the reins of government for her minor son, Portugal acquired both a spirited and a prudent Regent. Of such a ruler she stood much in need. Besides the Spanish war, she now became involved in another with the Dutch. The relations between Portugal and the United Netherlands had been for many years of the most singular kind. The Dutch, as already related,' had supported the Portuguese revolution and declaration of independence, events which were highly favourable to them in their war with Spain; in June 1641 a truce of ten years had been concluded between the two nations, and they mutually agreed to assist each other against the common enemy with a fleet of twenty ships.2 But this truce did not extend to America and the East Indies. Although the Portuguese colonies had, like the mother country, thrown off the Spanish yoke, and declared for the House of Braganza, yet the Dutch continued to attack them; and this colonial warfare was carried on many years with varying success, without any breach of the peace between the two nations in Europe. At the time when John IV. ascended the throne of Portugal, the Dutch had succeeded in wresting half Brazil from the Spaniards; but the Portuguese colonists, without any aid from the mother country, gradually recovered it, and in 1654 had entirely expelled the Dutch from that colony: a success which they owed in no small degree to the threatening attitude assumed by England towards the United Netherlands, and the naval war which subsequently broke out between these two countries. The Vol. II. p. 606. 2 Dumont, t. vi. pt. i. p. 215. Portuguese had also recovered Angola and St. Thomas, whilst, on the other hand, the Dutch had made themselves masters of the Cape of Good Hope and of Colombo in Ceylon. In this state of things, the death of John IV. of Portugal, and the accession of a minor King under the guardianship of his mother, inspired the States-General with the hope of extorting favourable conditions by means of a formidable demonstration. A fleet of fourteen Dutch ships of war, under Wassenaar, appeared in the Tagus to demand from the Regent the restoration of the Portuguese conquests in Africa and Brazil, together with an indemnification for losses suffered; and when these terms were refused, the Dutch ambassadors quitted Lisbon after making a formal declaration of war. De Ruyter, who had been cruising in the Mediterranean, now came to the assistance of Wassenaar; the combined fleets cruised on the coasts of Portugal, molested her Brazilian commerce, and blockaded her harbours, so that in 1658, the trade of Lisbon was almost annihilated.3 Meanwhile the war between Spain and Portugal still continued, but without any memorable or decisive events. It was expected that the Peace of the Pyrenees would enable Spain to crush her adversary; but the Portuguese Regent averted such a catastrophe by forming alliances with France and England. Louis XIV. still dreaded that Spain, with whose utter exhaustion he was unacquainted, might again become formidable if she succeeded in reuniting Portugal under her sceptre; and he resolved, in spite of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, secretly to assist the Portuguese Regent. This princess formed a still closer alliance with England, where Charles II., with the assistance of General Monk, had remounted the throne of his ancestors, May 29th 1660. The Portuguese Regent induced Charles to conclude a marriage contract with her eldest daughter, Catherine; by which he was to receive, besides a dowry of half a million sterling, the settlements of Tangiers in Africa and Bombay in the East Indies; whilst he in turn engaged to succour Portugal with 3000 men and ten ships of war. The marriage was consummated in May 1662. So far was Louis from feeling any jealousy of this connection, and the introduction of the English into the Mediterranean, that he promoted the marriage as favourable to his policy with regard to Spain, and agreeable to the alliance which he had formed with the House of Stuart. In March 1661, his brother 3 Southey, Hist. of Brazil, vol. ii. p. 243 sqq. Van Kampen, Gesch. der Niederlande, B. ii. S. 162 f. The treaty is in La Clède, Hist. Générale de Portugal, viii. p. 307. 68 ALPHONSO VI. DEPOSED. [BOOK V. Philip had married Henrietta, sister of Charles II., and had been invested on the occasion with the Duchy of Orléans. This clandestine and this open alliance enabled Portugal to withstand all the assaults of her enemies. Through the mediation of England she concluded a peace with the Dutch in August 1661. This treaty, however, only freed her from immediate annoyance in Europe. Disputes arose about its ratification; the Dutch availed themselves of the delay to make conquests in the Portuguese colonies, and it was not till July 1669 that a definitive treaty of peace was signed at the Hague. Portugal derived more assistance from her allies against the Spaniards. In 1661 Louis despatched Marshal Schönberg, a German, to Lisbon with 4000 men; and when Philip IV. complained of this proceeding, as an infringement of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, he was answered that the French Government had no concern in it; that Schönberg and most of his men were foreigners over whom they had no control; and though decrees were issued against enlistment and volunteering, care was taken that they should not take effect till the men had reached Portugal. The French and English troops under Schönberg proved the salvation of Portugal. Philip IV.'s natural son, Don John of Austria, who commanded the Spanish army, was at first successful and took Evora; but being defeated at Estrenoz in 1663, he retired from the command. His successor, the Marquis de Caracena, sustained a complete defeat at Villa Viciosa in 1665. This was the last remarkable event during the reign of Alphonso VI., a prince who had disgraced himself by a life of the lowest profligacy, and who was hurled from the throne by a plot so atrocious in its nature and circumstances, that nothing but his own infamous conduct could have insured its success. Alphonso's consort, a princess of the house of Nemours, had fixed her affections on his younger brother, Don Pedro; and in the autumn of 1667 she retired to a convent, declaring that, in consequence of her husband's impotence, her marriage with him had never been consummated, and was consequently void. Don Pedro, who had secured a considerable party, now induced Alphonso, by threats and remonstrances, to sign an act of abdication; upon which he was banished to Terceira, and subsequently removed to the castle of Cintra, where he died in 1683. After his brother's abdication, Don Pedro was proclaimed Regent; and he soon Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 114. The Dutch retained all their conquests, and Portugal engaged to give salt to the value of a million florins for Brazil. |