The death of King Henry hurried on matters, and Philip, in order to establish himself peacefully on the throne, entered into negotiations with the Duke of Braganza. The King of Spain solemnly promised the duke that he should have Brazil in full sovereignty with the title of king, and that a marriage should be arranged between his daughter and the Prince of the Asturias, heir to the conjoined thrones; and the duke, who hated war and loved peace, accepted these terms, in spite of his wife’s opposition. But, to the surprise of Philip, another competitor for the crown, to whom he had paid no attention--Dom Antonio, the Prior of Crato--declared himself king at Santarem, and, entering Lisbon without opposition, struck money and began to raise soldiers. This Dom Antonio was the son of Dom Luis, Duke of Beja, the second son of Emmanuel “the Fortunate,” by Violante de Gomes, surnamed “the Pelican,” one of the most beautiful women of her time. Dom Antonio alleged that his father was secretly married to his mother, and reminded the people, in a proclamation, that, even if the marriage were not legal, one of the greatest of all the kings of Portugal, the victor of Aljubarrota, was a bastard also. But the Portugal of the close of the sixteenth century, enervated by wealth and luxury, oppressed by the Inquisition, and with its free population reduced in numbers, possessed none of the energy of the Portugal of the fourteenth century, and felt no inclination to fight against the King of Spain, the son of the great Emperor Charles V., and the uncle and friend of their lamented monarch, Dom Sebastian. The brave, but hot-headed and noisy Prior of Crato could not be compared in warlike prowess or statesmanlike qualities to John of Aviz, and he had no “Holy Constable” to support him; and the Cortes of 1580, unlike that which in 1385 had listened to the manly words of João das Regras, and declared John “the Great” king of Portugal, listened to the promises of Christovão de Moura, and rejected the Prior of Crato. Dom Antonio raised a few soldiers, but the Duke of Alva who entered Portugal at the head of twenty thousand men, defeated them without difficulty at Alcantara on August 26th, when the pretender fled to France, and Philip II. was proclaimed king. [Illustration: PHILIP II.]