On his return to Madrid in 1639, Santa Maria de Belém on the Tagus, four miles below Lisbon, was selected as a site and, with the assistance of the Countess of Atalaya, the convent of Our Lady of Bom Successo was built.
In the year 1655 he was sent as envoy to the French queen Anne of Austria and king Louis XIV to conclude a treaty between Portugal and France.
Here as elsewhere, success attended him; but while negotiations abroad and matters of government at home afforded opportunities of serving the Portuguese royal House of Braganza, he would not accept any honour in return.
He refused the Archbishopric of Braga, the Primacy of Goa and the Bishopric of Coimbra; nor would he accept the titles of Privy Councillor or Queen's Confessor, though he held both offices.
To provide funds for these houses he consented to become Bishop of Coimbra and, in consequence, President of the royal Privy Council; but before the papal Bull arrived he died at Lisbon in 1662.
[3] His remains reposed in the cloister of Corpo Santo until the 1755 Lisbon earthquake; the inscription on his tomb recorded that he was "In varus Regum legationibus felix, ... Vir Prudentia, Litteris, and Religione conspicuus" ("Successful in embassies for kings ... A man distinguished for prudence, knowledge and virtue".)