HEY i would like a portuguese faction too, we guy rebel a lot but i would like to crush spain and the almoheads... DAM even the puny irrelevant aragones got a faction... and we didn't (we as in the portuguese irish and scotish dudes out there). To portrait Portugal as a faction has even a lot more sense than the spanish. There was no spain to beguin with. There was Leon and Castille, two kingdoms wich where united later. Portugal originated from the rebellious county Portucalense in the kingdom of Leon. After the revolt, in witch we creamed the leonese, we went after the moors (almoheads in the game) and the pope recognized Portugal has a kingdom with Afonso Henriques as king. We took part in the Reconquista (we allied with leon, castille and the puny aragonese), and we fought in the north of africa. We even lost a fool of a young king there... who was killed. Actually his body was found naked in the sand (the almoheads had looted his armour for souvenir)... And imagine what... he had no heirs (sounds familiar doesn't it?) so wars started with royal bloodlines everywhere and this was to lead to a rather unhappy dinastic union with castille wich lasted for 60 years...
Anyway... you can see why i would like my country to be represented in a proper manner (dammit, it that means no more aragonese let them be rebellious freaks, wich they kind are...). Anyway i kinda liked the fact that Ireland, Portugal and Scotland are rebellious... dont know much about livonia though