Alfonso VI.

Alfonso VI., king of Portugal, succeeded his father, John IV., in 1656, when but thirteen years of age. For some years the government was in the hands of his mother, Luise de Guzman, a woman of great wisdom and prudence; but in 1662 the sickly and dissolute prince dismissed his mother from her office, only to fall as completely into the hands of his minister, Count Castel-Melhor. Yet Portugal was victorious in the war against Spain, spite of the incapacity of king and minister, although for this she had to thank her English and French allies. In 1666 Alfonso married a princess of Savoy, but the queen was soon disgusted with her unworthy husband, and conspired with his brother Pedro against him. He was forced to surrender to the latter his crown, and to dissolve on his behalf what was a marriage merely in name. Alfonso died twelve years later (1683), a state prisoner at Cintra.