Royal Palace of Évora
With King John II's death, in 1495, his cousin, Manuel I, Duke of Beja and Viseu, succeeded King John II as King Manuel I of Portugal. King Manuel I's personal monopoly on the spice trade allowed the King to be a great patron of the arts, constructing numerous palaces, convents, and churches throughout the country. King Manuel I took a great interest in Évora, establishing his court there on various occasions. From 1502 to 1520, King Manuel I ordered a vast series of renovations, constructions, and enlargements. During the Manueline Campaigns, as the works are collectively known as, the palace grew to one of the largest palaces in Iberia. Through architects Martim Lourenço, Álvaro Anes, and António de Lagoa the Manuline Campaign saw the construction of Couto Hall, the Wing of the Infantes, an infirmary, the Royal Gardens and Hunting Grounds, the Royal Library, and the Gallery of Dames, which is the only part of the palace to survive to present day. Alongside expansion of the palace, King Manuel I also renovated the existing parts of the palace, remodeling the Queen's Hall, the servants quarters, and the Rossio of the Palace. In 1519, King Manuel I ordered architect André Pires to turn the plain Hall of Ambassadors into a Manueline Throne Room, which would direct itself towards the Palace Rossio.
Manuel II of Portugal
Since 1911, the Portuguese monarchists-in-exile concentrated in Galicia, Spain in order to enter Portugal and restore the monarchy but without the tacit approval of the Spanish government. The monarchists were led by the charismatic Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro, a veteran of the African colonial campaigns. The "Paladin", as the Portuguese newspapers called him, believed that demonstrating a show of force would force the rural people to rise-up and support the restoration. But he was wrong; poorly prepared and badly financed, his forces encountered apathy from the rural population and the incursions ended with retreats into Galicia.
For his part, Manuel supported these incursions the best way he could, but his financial resources were limited. He also faced a group of monarchists who were not clear supporters of his claim to the throne: one attack was made under a blue and white flag, but without the crown, while Paiva Couceiro himself declared at one time that his movement was "neutral" and wanted a plebiscite on the form of the new regime. It was only after he traded correspondence with Couceiro that the King was able to support the Galician monarchists, who had promised to support the 1826 Constitution. The second incursion, in 1912, although better prepared did not succeed because the Spanish government was forced to cede to Republican diplomats the illegality of monarchist encampments in Galicia and disarmed the remaining combatants within its territory. Manuel was never able to restore his kingdom by force and always defended that the monarchists should organize internally in order to reach power legally (by elections). This was not accepted by militant monarchists who, in the following years, continued their badly prepared attempts to restore the monarchy (for example on 20 October 1914), creating anarchy in the streets. His preoccupation worsened at the beginning of the Great War: Manuel was fearful that the United Kingdom would ally with Spain, in light of Portugal's instability, and that Spain would want to annex Portugal, as the price for Spain's entry into the War.