Details
SEBASTIAN I, King of Portugal (1557-1578). Autograph letter signed ('Rey') to the King of Spain (Philip II), n.p. [Castel Almeirim], 25 January 1569, 2 pages, folio, address leaf, papered seal, contemporary dockets, numbered '102' at the head (ink smudges, slight fraying in right hand edge of first page, splits in central horizontal fold touching 2 words in first leaf and in blank area of 2nd leaf).
A letter to his uncle, opening with conventional greetings and messages of reciprocal affection, referring to the queen ('la rainha minha S[eno]ra') and to the correspondence involving the Duke of Ferrara (?), and further information which is awaited on a matter at Lisbon.
Written at the age of fourteen. Sebastian I, who succeeded to the throne of Portugal at the age of three, was a grandson of the Emperor Charles V, and the son of the Infanta Juana of Spain and Prince John of Portugal, and thus the nephew of Philip II (Juana's brother). Until the autumn of 1568 his grandmother and uncle acted as regents. Sebastian, the last ruler from the House of Aviz, died in the battle of Alcazarquivir, the disastrous ending of his crusade in Morocco which was the last Christian attempt before the nineteenth-century to conquer North Africa.
A letter to his uncle, opening with conventional greetings and messages of reciprocal affection, referring to the queen ('la rainha minha S[eno]ra') and to the correspondence involving the Duke of Ferrara (?), and further information which is awaited on a matter at Lisbon.
Written at the age of fourteen. Sebastian I, who succeeded to the throne of Portugal at the age of three, was a grandson of the Emperor Charles V, and the son of the Infanta Juana of Spain and Prince John of Portugal, and thus the nephew of Philip II (Juana's brother). Until the autumn of 1568 his grandmother and uncle acted as regents. Sebastian, the last ruler from the House of Aviz, died in the battle of Alcazarquivir, the disastrous ending of his crusade in Morocco which was the last Christian attempt before the nineteenth-century to conquer North Africa.
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