her childhood that she should be a queen. Dom John himself did not share her opinions; he was no warrior, but loved hunting, music, and the arts, and his lovely hunting-seat at Villa Viçosa, far more than he did politics or even his country. But his easy nature made him subservient to the will of his duchess, and she, through the duke’s agent, João Pinto Ribeiro, Professor of Civil Law at Coimbra, let the nobility of Portugal know that the Duke of Braganza would put himself at their head, if they would but strike a blow for the freedom of their country. Portugal was at the period, when the Duchess of Braganza involved her husband in her ambitious schemes, under the nominal rule of Margaret of Savoy, Duchess of Mantua; and the Court of this princess was, contrary to the promises made by Philip II. to the Cortes of Thomar, entirely filled with foreigners. Her Lord High Steward or Mordomo-Mor was the Marquis de la Puebla, a Spaniard, and her Estribeiro-Mor, or Master of the Horse, was the Marquis de Bainetti, an Italian, while among more important posts, two Spaniards, Don Didace de Cardenas and Don Fernando de Castro, were respectively general commanding the Portuguese cavalry, and controller of the Portuguese navy. The most important native of the country admitted to her council was Dom Sebastião de Mattos de Noronha, Archbishop of Braga, Primate of the kingdom, and a wealthy nobleman, but the chief administrative power was confided to Miguel de Vasconcellos de Brito, Secretary of State. This man was hated by his fellow-countrymen with the intensity of hatred only felt for a renegade. He had won the favour of Olivares, the Spanish Minister, by his skill in squeezing money out of Portugal, and his energy and activity made him indispensable to the Duchess of Mantua. But if he was hated by all classes of the Portuguese people, he was more especially obnoxious to the Portuguese nobility owing to his policy of excluding them from all posts of honour and emolument, and his personal insolence towards them.