Joao IV

(1603–1656), nicknamed John the Restorer, was the first king of the House of Braganza that would rule until 1910. Joao was a patron of music and the arts, a sophisticated writer about music and also a composer. During his reign, he collected one of the largest libraries in the world, but it was destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. During his lifetime, the Portuguese Empire reached its zenith.