Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	able_a	king_n	prince_n	336	4	5.3382	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54299	The Portugal history, or, A relation of the troubles that happened in the court of Portugal in the years 1667 and 1668 in which is to be seen that great transaction of the renunciation of the crown by Alphonso the Sixth, the dissolution of his marriage with the Princess Maria Frances Isabella of Savoy : the marriage of the same princess to the Prince Don Pedro, regent of the realm of Portugal, and the reasons alledged at Rome for the dispensation thereof / by S.P., Esq.	Pepys, Samuel, 1633-1703.	1677 (1677)	Wing P1452; ESTC R18510	135,324	356

Tribunals assembled with the Ministers of State the Titulares Councellors Governors of Castles the Lords of the Realm Gentlemen the Ecclesiasticks and the chief of the Orders which being done the Grand Master of the Wardrobe placed before the King a little Table of Crimson Velvet with a Cushion of the same and the Secretary of State put upon the Cushion a Purse in which were the Seals some time after having taken them up he put them into the Queens Hands and she into the Kings saying to him these Words See here the Seals with which I have been Charged by the States of the Realm by virtue of the Testament of the King my Lord who is now with God I remit them into the Hands of your Majesty and at the same time the Government which I have received with them of the same States God grant that all things may be Prosperous under the Government as I desire The King taking them put them at the same time into the hands of the Secretary after which all the People came to kiss the Hands of these three Royal Persons and so the Assembly broke up The Queen seeing her self Discharged of the Burthen of the Monarchy had now no other thought but to execute the Resolution she had taken to Retire and her self to found a Religious Covent of the Order of St. Augustine Being willing to begin to Build she ordered Doctor Belchoir de Andrade in the time he was her Secretary to visit divers Places but they raised a thousand difficulties to hinder her so that she found no fit Place Whereupon her Enemies published she had hidden Designs and feigning to seek for a place to Build a Covent she had no mind the leave the Palace She had no sooner begun to make a passage of Communication from the Quinte to the Covent of Religious of the Order of St. Dominic being situated near it but they said the Queen had chosen this House that she might flie away when she pleased These malicious Reports pressed the Queen to execute her Enterprise Having remembred her self one day that the Marquess of Sandy had offered her a● House which he had at Grillo she spake of it to Garcia de Mello Son to the Marquess who having also offered it to her she accepted it and presently began to Build there When the Queen had rendred the Government to the King the Courtiers began to change their Discourse and many of them who before were still speaking o● the Incapacity of the King now extolled the quickness of his Wit and made him seem more worthy of a greater Kingdom than his own To hide their Incon●●●stancy they protested the King was become another Man and spake of his Change as of a Miracle but this added nothing of belief in the Case for his Reason being hurt by his Maladies it rendred him incapable to conceive either that which they made him say or that which they said to him When he was to say something in Publick they instructed him before hand as well as they were able what he should say but as they could not instruct him to answer to things that would be spoke on the sudden he was then mute or else answered far from the purpose and if on these occasions it happened that he spake something of good sense these Flatterers would say more by half than the King had said But in his good Intervals if he had made some liberal Discourse his Favourites would be sure to Preach on it but this did but serve to render him Ridiculous for they would render those things which came from him by chance to appear otherwise and that his ordinary Discourse was not the same Before the King had taken Possession of the Government the Earls of Atouguia and Castlemelhor and Sebastian Cesar de Menesses had taken possession of him As in policy these three Favourites did praise one another before the King he was perswaded they were filled with rare Qualities so that he Reposed on them all the Affairs of State But at the first they judged it best for the King to assist in all Publick Affairs and though there was nothing more contrary to his Inclinations yet they so brought it about that he gave Audience went to Councel dispatched Businesses but this Application lasted not long whether it were that the King was weary of it or some of them had perswaded him otherwise by the Counsel of those who Governed him But it is thus that Favourites inspiring Idleness into Princes invade their Authority under the pretext of discharging them of the Care of their Affairs There is yet another ordinary Artifice of such Favourites to maintain their Credit and to hinder any from doing any thing against them to Banish from Court all those who were not tied to their Interests and to introduce in their places either their Creatures or their Friends The Count de Castlemelhor and his two favoured Companions very admirably practised