The regent immediately hurried on the negotiations for a peace with Spain, which had been commenced under the directions of Castel Melhor, by the Earl of Sandwich and Sir Richard Southwell, the English ambassadors at Madrid and Lisbon, and on February 13, 1668, the long war, which had lasted for twenty-seven years--ever since the small band of conspirators in Lisbon had proclaimed King John IV.--was formally concluded. By the Treaty of Lisbon, Spain solemnly recognized the independence of Portugal, and gave its sovereign the title of “Your Majesty,” which had never been acknowledged even to Emmanuel and John III., and in return Portugal ceded Ceuta, in Morocco, to the King of Spain. This diplomatic success was followed on March 24th by the grant of a divorce to the queen, who, on April 2nd, with the dispensation and blessing of the Pope, married the regent Dom Pedro. The wretched Affonso was sent to the Azores, and a new era of peace and prosperity commenced for Portugal. The regent was fully convinced of the necessity of peace and economy, in order to restore the prosperity of the kingdom after its long struggle with Spain. He reduced the army, and dismissed all the foreign soldiers, and he set to work to make improvements in every department of administration. The treasury was empty, and the country was miserably poor. Agriculture had been neglected during the long war; the Dutch and English had seized upon the Asiatic trade; the Indian possessions were worth little or nothing; and the only source of revenue, except taxation, was the wealth of Brazil. Yet Dom Pedro had the wisdom and self-restraint not to increase the taxes, or press too heavily upon the sugar and tobacco planters of his great dominion in South America, and he preferred to reduce the expenses of his household to the lowest possible amount. In all his endeavours he was assisted by his wife, and it was no wonder that the Portuguese people loved and reverenced their prudent rulers.