OBSERVARE
Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa
ISSN: 1647-7251
Vol. 1, n.º 1 (Autumn 2010), pp. 119-120
Critical Review
Valladares, Rafael (2010). The conquest of Lisbon – military violence
and political community in Portugal, 1578-1583. Lisboa: Texto Editores,
332 pp (ISBN 978-972-47-4111-6)
by João Maria Mendes
PhD in Communication Sciences by Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Guest Professor at Universidade
Autónoma de Lisboa and Professor at Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (ESTC), where he is
the president of the Cinema Technical and Scientific Committee, and coordinator of the Master
Degree in Developing Cinematographic Projects. He is a permanent researcher at Centro de
Investigação de Artes e Comunicação (CIAC) and a collaborator at OBSERVARE.
In this essay, Rafael Valladares, a researcher at Instituto de Historia del Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), analyses how, following the battle of
Alcácer-Quibir, Philip II prepared and accomplished the “Spanish-Portuguese dynastic
union” by simultaneously playing the political-diplomatic and the legal games, despite
never disregarding the use of military strength.
The command of the military force of 18.000 men was given to the Duke of Alba, and,
according to the author, the occupation campaign caused thousands of dead and
wounded. When referring to his three-year campaign (1580-1583) and the subsequent
annexation of Portugal, Philip II admitted: “I inherited it, I acquired it, and I conquered
it”.
Romero de Magalhães, quoted in Valladares, writes about Portugal’s erasure of that war
from its memory: “The remembrance of the violent occupation of the Kingdom (…) was
forgotten or attenuated.” Valladares generalizes on this topic, stating: “Any society
punished by military violence tends to omit, therefore, cross out, any reference to past
suffering”, refusing to narrate that period of history and denying it.
One of the sources Valladares quotes recurrently is the controversial Historia
dell’unione del Regno di Portogallo alla Corona de Castiglia, by Girolamo Franchi
Connestagio. The book was published in Genoa for the first time in 1585, and, at the
time, was successively translated into several European languages, becoming, as the
author puts it, a “sort of bible for the 1580 events”.
Connestagio’s book, frequently perceived as too favourable to the Habsburgs or the
“Austrias”, has, to date, never been translated into Portuguese or published in Portugal.
Another inevitable source Valladares uses is the Historia de Felipe II, Rey de España, by
Luis Cabrera de Córdoba, which was published in Madrid in 1619.
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
ISSN: 1647-7251
Vol. 1, n.º 1 (Autumn 2010), pp. 119-120
Critical Review
by João Maria Mendes
120
However, Valladares’ research extended to Archivo General de Simancas (Spain’s
National Archive), the Casa de Alba Foundation, the historical archives of Spain’s
Ministry for External Affairs, the Collection of Original Documents for the History of
Spain, Archivium Romanum Societatis Iesus, the Vatican Apostolic Library, and, in
Lisbon, to the National Library (Biblioteca Nacional) and Ajuda Library.
This new contact with the collections of documents kept in these institutions, as well as
the crossing of information found there with existing literature on “Habsburg Portugal”
confer Valladares’ research a deeper and more comprehensive stance on Philip II’s
campaign, the nature of the resistances he met, and the way he overcame them
The assault on Lisbon and the battle of Alcântara, the feeling of being orphan, the
abandon on the part of several social bodies, Philip II’s belief that the crumbling of the
political community would result in the Portuguese “killing each other”, and the slow
resurgence of an opposition, particularly popular in nature, to the Philipine occupation,
gain a new dimension in Valladares’ essay, who is attentive to the slow rebuilding of a
community identity in the occupied country.
How to cite this Critical Review
Mendes, João Maria (2010). Critical Review of Valladares, Rafael (2010). A
conquista de Lisboa — Violência militar e comunidade política em Portugal, 1578-
1583. Lisboa: Texto Editores: 332 pp. ISBN 978-972-47-4111-6 (Translation:
Manuel Gonçalves), JANUS.NET e-journal of International Relations, N.º 1, Outono
2010. Consulted [online] on date of last visit,
observare.ual.pt/janus.net/en_vol1_n1_rec2