this Maxim as we shall see in a little time Henry Auriquez de Miranda began about this time to put himself near the King by the Services which he had rendred him in his Pleasures and within a while entred into so much Trust and had so great a share in his most secret Thoughts that if the Count de Castlemelhor had more of Authority about the King than Don Henry Auriquez yet it might be said that Don Henry Auriquez de Miranda had more of his Heart than the Count Castlemelhor This new Favourite according to appearances ought to have given some trouble to the favour of the Count however it happened quite contrary and he so well ●anaged the Spirit of that Gentleman and of the Kings that he made that a support to his Fortune which it was thought might have ruin'd him And indeed after this he became the most Puissant of the three Favourites by the consent of his Competitors having more Facility than the Count de Atouguia who did not profit by the occasion which was presented him either by Moderation or otherwise The Count de Castlemelhor being in Italy whither he had withdrawn himself because of the death of Don Lewis of Portugal Count de Vimioso who was there vaunted that one Day he would return into that Realm as its Governour From these happy beginnings he conceived so much hope that his Prophesie should not be in vain he was therefore resolved to push on his Fortune as far as he was able So soon as he had found he was Master of the Kings Affections he took the liberty to Lodg in the Apartment of the late Prince Theodosius as he enterprised to have himself the whole Favour this was not ill aimed at to find a means to render himself inseparable to the Person of the King But it was not enough to establish himself near the King he must have some Charge which might serve to make his Credit seen and valued There was then nothing at Court with which he could

Reasons that the King and the presumptive Heir to the Crown should not live apart That there was nothing more proper to cause their Amity a thing so necessary for the State than the Union of their Persons That if he Lived in his Palace with little Satisfaction he would have much Content in the King Besides That it was too great a Charge to the State which wanted Money to maintain the War As this Motion was opposite to those which they had made formerly to appear it was not very difficult to penetrate into the thoughts of the Favourites which was that by this means they might render themselves Masters of the mind of the Infante as well as they had of the Kings but the Infante who discovered their Cunning answered That he was well enough in his Palace as deserted as it was So that despairing to be able to make him change his Lodging they treated the Prince ruggedly and accused him that he did not love the King as he ought But that which troubled them most was That he would not be loosed from the Queens Interests who was every day preparing her self to retire and that she would prevent their Dis-union which these Favourites so passionately desired Although they had received several repulses from the Infante they did not leave to continue their endeavours to draw him to their Party hoping they should be able to do that by Importunity which they could not do with their Reasons Whilst they were at Alcantara the freedom of the Country served them to make some progress on his Spirit chiefly by Henry Auriques But as much as they gained the Favour of the Infante they took away from the King the evil Impressions they had given him concerning him in so much that the King began to make him dine with him and to take him abroad with him in his Coach and to give him the divertisement of Fishing in his Pleasure-Boat which they made by night with lighted Torches they went together to Alcantara to see the Coursing of the Bulls and the King obliged him to lye at his Country-House to see these Divertisements All these things gave birth to a Hope in the Breasts of the Favourites that he should not be able to escape them any more for the time to come They vaunting already that they had made peace between the two Brothers every one of them attributing to himself the Glory to have been the Mediator particularly Henry Anriques de Miranda for which Consideration he pretended to have the greatest part in his Favour and testified the most zeal for his Service above all others At this Time most of the Officers which the Queen had given him had left him The Count of St. Laurence had quitted him to exercise his Charge of Superintendant of the Finances The Count de Soure was banished to the Algarves Ruy de Moura Telles had retired himself John Nunes de Acuna was with the Army in the Province between Douro and Minho whither he was sent the handsomer to hide his Exilement In the place of these Officers they had put Don Fernando de Meneses Count de Ericeira Pedro Gesar de Meneses Ruy Fernando de Almada Ruy de Figueredo D' Alarcaon Antonio de Miranda Anriquez and Don Diego de Meneses As all these new Officers about the Infante were of Kin to the three Favourites this Change was a very grand help to them but this would not suffice unless they could be able to break the Union which was between the Infante and the Queen which was very difficult for them to do They were willing the Queen should have retired of her self and after that manner the Separation should have been because then none could have