Some Notes on the "Cortes Polyticas de Appolo" by Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos
2005; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/port.2005.0003
ISSN2222-4270
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Education and Society
ResumoSome Noteson the Cortes Polyticas deAppolo byAgostinho Manuelde Vasconcelos DIOGO RAMADA CURTO Agostinho ManueldeVasconcelos wrote a discourse entitled Cortes Poly ticas de Appolo. Celebradasnesteanno de 1628 na villa de Cintra.Resumidas,e divulgadaspormandadodeS. Majestadeclanssima pelloexcelentíssimo Mercuno, embaixador, e interprete dos Deoses e Presidente do Conselhoda Reformação Sereníssima. Severalcopiesofthismanuscript inPortuguese havesurvived in different archives, without anyexplicitreference to thename ofthe author.1 Thisisperhapsthereasonwhy scholars interested inthisperiod, and inthiswriter inparticular havecompletely ignoredwhatisinfact, in literary terms, one ofthemostsophisticated works pennedbyhim.2Many othertexts publishedorwritten in theshortperiodwhichrunsfrom the Discursos vanos políticos (1624) byManuelSeverim de Faria,tothePnmore honra da vidasoldadesca (1630) editedbytheJesuit father AntónioFreire, belong to the same contextof intensepoliticaldiscussion.3 Although * Paperpresented ata conference onSeventeenth Century Portuguese History that tookplace attheUniversity ofOxford inSeptember 2003.1wish tothank theorganizer, Maria JoãoBranco, for herkindinvitation. Arquivos Nacionais / Torre do Tombo,CasaFronteira, cod. 21,fols. 67-109;allsubsequent references tofolios refer tothiscopy.I knowofothercopiesofthesamemanuscript in the Biblioteca Nacionalde Lisboa,Biblioteca Geralda Universidade de Coimbra, andina private collection. Fora manuscript including an explicit reference to thenameoftheauthor, see Dicionário bibliográfico português, vol.XXII. To establish Agostinho Manuelde Vasconcelos as theauthor, oneneedmerely compare thecontent ofthis manuscript with somepassages from his VidadeDon DuartedeMeneses, Tercero Condede Vianaysucessos notables dePortugal ensu tiempo (Lisboa:PedroCraesbeeck, 1627). 2 Jean Colomés,'Hispanisants portugais du XVIIèmesiècle. D. Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos et la défense des Bragance', BulletindesÉtudesPortugaises etde llnstitut Français au Portugal, n. s.,11 (1947), pp. 186-237,and 'Hispanisants portugais du XVIIèmesiècle.D. Agostinho Manuelde Vasconcelos. Notesadditionnelles', id.,pp. 274-91 [Máriode Sampayo Ribeiro reviewed botharticles in Biblos, 23 (1947), pp. 227-34,592~94>towhichColomès replied with'Hispanisants portugais. En réponseà une interpretation malheureuse', Bulletin desÉtudesPortugaises etdellnstitut Françaisau Portugal, 11 (1947), pp. 345-48]; FranciscoJosé Caeiro,'Reabilitação do historiador D. Agostinho Manuelde Vasconcelos', AnaisdaAcademia Portuguesa deHistória, 21 (1972), pp. 9-205; EdwardGlaser,The Fortuna'ofManueldeFaria e Sousa:An autobiography (Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandling, 1975), pp. 84-86, 375-79;Antonio de Oliveira, 'Paraa história do embargo à publicação daobradeD. Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos, Viday acciones deirey DonJuan el Segundo', in id., Movimentos Sociaise Poder em Portugal noSéculo XVII(Coimbra: Instituto de História Económica e Social-Faculdade deLetras da Universidade de Coimbra, 2002),pp. 143-57· ó ManuelSeverim de Faria, Discursos vários políticos (Évora: Manuelde Carvalho, 1024);Primor e honra da vidasoldadesca, ed. byAntónio Freire(Lisboa:Jorge Rodrigues, 1630). See Diogo RamadaCurto, 'Amor dapátria numtratado de 1626sobreas armas e as letras', inHumanismo para o NossoTempo: Estudosde Homenagem a Luís de Sousa Rebelo, ed. byAiresA. Nascimento, HelenaLangrouva, JoséV.de PinaMartins, Thomas F.Earle(Lisbon:Barbosa e Xavier, 2004), pp·309-33· SOME NOTES ON THE CORTES POLYTICAS DE APPOLO 143 extremely important, theanalysis ofthatcontext willnotbe atthecentre ofthispaper,whoseaimis to capturetheintention oftheauthorusing different languagesand vocabularies. The analytical argument followed in thispaper willchallengesome of the mostrecentinterpretations of Portuguesepoliticalcultureduringthe period the Habsburgdual monarchy. History, notablythe history of Portuguesekingsand noble captains, is one ofthemostcommonlanguagesused byVasconcelosin orderto shapea political discourse. Thisisevident in VidadeDonDuarte deMeneses, Tercero Condede Viana. Y sucessos notables dePortugalensu tiempo, published a yearearlier, and inthetwoworks thatcameoutin 1639 inMadrid,the Viday accionesdelReydonJuan el Segundo,and SucessiondelReyDon Filipe segundo enla corona dePortugal. In fact,theinitialchaptersofthetreaty arededicatedtothesuccession andprincipal actionsofPortuguese kings. The themesexaminedinclude the defenceof the sovereignty of the kingdom, thedonationspractised bya numberofmonarchs seekingthe supportoftheirnobility, thereactionofD. João II againsttheliberality ofhispredecessors and hisstrategy fortheassertion ofabsolutepower, the policyof opennesstowards New Christians byD. Manuel and his benevolencetowards theBragançafamily persecuted byhispredecessor, thecontroversial abandonment ofNorth African fortresses byD.João III, themadnessofD. Sebastiãorepresented byhisimperial dreamincontrast to thereforms promotedbytheCrownduringhisreign,hiseducation bytheJesuits, the rumoursabout his survival afterthebattleof 1578, theunstablecharacter of D. Henrique,and the Portuguesepatriotism represented byD. Antóniorivalclaimantto thecrownagainstPhilipII. Until1580,dynastic conflicts leadingtodoubtsaboutthelegitimate titles ofnewkings, donations affecting theking'spatrimony, reforms promoted bytheCrown, and debatesconcerning theemerging signsofPortuguese declineand itsreasonsare some oftheproblemsraisedin the textby reference to thehistory of thePortuguesemonarchy.4 Withthearrival ofPhilipII in Portugal, thediscussionof thestatusofthe kingwavers between thatofconquerorand father, butbythetimeitcomestohisson PhilipIII ofSpain (always referred toas PhilipII ofPortugal), itis clear he is seen as no longertreating the Portugueseas theirfather, but as conqueredsubjects. Breaking withtherights and privileges sworn byhis father attheCortesofTomar, allthefactors leadingtoPortuguese decline weresetinplace:Castilian ministers wereintroduced in thegovernment...
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