had an eye on all his movements, engaged with him in personal combat, by striking him on the breast two blows with his sabre, which nearly threw him from the saddle, and would have slain him, had not the Prince’s sword been shattered at the second stroke on the cuirass which the general wore under his uniform.” The Portuguese, however, gained the day, and completely surrounded and entangled the retreating enemy. The Spanish artillery and the troops, left before the Castle of Villa Viciosa, fled to Badajoz. The Portuguese made an irruption into Andalusia, and carried off immense booty. Dunlop adds, “The decisive battle of Montesclaros completed the misfortunes and national disgrace of Spain. It finally fixed the crown on the head of the King of Portugal, and highly raised that country in the scale of European nations. For this splendid victory, however, as well as all their previous successes, the Portuguese were chiefly indebted to the military skill of General Schomberg and the valour of the foreign auxiliaries.” We have to add that it hastened the death of Philip IV. of Spain, who expired on the 17th of September 1665, in the sixty-first year of his age and forty-fifth of his reign. At the end of this year, the idiotic and violent Alphonso VI. of Portugal declared himself of age, and his mother, the Queen Regent, having surrendered the government into his hands, died in a convent on the 18th of February 1666.
Overtures for peace between Spain and Portugal began immediately after the victory of Montesclaros. But during diplomatic delays, Schomberg continued to fight, and carried all before him in 1666 and 1667. At last peace was settled on the 12th of February 1668. Schomberg had also to take some share in the settlement of the government at Lisbon. The king’s imbecility and abandoned behaviour gave occasion to a project for laying him aside, and putting the sceptre into the hand of his brother Pedro. The king’s favourite minister endeavoured to restore Alphonso’s influence by marrying him to Mary, Princess of Nemours. The young queen soon obtained from the Pope an annulment of this marriage, having first formed a party at court, which Schomberg joined. The king was also forsaken by his premier, Count Melhor; and the regal power, though only with the title of regent, was transferred to the brother. It was under Pedro’s rule that peace was proclaimed. Schomberg left Portugal on the 1st of June.
D’Ablancourt preserves one or two anecdotes connected with his residence in that kingdom.
The jealousy and insubordination of the Portuguese officers often resulted in their disregard of Schomberg’s orders and in the marring of a whole day’s projects. One night he directed General Denis De Mellos to detach six squadrons of horse to a certain point. The next day he easily detected that his order could not have been obeyed. The officer on being interrogated replied, that he had sent thirty cavaliers with a guide, having thought that sufficient. “Sufficient?” exclaimed Schomberg, “yes, sufficient to cut off your head, for you had your orders in writing.”
During the battle of Montesclaros he remarked to his aide-de-camp, when they observed some of the enemy’s horses and men tumbling down from a mountain, “The painters of ancient battles are accused of drawing largely upon their imagination, but that looks very like one of their pictures.”
On two occasions Schomberg, having resolved to retire from Portugal on account of the hostility of the king and his courtiers, was actually retained by the king, who was moved by an appeal from “The Council of Four-and-Twenty.” This Council was a constitutional corporation, consisting of twenty-four tradesmen of Lisbon. A candidate for membership had to prove himself to be a son and grandson of persons of eminent integrity and purity of morals; and, on being elected, he was nobilitated. The President, who was styled the Judge of the Council, had a power in the kingdom like that of the Tribune of the People among the ancient Romans. This Judge twice made an official representation to the king to the following effect:— “I declare to your Majesty in the name of all your good Subjects, that you ought not to let the Count of Schomberg depart, and further, that any advisers to the contrary are enemies to the State.” Then turning to the king’s secretary, he demanded a written minute, recording what he had said. The king, according to the usage in such a case, replied:— “Due regard shall be had to your remonstrance.”
General Schomberg’s name became quite a proverb in Portugal and in Spain. The Spanish Guards, raised soon after his departure, were called The Schombergs. The peasants so often dressed their images of the saints in “embroidered coats, long periwigs, and French points,” that the priests at last interfered, and forbade all persons, in time to come, to adorn the saints à la Schomberguoise.
On the 14th of June Schomberg arrived at La Rochelle. Luzancy says, “A famous wit was commanded to compliment him. The Count’s modesty was more
