Captain Charles Napier, who had succeeded Sartorius, effected
a daring and successful diversion which resulted in the capture
of Lisbon (July 24, 1833). Maria II. arrived from France in
September. The war went in her favour, largely owing to the
brilliant generalship of Saldanha and the financial straits to
which D. Miguel was reduced. In April 1834 a Quadruple
Alliance was concluded between France, Spain, Great Britain
and the government of Maria II. The allied army defeated the
Miguelites at Asseiceira on the 16th of May, and D. Miguel
surrendered at Evora-Monte on the 24th. By the convention
of Evora-Monte he was condemned to perpetual banishment
from the Peninsula. On the 24th of September D. Pedro died.
During the few months in which he acted as regent for his
daughter, he had transformed Portugal from a semi-feudal into
a modern state. Tithes, many hereditary privileges and all
monopolies were abolished; every convent was closed and its
property nationalized; the Jesuits, who had returned after the
death of Pombal, were again expelled; the charter of 1826 was
restored.
Maria II. was fifteen years old at her accession. She was
twice married—in December 1834 to Augustus, duke of Leuchtenberg,
who died four months afterwards; and in
April .1836 to Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, who received
the title of king consort in September 1837. BothMaria II.,
1834–1853.
the queen and the king consort were strangers to Portugal,
and could exercise little control over the turbulent factions
whose intrigues and pronunciameutor made orderly government
impossible. There were three political parties: the
Miguelites, who were still strong enough to cause trouble;
the Chartists, who advocated the principles of 1826; the
Septembrists, who advocated those of 1822 and took their name
from the successful coup d’état of the 9th-11th of September
1836. By this coup d’état the constitution of 1822 was substituted
for the charter of 1826; and a Septembrist ministry
under the Viscount sa da Bandeira replaced the Chartist
ministry under Saldanha, Terceira. and Palmella. A counterrevolution,
planned in the royal palace at Belem and hence
known as the Belcmzada, was frustrated in November 1836;
and in 1837 a Chartist insurrection was crushed after severe
fighting. This was known as the “War of the Marshals,” from
the rank of the two Chartist leaders, Saldanha and Terceira.
In 1839 a moderate ministry took office, with Antonio Bermudo
da Costa Cabral as its real, though not its ostensible, head. A
pramuzcriameuto by Costa Cabral led to the restoration of the
charter on the 10th of February 1842, and a Cabral government
was formed under the nominal leadership of Terceira. Costa
Cabral, who became count of Thomar in 1845, ruled despotically,
despite many insurrections, until May 1846, when a coalition
of Miguelites, Septembrists and Chartist malcontents drove
him into exile. On this occasion the rebellion—known as the
“War of Maria da Fonte”—proved formidable. Oporto was
held by a revolutionary junta, and Saldanha, who had become
prime minister, persuaded the Quadruple Alliance to intervene.
In June 1847 the Oporto junta surrendered, under promise of an
amnesty, to a combined British and Spanish force, and the
convention of Gramido (July 24, 1847) ended the war. Saldanha
was rewarded with a dukedom, and retained office until Tune
1849. The dictatorial rule of his successor—the returned
exile, Thomar—provoked another successful rising on the 7th
of April 1851. Thomar again fled from the country; Saldanha
again became prime minister, but at the head of a moderate
coalition. He remained in power during five years of unbroken
peace (1851–1856), and carried many useful reforms. The
most important of these was the so-called Additional Act of the
5th of July 1852, which amended the charter of 1826 by providing
for the direct election of deputies, the decentralization
of the executive, the creation of representative municipal
councils, and the abolition of capital punishment for political
offences. Maria II. died on the 13th of November 1853, and was
succeeded by her eldestison D. Pedro, during whose ministry
the king consort D. Ferdinand acted as regent.
Under the brothers Pedro V. (1853–1861) and Luiz (1861–1889) Portugal obtained a respite from civil strife. Both monarchs delegated the conduct of affairs to their ministers, who constructed new railways, reformed the educational system, and gradually improved the economicPedro V. and Luiz. condition of the kingdom and its colonies. Pedro V. came of age and assumed the government on the 16th of November 1855, in 1857 he married Princess Stephanie of Hohenzollern. The only political disturbance which marred the peace of his reign arose out of the seizure of the “Charles et Georges,” a French slave-trader which was captured off Mozambique. Napoleon III. sent a fleet to the Tagus and demanded an indemnity, which Portugal was compelled to pay. In 1869–1861 cholera ravaged the whole kingdom, and especially the capital. The king died of this disease on the 11th of November 1861, and two of his brothers, D. Ferdinand and D. John, died shortly afterwards. D. Luiz was absent at the time, and his father D. Ferdinand again became regent until his return, soon after which (1862) the new king married Maria Pia, daughter of Victor Emanuel II. of Italy. In 1869 slavery was abolished in every Portuguese colony. In 1870 the duke of Saldanha, the last survivor of the turbulent statesmen of Queen Maria's reign, threatened an appeal to arms if the king would not dismiss his minister, the duke of Loulé, an advanced Radical and Freemason, whose influence, dating from the reign of Pedro V., was viewed with disfavour by Saldanha, as well as by more conservative politicians. The king yielded; and Saldanha himself became prime minister, retaining office until 1874, when, at the age of 80, he was sent as ambassador to London. He had been by far the most influential man in Portugal, and his death in 1876 was followed by a regrouping of political parties.
The party of the Regenerators (Regeneradores), formed in 1852 out of a coalition of Septembrists and Chartists, had already been disintegrated. Its more radical elements, known at first as the Historic Left, were in 1877 reorganized as the Progressives (Progressistas).Political Parties. Its more conservative elements carried on the tradition and retained the name of the original Regenerators. Besides these two monarchist parties—the Regenerators or Conservative right and the Progressives or Constitutional left—a strong Republican party was formed in 1881. There were also the Miguelites, active but impotent intriguers; and the advocates of Iberian union, who became prominent in 1867, 1869, 1874, and especially in July 1872, when many well known politicians were implicated in a fantastic conspiracy for the establishment of an Iberian republic. Portuguese nationalism was too strong for these advocates of union with Spain, whose propaganda was discredited as soon as any national interest was seriously endangered. This was the case in 1872, when Great Britain claimed the southern part of Delagoa Bay. The claim was submitted to the arbitration of M. Thiers, the French president, whose successor, Marshal Macmahon, delivered an award in favour of Portugal on the 19th of April 1875 (see Delagoa Bay).
King Luiz died on the 19th of October 1889, and was succeeded by his son D. Carlos (q.v.). Colonial affairs had for some time received close attention. In 1885 Portugal recognized the Congo Free State, and admitted its sovereignty over the north bank of the LowerColonial Affairs: Relations with Great Britain. Congo, although, in an unratified treaty of 1884, Great Britain had recognized both banks of the river as Portuguese territory. In 1886 Germany, France and Portugal defined by treaty the limits of their adjacent spheres of influence, and on the 26th of March 1887 Macao, hitherto leased to Portugal, was formally ceded by the Chinese government. In 1889 a resolution unanimously adopted by both chambers invited the ministry, of which José de Castro was president and Barros Gomes foreign minister, to press forward the territorial claims of Portugal in East and Central Africa. Shortly after the accession of King Carlos this active policy led to a dispute with Great Britain (see Africa, § 5). A Portuguese force under Major Serpa Pinto had invaded the
