D. Pedro, he swore to obey the constitution (thenceforward
known as the “constitution of 1822”). But his younger son,
D. Miguel, and the queen, Carlota Joaquina, refused to take the
oath; and in December 1822 sentence of banishment was pronounced
against them, though not enforced. They had many
supporters at home and abroad. French troops had invaded
Spain in the interests of Ferdinand VII. (1823), and the French
government was prepared to countenance the absolutist
party in Portugal in order to check British influence there.
Another military revolt broke out in Traz-os-Montes on the 3rd
of February 1823, its leader being the count of Amarante, who
was opposed to the constitution. D. Miguel appealed to the
army to “restore liberty to their king,” and the army, incensed
by the loss of Brazil (1822), gave him almost unanimous support.
At this juncture John VI., vainly seeking for a compromise,
abrogated the constitution of 1822, but appointed as his minister
D. Pedro de Sousa Holstein, count (afterwards duke) of Palmella
and leader of the “English” or constitutional party. These
half-measures did not satisfy D. Miguel, whose soldiers seized
the royal palace in Lisbon on the 30th of April 1824. Palmella
was arrested, and John VI. forced to take refuge on the British
flagship in the Tagus. But the united action of the foreign
ministers restored the king and reinstated Palmella; the insurrection
was crushed; D. Miguel submitted and went into exile
(June 1824).
In Brazil also a revolution had taken place. The Brazilians demanded complete independence, and D. Pedro sided with them. The Portuguese garrison of Rio de Janeiro was overpowered; on the 7th of September 1822 D. Pedro declared the country independent, and on the 12th of October he was proclaimed constitutional emperor. He took no notice of the constituent assembly in Lisbon, which on the 19th of September had ordered him to return to Portugal on pain of forfeiting his right to inherit the Portuguese Crown. By the end of 1823 all Portuguese resistance to the new régime in Brazil had been overcome.
John VI. died on the 10th of March 1826, leaving (by will) his daughter D. Isabel Maria as regent for Pedro I. of Brazil, who now became Pedro IV. of Portugal. A crisis was evidently imminent, for Portugal would not tolerate an absentee sovereign who was far more Brazilian than Portuguese. The unsatisfied ambition of Carlota Joaquina and the hostility between absolutists and constitutionalists might at any moment precipitate a civil war. To conciliate the Portuguese, Pedro IV. drew up a charter (known as the “charter of 1826”) which provided for moderate parliamentary government on the British model. To conciliate the Brazilians, he undertook (by decree dated May 2nd 1826) to surrender the Portuguese Crown to his daughter D. Maria da Gloria (then aged seven); but this abdication was made contingent upon her marriage with her uncle D. Miguel, who was first required to swear fidelity to the charter. 8. Constitutional Government.-The charter of 1826 forms the basis of the present Portuguese constitution and the starting point of modern Portuguese history. That history comprises four periods: (a) From 1826 to 1834 the clerical and absolutist parties led by D. Miguel united every reactionary element throughout the kingdom in a last unsuccessful stand against constitutional government; (b) From 1834 to 1853 the main problem for Portuguese statesmen was whether the constitution, now accepted as inevitable, should embody the radical ideas of 1822 or the moderate ideas of 1826; (c) From 1853 to 1889 there was a period of transition marked by the rise of three new parties-Progressive, Regenerator, Republican; (d) From 1889 to 1908 the Progressives and Regenerators monopolized the control of public affairs, but the strength of Republicanism was not to be gauged by its representation in the Cortes. At the beginning of the 20th century the question whether the monarchy should be replaced by a republic had become a living political issue, which was decided by the revolution of October 5, 1919.
The charter was brought to Lisbon by Sir Charles Stuart in July 1826. The absolutists had hoped that D. Pedro would abdicate unconditionally in favour of D. Miguel, and the council of regency at first refused to publish the charter. They were forced to do so (July 12) by a pronunciamento issued by D. João Carlos de Saldanha de Oliveira e Daun, count of Saldanha and commander of the army in Oporto. Saldanha, a prominent constitutionalists, threatened to march on Lisbon if the regency did not swear obedience to the charter by the 31st of July. Amid wild enthusiasm the charter was proclaimed on that day, and on the 3rd of August Saldanha became head of a Liberal ministry. An absolutist counter-revolution at once broke out in the north. It was organized by the marquess of Chaves, and supported openly by the Church and the Miguelite majority of the army; secret assistance was also given by Spain. As civil war appeared imminent, Canning dispatched 5000 British troops under Sir William Clinton to restore order, and to disband the troops under Chaves. By March 1827 Clinton and Saldanha had secured the acceptance of the charter throughout Portugal.
In October 1826 D. Miguel also swore to obey the charter and was betrothed to his niece D. Maria da Gloria (Maria II.). Pedro IV. appointed him regent in July 1827 and in February 1828 he landed in Lisbon, where he was received with cries of “Viva D. Miguel I., rei absoluto!” In March he dissolved the parliament which had met in accordance with the charter. In April the Tory ministry under Wellington withdrew Clinton’s division, which was the mainstay of the charter. In May D. Miguel summoned a cortes of the ancient type, which offered him the Crown; and on the 7th of July 1828 he took the oath as king. Saldanha, Palmella, the count of Villa Flor (afterwards duke of Terceira), and the other constitutionalists leaders were driven into exile, while scores of their adherents were executed and thousands imprisoned. Austria and Spain supported D. Miguel, who was able to dispose of the vast wealth of Carlota Joaquina; Great Britain and France remained neutral. Only the emperor D. Pedro and a handful of exiles upheld the cause of Maria II., who returned to Brazil in 1829.
The Azores, although the majority of their inhabitants favoured absolutism, now became a centre of resistance to D. Miguel. In 1828 the garrison of Angra declared for Maria II., endured a siege lasting four months, and finally took refuge in the island of Terceira, where it was reinforced by volunteers from Brazil and constitutionalists refugees from England and France. In March 1829 Palmella established a regency on the island, on behalf of Maria II.; and D. Miguel’s fleet was defeated in Praia Bay on the 12th of August. Fortune played into the hands of Palmella, Saldanha, Villa Flor and their followers in Terceira. In 1830 a Whig ministry came into office in Great Britain; the “July revolution” placed Louis Philippe on the throne of France; Carlota Joaquina, the power behind D. Miguel’s throne, died on the 7th of January. The fanaticism of the clerical and absolutist parties in Portugal (collectively termed apostolicos) was enhanced by recrudescence of Sebastianism. Men saw in the brutal boor D. Miguel (q.v.) a personification of the hero-king Sebastian, whose second advent had been expected for two and a half centuries. In the orgy of persecution, outrages were committed on British and French subjects; and a French squadron retaliated by seizing D. Miguel’s fleet in the Tagus (July 1831). In Brazil, D. Pedro abdicated (April 1831); he determined to return to Europe and conduct in person a campaign for the restoration of Maria II. He was received with enthusiasm by Louis Philippe. In Great Britain Palmella raised a loan of £2,000,000 and purchased a small fleet, of which Captain Sartorius, a retired British naval officer, was appointed admiral. In February 1832 the “Liberators,” as they were styled, sailed from Belleisle to the Azores, with D. Pedro aboard the flagship. In July they reached Portugal and occupied Oporto, but the expected constitutionalists rising did not take place. The country was almost unanimous in its loyalty to D. Miguel, who had 80,000 troops against the 6500 (including 500 French and 300 British) of D. Pedro. But the Miguelites had no navy, and no competent general. They besieged D. Pedro in Oporto from July 1832 to July 1833, when the duke of Terceira and
