House of the Infantado

The extinction of the House of Aviz in 1580 had brought the Kingdom of Portugal in personal union with Spain, de facto subjecting the country to Spanish rule.

The donation covered the villages, places, castles, padroados, land, forums, rights and duties for the second house, which guaranteed the title of Duke of Vila Real to the eldest son of Infante Dom Pedro.

The House continued to receive new grants from the crown: the fifth of Queluz and their appurtenances; the palaces and houses of Corte-Real in Lisbon, which had belonged to the 2nd Marquis of Castelo Rodrigo; the town of Serpa and with their barns and de Moura; rents of the Military Order of Christ to which the infante had been named Commander; the marshlands of Golegã, Borba, Mouchões and Silveira, near the Tagus river, from São Liborio to Santarém; saboarias of Porto and villages and places of Entre Douro and Minho and Tras-os-Montes.

Other favors were added after the accession of Afonso VI, giving Dom Pedro an annual grant of 1000 quintals of Brazil wood without payment of duties; and the purchase that he made from his sister, Queen Catherine of Braganza, of the city of Lamego and the marsh of Magos.

However, the enormous wealth became a source of strife and discord as it did on the death of the Infante Francisco, Duke of Beja, brother of King John V in 1742.