Paper short abstract:

In this paper I hope to demonstrate the importance of colonial rivalries in assessing Portuguese attitudes towards the planned Anglo-Spanish Match between prince Charles, son of King James I, and the Infanta Maria, daughter of King Philip III and sister of King Philip IV, in the period 1617-1624.

Paper long abstract:

Building upon the findings of my PhD research, in this paper I hope to demonstrate the importance of colonial rivalries in assessing Portuguese attitudes towards the planned Anglo-Spanish Match between prince Charles, son of King James I, and the Infanta Maria, daughter of King Philip III and sister of King Philip IV, in the period 1617-1624. By looking at traces of an independent Portuguese opinion regarding the marriage negotiations and the administration of the colonial empire, I will demonstrate the extent to which Portuguese opinion has often been overlooked given the fact that in the 1620s Portugal was under the same crown of the Spanish Habsburgs. In the first part of the paper I will look at Portuguese accounts and mentions in Portuguese correspondence regarding the Anglo-Spanish match. In the second part of the paper I will take into consideration a specific episode in the colonial competition between England and Portugal which is the British attack on Ormus in 1622, at the same time of the marriage negotiations. Indeed, as one of the major empire-builders of the seventeenth century, Portugal kept on having an opinion of its own both in the administration of its colonial empire and concerning the planned match between England and Spain. Such independent opinion was needed in order to maintain the Portuguese identity within the Spanish 'great scattered body'.

[If the scientific committee will consider this paper as belonging to one of the accepted panels, I will be happy to be included in one of them]