John II (; ; 3 May 1455 – 25 October 1495), called the Perfect Prince (), was King of Portugal from 1481 until his death in 1495, and also for a brief time in 1477. He is known for reestablishing the power of the Portuguese monarchy, reinvigorating the economy of Portugal, and renewing the Portuguese exploration of Africa and Asia.
Early life Born in Lisbon on 3 May 1455, John was the second son of Afonso V of Portugal and Isabella of Coimbra. At one month old, on 25 June 1455, he was declared legitimate heir to the crown and received an oath of allegiance from the three estates.
Isabella of Coimbra died in December 1455. John and his older sister, Joanna, were raised by a governess, Beatriz de Vilhena. Their upbringing was also influenced by their aunt, Philippa of Coimbra.
In 1468, Afonso V and Henry IV of Castile attempted to arrange a double marriage in which John would marry Henry's daughter, Joanna, and Afonso would marry Henry's half-sister and heir-presumptive, Isabella of Castile. However, Isabella refused to consent to the arrangement. Instead, John married Eleanor of Viseu, his first cousin and the eldest daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, on 22 January 1471. John was fond of Eleanor, but did not approve of the match because of the Infanta's dynastic insignificance.
Early campaigns
John accompanied his father in the campaigns in northern Africa and was knighted after the victory in the Conquest of Arzila in August 1471.
Participation in the War of the Castilian Succession
Following the death of Henry IV of Castile in December 1474 and the accession of his half-sister, Isabella, a faction of the nobility hostile to Isabella offered the Castilian crown to Afonso V, provided he wed Henry's daughter, Joanna. John urged his father to marry Joanna and invade Castile, but leading nobles, namely the Marquis of Vila Viçosa, opposed this conviction. Afonso sent an envoy to assess support for Joanna's cause and after receiving "favorable accounts respecting the partisans of the Infanta", he ordered war preparations to be made for the following spring.
On 12 May 1475, Afonso and John entered Castile with an army of 5,600 cavalry and 14,000 foot soldiers. Afonso V proceeded to Palencia to meet Joanna while John returned home to govern the kingdom. On May 25, Joanna and Afonso were betrothed and proclaimed sovereigns of Castile. In the same month, John's wife, Eleanor, gave birth to the couple's only child to survive infancy, Afonso.
In late 1475, Afonso, with only a fragment of his army remaining, wrote letters to John imploring him to provide reinforcements. John raised an army and left for Castile again in January 1476, appointing Eleanor regent of the kingdom.
In March 1476, at Toro, Afonso V and John and some 8,000 men faced Castilian forces of similar size led by Isabella's husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, Cardinal Mendoza and the Duke of Alba. King Afonso V was beaten by the left and center of King Ferdinand's army and fled from the battlefield. John defeated the Castilian right wing, recovered the lost Portuguese Royal standard, and held the field, but overall the battle was indecisive. Despite its uncertain outcome, the Battle of Toro represented a great political victory↓ Spanish academic António M. Serrano: " From all of this it is deductible that the battle [of Toro] was inconclusive, but Isabella and Ferdinand made it fly with wings of victory. (...) Actually, since this battle transformed in victory; since 1 March 1476, Isabella and Ferdinand started to rule in the Spain's throne. (...) The inconclusive wings of the battle became the secure and powerful wings of San Juan's eagle [the commemorative temple of the Battle of Toro] ." in San Juan de los Reyes y la batalla de Toro, revista Toletum , segunda época, 1979 (9), pp. 55–70 . Real Academia de Bellas Artes y Ciencias Históricas de Toledo, Toledo. ISSN: 0210-6310 ↓ A. Ballesteros Beretta: "His moment is the inconclusive Battle of Toro.(...) both sides attributed themselves the victory.... The letters written by the King [Ferdinand] to the main cities... are a model of skill. (...) what a powerful description of the battle! The nebulous transforms into light, the doubtful acquires the profile of a certain triumph. The politic [Ferdinand] achieved the fruits of a discussed victory." In Fernando el Católico, el mejor rey de España, Ejército revue, nr 16, p. 56, May 1941.↓ Vicente Álvarez Palenzuela- La guerra civil Castellana y el enfrentamiento con Portugal (1475–1479): "That is the battle of Toro. The Portuguese army had not been exactly defeated, however, the sensation was that D. Juana's cause had completely sunk. It made sense that for the Castilians Toro was considered as the divine retribution, the compensation desired by God to compensate the terrible disaster of Aljubarrota, still alive in the Castilian memory".↓ Spanish academic Rafael Dominguez Casas: "...San Juan de los Reyes resulted from the royal will to build a monastery to commemorate the victory in a battle with an uncertain outcome but decisive, the one fought in Toro in 1476, which consolidated the union of the two most important Peninsular Kingdoms." In San Juan de los reyes: espacio funerário y aposento régio in Boletín del Seminário de Estúdios de Arte y Arqueologia, number 56, p. 364, 1990. for Isabella and Ferdinand and Afonso's prospects for obtaining the Castilian crown were severely damaged. John promptly returned to Portugal to disband the remnants of his army, arriving the first week of April.
