The Portuguese Restoration War was a war fought between Portugal and Spain from 1640 to 1668, resulting in the end of the Habsburg-ruled Iberian Union and the rise of the House of Braganza in Portugal.
Background[]
The death of the childless King Sebastian of Portugal at the 1578 Battle of Alcazarquivir left the Portuguese throne open, and the Spanish House of Habsburg proceeded to invade Portugal and establish the Iberian Union. In 1621, King Philip IV of Spain inherited the Spanish and Portuguese thrones amid the Thirty Years' War, and he subjected Portuguese merchants to higher taxes, Portuguese nobles to marginalization at the Cortes, the occupation of Portuguese governmental posts by Spaniards, and the prioritization of defending the Spanish Empire's colonies during the Eighty Years' War, even as the Dutch also attacked Portuguese colonies around the world. On 1 December 1640, the Portuguese nobility and bourgeoisie launched a revolution, killing the Secretary of State Miguel de Vasconcelos and crowning Philip III's third cousin Joao, Duke of Braganza as King Joao IV.
War[]
Joao formed a Council of War on 11 December 1640 and prepared to defend Portugal's border fortresses, capital, garrisons, and seaports from Spanish counterattacks. By December 1641, Joao IV also reorganized the Portuguese Army and set about restoring good relations with England. Portugal allied itself with France, while the Dutch signed a European truce with Portugal, even as the Portuguese expelled of the Dutch from Angola, Sao Tome, and Brazil amid the Dutch-Portuguese War.
From 1640 to 1646, a few major engagements saw the Portuguese frustrate Spanish attempts to reintegrate the kingdom, while 1646-1660 was marked by small-scale raids. In 1644, the Portuguese defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Montijo, and the war devolved into a pattern of mutual destruction as Spanish correrias (cavalry raids) devastated Portugal and the Portuguese in turn raided Extremadura. By the 1650s, Spain had 20,000 troops in Extremadura, compared to 27,000 in the Spanish Netherlands. Portugal's spice and sugar trades funded its continued resistance. In 1659, the Portuguese defeated another Spanish invasion at the Battle of the Lines of Elvas. The end of the Reapers' War in Catalonia in 1652 enabled Spain to focus on crushing the Portuguese revolution, but the Spanish Army faced high desertion rates as soldiers and mercenaries turned to looting or left their posts.
In 1662, Spain launched a major effort to win the war. John Joseph of Austria invaded Alentejo in April 1663, leading 20,000 troops into Portugal and taking Evora. However, England dispatched 3,000 veterans of the English Civil War and the Dutch Revolt to reinforce Antonio Luis de Meneses' army; King Charles II of England sought to keep New Model Army veterans far from England. Frederick Schomberg's brigade helped defeat the Spanish at the Battle of Ameixial on 8 June 1663, forcing John of Austria to abandon Evora and retreat across the border with heavy losses. By June 1665, the 30,000 Portuguese troops faced another invasion by 23,000 Spanish troops, including recruits from Germany and Italy. On 17 June 1665, the Battle of Montes Claros saw the Spanish suffer 10,000 losses, and the Portuguese retook Vila Vicosa. Skirmishing campaigns continued until 13 February 1668, when, after France allied with Portugal, the Habsburgs agreed to recognize the House of Braganza as Portugal's new ruling dynasty.