Council and advisers of the King: political writing and struggle for power in the Portugal of Restoration (1643-1653)

Abstract

This article approaches the struggle between opposed factions in Portugal in the epoch of
Restoration, from the execution of Francisco de Lucena in 1643 until the death of the Prince D. Teodósio in 1653. The struggle between factions of this time is almost unknown if we exclude two periods of few years, respectively in the begin and in the final of the war against Castile. Our objective is to present a hypothesis which range covers all the period of the war, and make available tools which could help new research on the theme. To that, we analyse a group of printed political discourses in the time with the presumed theory and methods of the ideas in context, as established by Quentin Skinner.