These repeated successes utterly broke the power of Spain in the peninsula, and peace was only a matter of time, when Castel Melhor decided to increase both his own power and that of Portugal by marrying the king, who was a mere tool in his hands, to a French princess. Such an alliance was highly approved by Louis XIV., who believed it would bring Portugal under his influence, and the bride selected was Marie Françoise Louise Elisabeth, Mademoiselle d’Aumâle, daughter of Charles Amadeus, Duke of Nemours, and Elisabeth de Vendôme, and grand-daughter of Henry IV. of France. She was brought to Portugal by her relative, the Cardinal d’Estrées, and the marriage was celebrated at Lisbon with the greatest pomp in 1666. But instead of increasing his power, the great minister, Castel Melhor, found that this union brought about his ruin. The handsome and accomplished young queen could not but loathe her worthless and degraded husband, and she speedily fell in love with his younger brother, Dom Pedro, the Duke of Beja. Her passion was returned, and after fourteen months of an unhappy married life, the queen suddenly left the palace for a convent, and applied for a divorce on the ground of non-consummation to the chapter of the cathedral church of Lisbon. Her action was followed by a Court revolution, and Dom Pedro shut King Affonso up in a portion of the palace, and assumed the regency on November 23, 1667. Every one rejoiced at the overthrow of the vicious king. The measures of Dom Pedro were universally approved by the people of Lisbon, and on January 1, 1668, he was recognized as regent by the Cortes. The great minister, Castel Melhor, was not prosecuted, and was allowed to retire to Paris, and the young prince, who was not yet twenty, took the government of Portugal into his own hands.