He believes that historians of international relations have the general vision that their familiarity with long periods of time (as stated by the French historian Fernand Braudel) affords them. “We know, for example, that yesterday, like today, there are no free lunches and there are no good children. In international politics, only interests rule,” says Ana Leal Faria, specialist in modern history, retired professor at the Faculty of Arts from the University of Lisbon, who has just launched the study Portuguese Diplomacy – The Organization of Diplomatic Activity in the Restoration of Liberalism – The Architects of Peace (Tribuna da História Edition).
This breathtaking work covers almost two centuries of Portugal’s history (from 1640 to 1834), in which war and diplomacy were two sides of the same coin (that of foreign policy, almost always in self-defense, of the interests of the kingdom and the empire ). “Diplomacy has always been present in Portugal’s history,” says the author, adding that “the restoration of independence owes much more to negotiations and the 28 years of diplomatic struggle than to military victories on the ground.” The same can be said about the triumph of liberalism at the turn of the 19th century: “If the European powers had not intervened on behalf of the liberals, it is entirely possible that the outcome would have been different, or, at least, longer.”
in Leal Faria we focus on the challenges that restoration diplomacy, based on the need for recognition of the new dynasty and Portugal, independent of Spain (then a great power), posed to the government of D. João IV, the acclaimed king of the Duke of Bragança by the conspirators on December 1, 1640. A challenge that also included the choice of men who would represent the new king in the European courts: “With the Restoration we had to improvise in the choice of diplomats. Lawyers were sought from the University of Coimbra because they had the double advantage of knowing Latin, which was still the lingua franca at the time, and of being able to draft laws or agreements.
Therefore, for more important powers they were more prestigious characters: D. Francisco de Mello (France), Antão de Almada (England), Tristão Mendonça Furtado (Netherlands) and Francisco de Sousa Coutinho (Denmark, where he was received only privately and Sweden). The Bishop of Lamego went to Rome, but was not received because the Holy See was a strong ally of Philip IV of Spain. Then there were other figures who carried out secret missions, such as Father António Vieira, who dressed as a secular man for the Netherlands so as not to cause hostility in a Protestant country. Ana Leal Faria emphasizes the speed of the process: “The first appointments of ambassadors and other representatives took place from December 19 and they already left for their destination at the beginning of January.”
In this difficult context, weddings were extremely powerful instruments of diplomacy (in collaboration with the medievalists Ana Maria Rodrigues and Manuela Santos Silva, Ana Leal Faria is in fact coordinator of the work published by the Círculo de Leitores, Casamentos Reais Portuguesas): “It was about a matter between families and the love component did not play a role,” he says. An example of this was the marriage of D. João IV’s daughter, Catarina de Bragança, to King Charles II of England: “Portuguese diplomacy first tried to arrange a marriage between one of the Portuguese princesses (Dona Joana, but she died very young, and then Dona Catherine) with Louis XIV of France, but he married Maria Teresa of Spain, his cousin, under the Peace of the Pyrenees. It was then that Portuguese diplomacy turned to England.
But all is not as it seems in this chess match in which the princesses are lavish pawns: ‘In the peace agreement with Spain, Louis XIV was forced to sever diplomatic relations with Portugal, but he secretly supported Catherine’s marriage to Charles II of England. , who was his first cousin.”
The privileged relationship with England will be a constant in Portuguese foreign policy, dictated by geography. “Interestingly – the historian notes – the Restoration period was perhaps the only one in our history in which we sought continental support, which became unattainable when France and Spain entered into an alliance.”
The Portuguese resistance to the continental blockade imposed by Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th century would in fact put us in the crosshairs of the French invasions, which took place from 1807 onwards. Ana Leal Faria recognizes in this regard the importance that the British ally took up the Portuguese opposition to the invaders: ‘I am convinced that the entire journey of the Royal Family to Brazil was studied and prepared in collaboration with the English. It is one of the biggest decisions in our history and has the arrest of the Portuguese royal family and the resulting loss of the kingdom’s independence, as happened in Spain. Contrary to what his Spanish relative did, the then Prince Regent D. João took over the state apparatus and moved the capital to Rio de Janeiro.’ Of course, English support did not come without a corresponding invoice: “The English counterpart was in a very favorable situation in trade with Brazil. We paid very well for the rows of towers built by the Duke of Wellington’s men.”
Source: DN