imputed it to them but their impatience was too great to stay for that But among the Artifices which they used to advance this Separation there was one which would scarce be credited if the Writing had not been found in the hands of one of those Ministers at that time of which this is a most faithful Copy It shewed That there were two ways to oblige the Queen to quit the Court. The First is to cause her Displeasure in all those things of which she would be most sensible As to order Donna Isabella de Castro to go into her Covent of the Incarnation and to cause Donna Maria Francisca to go home to the Countess her Mother and to prohibit all those Officers of her House in whom she had most Confidence to enter the Palace The Discontent she will receive thereby will oblige her to retire of her self or else cause her to make her Complaints to our Master with more heat this will oblige him to declare to her that a voluntary Retreat will be most handsom for her to the end she might not be constrained to do it after another manner This way hath more than one Step because if she shall shew her self obstinate and shall not be willing to follow the Councel of the King she then will render her self worthy of Chastisement The Second way is to have it told her by her Confessor or by some other Person of Authority That it is necessary for her Glory she should retire her self to the Town of Allenquer or into that of Cintra because of the Report she had caused to be spread abroad of her Retiring and for other Reasons that may be made known to her and they judged that our Master desired the thing might be executed with all possible sweetness that other ways might be avoided which might any ways give him a Vexation That if she should answer as I believe she will that she had changed her Mind and would know the Reasons which had obliged the King to take that Resolution they should in that case put presently into her hands a Billet which should let her understand that it was to revenge himself of that insolent Remonstrance which she had caused to be made to him in which we may under a Colour bring some Reasons for our particular Justification Below this Memorial there was the Billet for the Queen wrote in the same hand in which were these Words You shall say to the Queen my Mother that having regard to the Intention she hath had of retiring into a Covent and to the Reasons she hath given for it I find my self obliged to tell her maugre the satisfaction which I have to see you neer me in the Palace that for the Interest of her Repose and of her Piety she ought to execute that Design If she will then follow the Example of many other Princesses who have done the same thing she might chuse what Covent she pleased out of the City where she may live only for her self and for the memory of the late King my Lord and Father who is with God I do promise my self from her great Wisdom that she will take care that the World believe this Resolution comes from herself and not from me This Discourse

Court gave great hopes to the Spaniards to reconquer the Realm of Portugal Fame always adding to the Truth made simple appearances pass for realities and publish'd in Countries at a distance that the Infante had taken Arms against the King That which gave a jealousie to the Favourites chiefly was their understanding the Infante had order'd to prepare for him a House at Almada to pass away the Winter in The Favourites seeing the Love of the People to encrease for the Infante through the compassion which they had for his disgraces went about to solicite his return At this time the Queen found her self indisposed and the Prince who who came often to enquire after her health gave her visits by night but by the perswasions of the Favourites she was removed to Lisbon during her illness it being a place better accommodated it may be to her contentment for remedy for her grief The Infante let himself be perswaded by the prayers of the Queen and return'd to his Palace yet without bringing his Equipage from Quelus because his design was to return thither again in case he were not satisfied and to pass from thence to Almada The greatest favour they could force from the King was that he would consent he should take some Gentlemen but as for those he had chosen the more they urg'd the more he deny'd it and they could never soften a heart which had so harden'd it self so that all they could obtain of the King was that he should renounce his first election and chuse any whom he would one only excepted As they had fail'd of the first promise they had given to the Infante he would not trouble himself again Nevertheless after he had made reflection thereon that his Complaint would be the more legitimate and more talk'd on if the King should break it a second time as he believ'd he would he accepted of this offer and named Lewis de Silva Tello Count d' Aveiras Dou John Mascarenhas Count de la Torc Lewis Alvares de Tavora Count de St. John and Emanuel Telles de Silva Count de Vilarmayor When the Favourites had heard this news they deliberated at first if they should approve of the choice all these Gentlemen being suspected to be too considerable but yet in the end they feign'd to think well of it After this the Infante came back to Court when Christopher d'Almada demanded leave of the King to retire which was granted him with some demonstration of acknowledgment for