John V of Portugal

John (João) V (1689-1750), king of Portugal, was born at Lisbon on October 22 1689, and succeeded his father Pedro II in December 1706, being proclaimed on January 1 1707.

One of his last acts was to intimate his adherence to the Grand Alliance, which his father had joined in 1703. Accordingly his general Das Minas, along with Lord Galway, advanced into Castile, but sustained the defeat of Almanza (April 14).

In October 1708 he married Maria Anna, daughter of Leopold I, thus strengthening the alliance with Austria; the series of unsuccessful campaigns which ensued ultimately terminated in a favourable peace with France in 1713 and with Spain in 1715.

The rest of his long reign was characterized by royal subservience to the clergy, the kingdom being administered by ecclesiastical persons and for ecclesiastical objects to an extent that gave him the best of rights to the title "Most Faithful King," bestowed upon him and his successors by a bull of Pope Benedict XIV in 1748. John V died on July 31 1750, and was succeeded by his son Joseph.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.