the House of Bragança

I have on a time, a couple of decades ago, read a history of Portugal (which morphs into a history of Brazil) in Spanish, and been enchanted, generally, with the legendary musicality and far-sighted liberality of Portuguese kings.  Yesterday I surfed the Net gathering infos on those fascinating emperors of Brazil, Pedro I and Pedro II--the former of whom is, I believe, the first man in modern history known to have taken a bath a day (a fact much--even too much--appreciated by his empress, Leopoldina von Habsburg, who expired in her twenty-third year, in, or shortly after, her seventh accouchement).

Today I mentally walked through the development of the town and district of Bragança in northwestern Portugal, from medieval times (and the marriage of an abbot to an Armenian princess who happened to be passing through on pilgrimage to San Juan Compostela), up to the accession of John IV, Duke of Braganza, in 1640--of whom Wikipedia vouchsafes:

John was a patron of the arts and music, and a considerably sophisticated writer on music; in addition to this, he was a composer.  Among his writings is a defense of Palestrina, and a Defense of Modern Music.