his Services The King every moment exercised so much the Patience of his Brother that all the world believ'd his hate was implacable insomuch that it was not in the power of those who seem'd to be Master of his Spirit to sweeten him in the least at least it was so thought by some who were perswaded that it was the interest of the Favourites rather to oblige the Prince than to irritate him But others judg'd to the contrary that all this was but feign'd by the Favourites who despairing ever to be truly reconciled to the Infante fomented the hatred that the King bore him The aversion of the King to the Infante running thus into excess he did nothing but what render'd him Criminal in the mind of the King One day there hapning a difference between the Marchioness of Castlemelhor Lady of Honour to the Queen and Don John Mascorenhas Count de St. Croix Grand Master of his House about the Functions of their Charges the King said he would accommodate the business and govern his House himself the Infante thinking to Court him added that he ought not only to govern his House but also the Realm which would give joy to all the people and make all the Complaints of his Subjects cease But the King imagining the Infante said this in hatred to the Marchioness answered in fury that he should not meddle with giving him Councel and his passion pass'd so far that he had struck him if the Queen had not diverted him Another time the King Queen and the Infante being together in a Caroch seeing the Tilting in the which the Marquess of Marialva and the Count de Castlemelhor were the Chiefs of the Squadrons the Infante prais'd the good Grace of the Marquis and his Brother to Don Rodrigue de Meneses who rod by him the King imagining that these praises which he had given to the Marquiss de Marialva did wrong to the Count de Castlemelhor he told him if that the Queen had not been present he would have thrust his Sword into his Guts The Infante answered they merited those praises and that his Majesty ought to have equal satisfaction for them all since they had no other design but to divert him Besides he was perswaded that his Majesty would not shed that Blood which he was willing to pour forth for his service The Queen try'd to appease the wrath of the one and the resentment of the other but the first she could not effect But that which was most surprising in this was because this Marquiss was one of those who had most contributed to the re-establishment of the State and one of those who did yet maintain it And although he had won Battels and had recovered places of importance and that the Count had not done any services like these yet he be so well perswaded the King that it was he that did all things in the State and that others did but execute his Resolutions that he carried away all the Rewards and the better to cover this ingratitude he rob'd them of a part of their Glory and debased their fair Actions So that whilst the great Captains vanquished their Enemies in the Field and on the Frontiers the Count triumph'd for it in the Court and in the Cabinet The King was also so perswaded his Brother did not love him and he believ'd he saw marks of his aversion in all his Discourses and in all his Actions so much that he took all the Respects he render'd him for Offences So that it was enough to make the King mortally hate any man if the Infante testified to him any amity as it happen'd to Joseph de Fonseca Chaplain to the King and Almoner to the Infante who had order to withdraw himself for which the Infante was sensibly touch'd but dissembled his resentment The Infante having named Don Verissimo de Lancastre to fulfil the charge of drawing the Screen before the King by a permission granted him by the King it being vacant by the Death of Don Rodrigue de Acuntia they made him acquainted with that choice by the Favourite but the answer was return'd that the King had already himself chosen one to serve in that employment The Infante seeing he would not cease from giving of him these disgusts he knew now better remedy to shun them than to withdraw himself from the Court. To effect this he sent the King word by his Secretary that being Constable of the Realm he ought to

particular Power thereto from the Holy Sea Given at Paris in the Year of our Lord 1667 the 17th of the Calends of April in the First Year of the Papacy of our Father the Pope Lewis Cardinal de Vendosm Legat. De Lione Protonotary and Datary Apostolique The Reasons of the Nullity of the Marriage of Don Alphonso the VI. King of Portugal and the Validity of that of Don Pedro's Prince of the Realm presented to Pope Clement the IX THere are Three things to be Considered in this Business of the King and the Queen of Portugal I. That which passed in the first Marriage with the King Alphonso II. The Nullity of that Marriage III. The Queens second Marriage with the Prince Don Pedro. In the First it is to be Considered as follows 1. That the Marquess of Sande who was sent Ambassador into France to Treat of the Marriage of the King Don Alphonso his Master having before he went from Portugal told the Count de Castlemelhor the Chief Minister of State the scruple of his Conscience and the Politique Consideration that he had to go Treat of a Marriage for a Prince who was commonly said through all the Kingdom not to be capable ever of having any Children unless that he should have before-hand