Page:Catherine of Bragança, infanta of Portugal, & queen-consort of England.djvu/26

2 the party faction that would have made him their centre that Dom João of Bragança (known to English history as John of Braganza) had retired from Lisbon to his beautiful possession of Villa Viçosa, justly called the earthly paradise of Portugal. He took with him his family, knowing well that in the troublous times that threatened he was safe only among his own people, and in his own territory. João of Bragança was of the blood royal. The story of his descent was a story of struggle and violence.

Portugal was a mere earldom till 1169, when, on the field of a mighty victory over the Moors, Dom Alphonzo, the then count, was proclaimed king by his exultant army, and Portugal became a kingdom. From that time there were wars and rumours of wars—struggles with the Moors, struggles with Castile the Magnificent, who had a covetous eye on Portugal. In the fifteenth century a certain Count of Barcellos, a natural son of King João, was made Duke of Bragança, and from him the baby Catherine was descended. In 1469 Portugal found herself at war with England over some of her shipping which the English had wrongfully seized. There was war with Spain in 1474, after the marriage of Ferdinand of Arragon with Isabella of Castile, on account of the Portuguese people desiring that Isabella's niece should have the kingdom of Castile conferred on her and should marry their King, Alphonzo V.

The Portuguese people were by this time growing into a comparatively strong nation. They were the most enlightened and enterprising race of Europe, and their voyages and discoveries made them masters of the Indian Ocean and gave them dominant power on the coasts of Africa and Asia. They discovered Brazil in 1501, and made praiseworthy efforts to colonize it. Altogether they were rising into a position when it was perhaps to be expected that the eye of a jealous neighbour should be cast on