A series of successes by the Portuguese, with the help of a British brigade, made it clear that the Iberian Peninsula would not be reunited under Spanish rule. The first took place on 8 June 1663, when the count of Vila Flor, Sancho Manoel de Vilhena, with Marshal Schomberg by his side, utterly defeated John of Austria the Younger, an illegitimate son of Philip IV, at the Battle of Ameixial before he retook Évora, which had been captured earlier that year. One year later, on 7 July 1664, Pedro Jacques de Magalhães, a local military leader, defeated the Duke of Osuna at Ciudad Rodrigo in the Salamanca Province of Spain. Finally, on 17 June 1665, the marquis of Marialva and Schomberg destroyed a Spanish army, under the Marquis of Caracena at the Battle of Montes Claros, followed by defeat at Vila Viçosa.