Afonso VI of Portugal

At the age of three, Afonso suffered an illness that left him paralyzed on the left side of his body, also leaving him mentally unstable. His father created him 10th Duke of Braganza.

After the death of his eldest brother Teodósio, Prince of Brazil in 1653, Afonso became the heir apparent to the throne of the kingdom. He received also the crown-princely title 2nd Prince of Brazil.

Portrait of Infante Afonso; José de Avelar Rebelo, 1653.

He succeeded his father (João IV) in 1656 at the age of thirteen. His mother, Luisa of Medina-Sidonia, was named regent in his father's will. His mental instability and paralysis, plus his lack of interest in government, left his mother as regent for six years, until 1662. Afonso oversaw decisive military victories over the Spanish at Elvas (14 January 1659), Ameixial (8 June 1663) and Montes Claros (17 June 1665), culminating in the final Spanish recognition of sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza, on 13 February 1668 in the Treaty of Lisbon.

Colonial affairs saw the Dutch conquest of Jaffnapatam, Portugal's last colony in Portuguese Ceylon (1658) and the cession of Bombay and Tangier to England (23 June 1661) as dowry for Afonso's sister, Catherine of Braganza, who had married King Charles II of England. English mediation in 1661 saw the Netherlands acknowledge Portuguese rule of Brazil in return for uncontested control of Ceylon.

In 1662, the Count of Castelo Melhor saw an opportunity to gain power at court by befriending the king. He managed to convince the king that his mother was out to steal his throne and exile her in Portugal. As a result, Afonso sent his mother to a convent.

Afonso married Marie Françoise of Nemours, the daughter of the Duke of Savoy in 1666, but the marriage was short-lived. Marie Françoise, or Maria Francisca in Portuguese, filed for an annulment in 1667 based on the impotence of the king. The Church granted her the annulment, and she married Afonso's brother, Pedro, Duke of Beja (the future Peter II).

King Afonso VI imprisoned in the Palace of Sintra, by Alfredo Roque Gameiro.

That same year, Pedro managed to gain enough support to force Afonso to relinquish control of the government to him, and he became Prince Regent in 1668. While Pedro never formally usurped the throne, Afonso was king in name only for the rest of his life. (The proceedings which the annulment of Afonso's marriage involved formed the basis of João Mário Grilo's 1989 film, The King's Trial [O Processo do Rei].) For seven years after Pedro's coup, Afonso was kept on the island of Terceira in the Azores. His health broken by this captivity, he was eventually permitted to return to the Portuguese mainland, but he remained powerless and kept under guard. At Sintra he died in 1683.[1]

The room where he was imprisoned is preserved at Sintra National Palace.