some assurance to the contrary that he might deceive said he neither his own Conscience nor the Kingdom nor the Princess who should take his word The Count answered him rudely in these Terms as the Marquess declared since and as it appears by the Depositions I am astonished Sir said he at the Doubt that you make and I am surprised that you do not know that the Girl which is bred up at my House is the Natural Daughter of the King Which the Marquess believed but it was found to be false since by the Deposition of the Mother of the Girl who being called to declare upon Oath in Court though the same Count had done all that he could possibly to oblige her to say that she had that Child by the King Yet moved by the Truth and by the remorse of Conscience she declared that it was false and that the Girl was one of his Cousins whom she named to the Judges And besides in all the Conversation she had with the King she never found that he was capable of doing the Venereal Act and that by Consequence he was unable for Marriage and uncapable ever of having Children 2. That seeing the Incapacity and Inability of the King Alphonso the Queen his Mother who knew the thing well enough having made a secret Consultation with his Physitians as may be seen by the Papers and Depositions was resolved to let the Scepter fall into the hands of the Infante her second Son at this time Prince Regent to the end lest in default of a Successor it should fall again a second time into the power of the Spaniards but this she had not been able to Execute 3. That the King Alphonso himself when they went about to Treat secretly of his Marriage and to send for that end an Ambassador into France he was very hardly brought to resolve upon it and avowed to his most intimate Friends that he never had any intention to Marry and should never consent to it but because the Count and his Friends had represented to him that the People seeing themselves deprived of the Hope of seeing him ever to have any Lawful Successor would not suffer him any long time upon the Throne and that they would soon make the Prince his Brother to Marry and to Reign in his Place But although they might attribute this Aversion which the King had for Marriage to the Liberty in which he had been brought up and to the continual Practises which he had with the most loose and debauched Women from whom one might say he would not be obliged to separate by Espousing so Chast and Honest a Princess as the Queen It is however much more probable that it should be attributed to the knowledg he had of his own Impuissance and Inability for Marriage which would make him pass the rest of his Days in a continual Repentance as he hath since said to one of his Domesticks blaming the Count and his Friends for having forced him contrary to his Will to Marry and by consequence to be exposed to the Affront which he hath received by the Sentence of the Nullity of his Marriage 4. That the first time the King lay with the Queen which was three or four Days after she arrived in Portugal his Impotence was well known to that Princess notwithstanding her Innocency and although she was Ignorant of things of that nature so that her Confessor who saw her extremly Melancholly and who feared with reason the truth of that which they had talkt of having taken the liberty to ask her in the time of Confession with all the Modesty and Honesty and Trust which his Charge permitted him if that which had been reported had any Ground or Appearance of truth or if she had any hopes to see soon any Fruits of her Marriage She gave him such an Answer as may be seen in those Papers but it was after such a manner that she let him know she judged already of the Condition of her Marriage and of the Inability of the King to get Children 5. That although the Queen since her Arrival in Portugal had been continually Reproached by the King and his chief Ministers and that she had always received very ill Treatments as all the World knows and which is not necessary to be put here in Writing Her Majesty nevertheless had never made any Complaint and had never witnessed any Resentment being on the contrary resolved to Live with the King her Spouse as if he had been the most Accomplished and the best Husband in the World if that she had not believed for three sorts of indispensible Necessities that she ought to make a Declaration of it and to separate her self from his Company To wit 1. For her Conscience sake which without ceasing strongly perswaded her Majesty and urged her that after an Experience of Sixteen Months which was long enough and troublesome enough she might separate from the King without making any greater Trial her self knowing very well in this time his incurable Inability And having divers times consulted with her Confessor that she might Act with the more security in an Affair of so great Importance The same Confessor after he had maturely thought upon it and considered what she should do to satisfie her Duty declared before God That he knew nothing more but that her Majesty seeing that which had passed should no longer do Violence to her Consclence in Inhabiting any longer time with the King 2. For the necessity of the State and safety of the Realm which otherways was absolutely Lost and which her Conscience as well as the Affection that the Kingdom bore to her and which she ought to have for the Kingdom obliged her to