De facto rule Months after the Battle of Toro, in August 1476, Afonso V travelled to France hoping to obtain the assistance of King Louis XI in his fight against Castile. In September 1477, disheartened that his efforts to secure support had proved fruitless, Afonso abdicated the throne and embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He was eventually persuaded to return to Portugal, where he arrived in November 1477. John had been proclaimed king days prior to Afonso's arrival, but relinquished his new title and insisted that his father reassume the crown.
From 1477 to 1481, John and Afonso V were "practically corulers." John, given control of overseas policy in 1474 and concerned with consolidating Portuguese control of Africa, played a major role in negotiating the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479) with Spain that concluded the War of the Castilian Succession and ensured Portugal hegemony in the Atlantic south of the Canary Islands. The treaty also arranged for the marriage of John's son, Afonso, to the eldest daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella.
Following his father's death on 28 August 1481, John was proclaimed King of Portugal and crowned at Sintra on 31 August.
Reign Consolidation of power
accession to the throne, John strived to diminish the power and influence of the nobility that had greatly accumulated during his father's reign. In 1481, he assembled the Cortes in Evora and held a grand oath-taking ceremony in which magnates and other subjects were required to swear allegiance to him as their unequivocal superior. The ceremony was perceived as humiliating by members of the upper nobility who were accustomed to the feudal tradition of acknowledging the king as simply first among equals. At the Cortes, John further enraged nobles by declaring that property title deeds would undergo examination to ensure their validity, as opposed to being confirmed in mass. After representatives of commoners voiced grievances concerning abuses committed by the nobility and clergy, he deprived nobles of their right to administer justice on their estates, instead authorizing crown officials or corregedors to inspect and dispense justice throughout the realm.. "...and by informing the Cortes that he had appointed competent persons to examine the validity of the deeds and titles of the grants made up to the time of his accession to the throne, the grandson of the Infante D. Pedro clearly defined the position he was taking. Therefore, by placing himself on the side of the Councils and upholding them, he virtually cast down the gauntlet anew with the point of his lance, that gauntlet which at his suggestions had been flung in the face of the nobility.
War was therefore declared – a war which D. Joao II. hoped, with the aid of the masses, to terminate with advantage, and by increasing his prerogatives. Continuing the proposed reform, he ordered his magistrates (corregedores) heedless of the protests of the nobles, to enter into the lands of such as held jurisdictions, and investigate the abuses and violence said to be practised in the administration of justice. By this he virtually claimed one of the most important rights of the sovereignty, and boldly rent asunder the privileges of the most powerful favourites of his father. These resolutions, taken at the very commencement of the reign, formed the basis of the revolution commenced by D. Joao II. in favour of monarchical union."
Such aggressive assertions of royal supremacy roused resentment amongst the nobility. By 1482, Fernando, Duke of Braganza, the wealthiest nobleman in Portugal, and his followers had begun conspiring for John's deposition, allegedly receiving support from the Catholic Monarchs. John responded by having Fernando arrested, tried and convicted of twenty-two counts of treason, and publicly beheaded in June 1483. Afterwards, the assets of the House of Braganza were confiscated and the family fled to Castile.
Braganza's execution caused even more intrigue among the upper-nobility, who rallied behind Diogo, Duke of Viseu, John's cousin and brother to his Queen Consort, Eleanor. In September 1484, John summoned Diogo to his private chambers, confronted him with evidence of treason, and stabbed him to death. Other ringleaders involved in the plot were persecuted. Ultimately, John succeeded in enriching the Crown by executing or exiling most of Portugal's feudal lords and confiscating their estates. For the rest of his reign, he kept the creation of titles to a bare minimum.
Economy and administration Under John's direction, commercial activity in Africa became a crown monopoly. The immense profits generated by African ventures. "The Portuguese crown brought in 8,000 ounces of gold per year between 1487 and 1489, enough to mint 64,000 Venetian ducats' worth of gold currency. That was already a substantial amount, which rose further to 22,500 ounces (roughly 180,000 ducats' worth) between 1494 and 1496. Those amounts did not count the massive revenues from other sources, such as the 1.1 million reis the Florentine merchant Marchionni paid for a monopoly on trading in Benin in 1487." enabled the king to fund exploration expeditions, reduce his reliance on the cortes for financial support, and strengthen the monarchy's power over the nobility. In 1484, John began minting gold Justo coins that depicted him seated on a throne, facing forward in full armor and holding a sword.
John established a new court called the Mesa or Tribunal do Desembargo do Paço to supervise petitions for pardon, privileges, freedoms, and legislation. He also instituted annual elections for the judges, clerks, and hospital stewards under federal jurisdiction. His attempts to centralize hospitals across Portugal were not implemented fully but paved the way for the radical reforms introduced during the reign of Manuel I.
Exploration John II famously restored the policies of Atlantic exploration, reviving and broadening the work of his great-uncle, Henry the Navigator. The Portuguese explorations were his main priority in government, patronising both local and foreign men, such as João Afonso de Aveiro and Martin Behaim, to further his goals. Portuguese explorers pushed south along the known coast of Africa with the purpose of discovering the maritime route to India and breaking into the spice trade. During John II's reign, the following achievements were realised: