Sebastian

Sebastian, king of Portugal (q.v.), a grandson of the Emperor Charles V., perished at the fight of Alcazar in Algeria, warring against the Moors, on 4th August 1578. Soon after the battle doubt was thrown upon his death, and impostors, pretending to be the chivalrous young king, began to crop up—first (in 1584) an adventurer, the son of a poor Portuguese potter, who was nicknamed, half in derision, half in raillery, the King of Penamacor; then came Matheus Alvares, a sort of brigand-insurgent; then in 1594 a Spanish cook of Madrigal in Castile. None of these people were taken seriously. A fourth impostor found more credence, one Marco Tullio Catizzone, a Calabrian, who first made his pretensions known at Venice in 1598. He was hanged at San Lucar in Spain in September 1603. The strongest support of these successive impostors was the undying belief of the common people of Portugal that their popular hero, Sebastian, would some day reappear. The belief grew particularly strong in 1807-8 during the French occupation of Portugal. And even so late as 1838 it was used as a rallying-cry by a party of insurrectionists amongst the Portuguese Brazilians. See M. D'Antas, Les faux Don Sébastien (1866).