Portuguese Restoration War (
Portuguese Guerra da Restauração) was the name given after the 19th century by
romantic historians to the war between
Portugal and
Castile after the revolution of 1640, that ended the sixty years period of the
Dual Monarchy between Portugal and Castile under the
House of Habsburg. A Spanish state and a Spanish King would officially start to exist just after the French-inspired Bourbonic reforms of the 18th century.
In the 17th century and afterwards, it was simply known in Portugal and elsewhere as the Acclamation War, as it simply restored the independence of Portugal's ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza, deposing a tyrant king under constitutional Portuguese Law, and acclaiming (or electing) another one more suitable to the country. This had been done already several times before in Portuguese history.
The bloodless Acclamation Revolution began in Lisbon on 1 December 1640, and was soon supported throughout the country and its colonies, bringing Portugal to the Thirty Years War scene till peace was finally settled, after 28 years of war with Castile in Europe, and with the Netherlands in Asia, America and Africa, in 1668.
Therefore, the statesman Richelieu decided to force Philip IV to look to his own internal problems, and supported the claim of João IV of Portugal during the Acclamation War, in order to divert the Spanish troops, which were still said to be the best in Europe, a reputation they had gained with the introduction of the arquebus. This was done on the reasoning that a Portuguese war would drain Spanish resources and manpower. The alliance between Portugal and France led to the marriage of Afonso VI of Portugal to a French Princess, Marie Françoise of Nemours, cousin of Louis XIV. But Richelieu abandoned his Portuguese and Catalan allies, to sign a separate peace with Madrid, the Treaty of Pyrenees, in 1659, under the terms of which France recognised Philip IV as the legitimate King of Portugal.
