The Siege of Oporto 1832-33

Author:

W. J. Cobb

Report:

5

Page:

37

Year:

1978

Subject Matter:

The Liberal Wars (1828-1834)

Excerpt:

In 1826 King John VI of Portugal died. The succession of the now separated crowns of Portugal and Brazil passed to his elder son who became King Pedro IV of Portugal and Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. Having spent more than half his life in Brazil, Dom Pedro felt no immediate inclination to return to Portugal; it would be easier to confirm his sister, the Infanta Maria Isabel, as Regent there, and to draft a liberal charter for the country of his birth along Brazilian lines. And once this was signed, some six weeks later, Dom Pedro abdicated the throne of Portugal in favour of his daughter Maria da Gloria, aged 7, with the proviso that she should later marry his brother, Dom Miguel, and that the latter should accept the new constitutional charter. It seemed an easy, indeed generous, way of shedding unwanted responsibilities. But Dom Pedro had reckoned without the dislike of the nobility and clergy for his charter; above all he had reckoned without his formidable mother, Queen Carlota Joaquina, and his brother Miguel, to both of whom any form of liberalism was anathema.

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