Peter II of Portugal

Peter II
Engraving of King Peter II; Christopher Elias Heiss, c. 1683-1703.
King of Portugal and the Algarves
Reign	12 September 1683 – 9 December 1706
Inauguration	27 January 1668
Predecessor	Afonso VI
Successor	John V
Born	26 April 1648 Ribeira Palace, Lisbon
Died	9 December 1706 (aged 58) Palhavã Palace, Alcântara
Burial	Pantheon of the Braganzas, Lisbon
Spouse	Maria Francisca of Nemours (m. 1668; d. 1683) Maria Sofia of Neuburg (m. 1687; d. 1699)
Issue see details...	Isabel Luísa, Princess of Beira João, Prince of Brazil João V Infante Francisco, Duke of Beja Infante António Infanta Teresa Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém Infanta Francisca
Dynasty	Braganza
Father	John IV of Portugal
Mother	Luisa de Guzmán
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Dom Pedro II (26 April 1648 – 9 December 1706), nicknamed «the Pacific», was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 1683 until his death, previously serving as regent for his brother King Afonso VI from 1668 until his own accession. He was the fifth and last child of King John IV and his wife Queen Luisa de Guzmán.

Third son of King John IV and Queen Luisa, he was created Duke of Beja and Lord of the House of Infantado.

Following his father's death, his mother became regent for the new king Afonso VI, Peter's elder, partially paralysed, and mentally unstable brother. In 1662 Afonso put away his mother and assumed control of the state. In January 1668, shortly before Spanish recognition of Portugal's restoration of independence, Peter acquired political ascendancy over his brother and was appointed regent, banishing Afonso to the Azores and, later, Sintra where he died in 1683. Peter thereupon inherited the throne.

Peter not only inherited his brother's throne but also wed his widow, Queen Marie-Françoise of Savoy (1646–1683). They had one daughter, Isabel Luísa, Princess of Beira (1669–90), heiress-presumptive a.k.a. a Sempre-Noiva ("the ever-engaged"), because of the many marriage projects intended for her that never came to fruition.

Peter consolidated Portugal's independence with the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, putting the wars of Restoration, that began in 1640, to an end. He formed an alliance with Britain and had its decisive support based on marriage clauses that united Charles II of England with his sister Catherine of Braganza in 1661. Portugal ceded Tangier and Bombay, and compromised to transfer to the British the majority of the places recovered from the Dutch, to share in half the commerce of cinnamon, to install British families with the same priviliges of the Portuguese families in Goa, Cochin, Diu, Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro. In exchange, Britain would give Lisbon military support, protecting Portuguese shipments in the Mediterranean and the coasts of Lisbon and Porto.

The British alliance was decisive in the consolidation of Peter's leadership. He centralized the monarchy's power and dissolved the excessive strength the nobility had gained after the death of John IV in 1656.

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