John IV of Portugal
John IV of Portugal (
Portuguese:
João IV de Portugal pron. IPA //; March
1603–
November 6,
1656) was the
king of Portugal and Algarves from 1640 to his death. He was the grandson of
Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, who had in 1580 claimed the Portuguese crown and sparked the
struggle for the throne of Portugal. John was the
nicknamed the
John the Restorer (
João o Restaurador).
John was born at
Vila Viçosa and succeeded his father
Teodósio II as
Duke of Braganza when the latter died insane in 1630. He married
Luisa de Guzman (1613-1666), eldest daughter of the
Duke of Medina-Sidonia, in 1633. By the unanimous voice of the people he was raised to the throne of Portugal (of which he was held to be the legitimate heir) during the revolution on
December 1,
1640, against the
Spanish king Philip IV.
His accession led to a protracted war (the
Portuguese Restoration War)with
Spain, which only ended with the recognition of Portuguese independence in a subsequent reign (1668). Portugal signed alliances with
France (
June 1,
1641) and
Sweden (August 1641) but by necessity its only contribution in the
Thirty Years' War were in the field against Spain and against
Dutch encroachments on the
Portuguese colonies.
In Portugal, a Spanish invasion was defeated at
Montijo, near
Badajoz, Spain, in 1644. Abroad, the Dutch took
Malacca (Jan 1641) and the
Sultan of Oman captured
Muscat (1648). The Portuguese, nevertheless, and despite having to divide their forces between Europe, Brazil and Africa, managed to retake
Luanda, in
Angola, from the Dutch in 1648 and, by 1654, had recovered most of
Brazil, effectively ceasing to be a viable Dutch colony. This was countered by the loss of Ceilan (Portuguese Ceilão), present day
Sri Lanka, to the Dutch who took
Colombo in 1656.
King John IV died in 1656 and was succeeded by his son
Afonso VI. His daughter
Catarina married King
Charles II of England.
John was a patron of music and the arts, and a considerably sophisticated writer on music; in addition to this, he was a composer. During his reign he collected one of the largest libraries in the world, but it was destroyed in the
Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Among his writings is a defense of
Palestrina, and a
Defense of Modern Music (Lisbon, 1649).
John married
Luisa de Guzman, daughter of
Juan Manuel Pérez de Guzman, 8th
Duke of Medina-Sidonia. From that marriage several children were born. Because some of John's children were born and died before his father became King they are not considered princes or princesses (
infantes) of Portugal.
