The attempts of the Prior of Crato did not affect the equanimity of Philip II.; he satisfied himself, when he entered his new kingdom, by making fifty-two exceptions to the general amnesty, which he had declared, including Dom Antonio himself and his chief adviser, the Bishop of Guarda. He returned to Spain shortly afterwards, leaving his nephew, the Cardinal-Archduke Albert as viceroy at Lisbon, with a strong guard of Spanish soldiers. The most interesting occurrences of the cardinal's administration were the risings of the two first "false Dom Sebastians." It has been said that the lower classes of the Portuguese people refused to believe that the young king was dead, and it was not long before impostors arose, who tried to make profit out of this credulity. The history of these impostors[24] is as curious in its way as those of the "False Smerdis," the "False Demetrius," and the pseudo-Louis XVII.s, and proves how strong a hold the memory of Dom Sebastian, in spite of his being a rash and foolhardy tyrant, had taken upon the minds of the Portuguese people. The first two of these impostors, who were mockingly called the "King of Pennamacor" and the "King of Ericeira" from the headquarters of their operations, were Portuguese of low birth, whose risings were easily put down. The original inventor of the idea was the son of a tiler of Alçobaça, named Sebastião Gonzales, who, after leading a profligate life, had retired to a hermitage near Pennamacor. From this retirement he emerged in July, 1584, and declared that he was King Sebastian; that he had escaped after the battle of Alcacer Quibir, and had since been praying in the hermitage, but that the miseries of his people had reached his ears, and he had determined to come forth to remedy them. He was accompanied by two men, who styled themselves Dom Christovão de Tavora and the Bishop of Guarda, and began to collect money in Pennamacor and the neighbourhood. The trio were speedily arrested and marched through the streets of Lisbon to show that they were impostors; and the false Sebastian was then sent to the galleys for life, and the pretended Bishop of Guarda was hanged. In the following year, one Mattheus Alvares, son of a mason at Ericeira, declared himself to be the lamented Dom Sebastian, to whom he bore a considerable personal resemblance, and solemnly promised to marry the daughter of Pedro Affonso, a rich farmer, whom he created Count of Torres Novas. His future father-in-law advanced the impostor a large sum of money, and he had raised a small corps of eight hundred fanatical followers, when the cardinal-archduke thought it necessary to send royal troops against him. The poor enthusiasts were defeated with much loss, and both the pretender and Pedro Affonso were hanged and quartered in Lisbon.
Fishing Review
The Story of the Nations: Portugal — Part 131
2026-11-15 16:06:41 · The Daily Ledger
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