ROYALTY IN BRAZIL
House of Braganca
The house of BRAGANCA was the ruling dynasty of PORTUGAL from 1640 to 1910 and of BRAZIL from 1822 to 1889. In 1442, King JOHN I of Portugal made his illegitimate son, Afonso, duke of Braganca. Afonso's descendants became the wealthiest noble landowners in Portugal, with some 50,000 peasants. In the national revolution against Spanish rule of December 1640, Joao, duke of Braganca, was crowned King JOHN IV. The dynasty ruled Portugal until the overthrow of MANUEL II and the establishment of a republic in 1910. When Brazil asserted its independence of Portugal in 1822, it became an empire under PEDRO I, son of the Portuguese king JOHN VI. Pedro's successor, PEDRO II, was overthrown in a republican revolution in 1889.
John VI, King of Portugal
John VI, b. May 13, 1767, d. Mar. 10, 1826, king of Portugal from 1816, survived - rather than shaped -- the tempestuous events of his times. When his mother, Queen Maria I, became insane in 1792, John took over her duties, becoming regent in 1799. Portugal long remained untouched by the influences of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. In 1807, however, as a French Army advanced across Spain, the royal family and court fled to Brazil. They remained there even after the British had driven the French out of Portugal (1811) and John had succeeded to the throne on Maria's death (1816). In 1820 a liberal revolt, patterned after the Spanish revolution of the same year, broke out in Portugal. The following year John was persuaded to return to Portugal, leaving his son Pedro (later Emperor PEDRO I) as regent of Brazil. In 1825 he recognized Brazil's independence. Having accepted a liberal constitution, John subsequently faced continuing intrigues and political discontent. His indulgent, irresolute personality encouraged ambitious conspirators to use the monarchy for their own ends. After John's
death, his daughter Maria Isabel became regent for Pedro who ruled Portugal briefly as Peter IV.
Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil
Pedro I (Antonio Pedro de Alcantara), b. Oct. 12, 1798, d. Sept. 24, 1834, was the first emperor of independent Brazil. Son of the prince regent, later King JOHN VI of Portugal and Brazil, Dom Pedro fled with the royal family from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro soon after the French invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 1807. When John reclaimed the Portuguese throne in 1821, Pedro remained in Brazil as prince regent. The next year Pedro refused the summons of the Portuguese parliament to return to the continent, and on Sept. 7, 1822, he declared Brazil an independent monarchy.
Pedro's personality was enigmatic and his rule erratic. He resisted Portugal's efforts to restore the colonial regime yet granted economic concessions to Britain that compromised Brazilian sovereignty. Although he appeared to be liberal and flexible in his policies and choice of advisors, he dissolved the Constituent Assembly in 1823. He granted (1824) a new constitution that satisfied neither republicans nor monarchists. A disastrous war (1825-28) with Argentina, preoccupation with affairs in Portugal--where his daughter's right to the crown was being challenged by his brother, Miguel--and a revolt in Rio de Janeiro precipitated Pedro's abdication (1831) in favor of his five-year-old son, Pedro II. Pedro I then returned to Portugal, where he engineered the defeat of his brother and had his daughter declared of age to be crowned Queen MARIA II.
Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil
Pedro II (Pedro de Alcantara), b. Dec. 2, 1825, d. Dec. 5, 1891, second and last emperor of Brazil (1831-89), was a liberal-minded reformist best remembered for overseeing the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Pedro, who succeeded his father Pedro I, was far more successful as a linguist and scientist than he was as a ruler; his reign was marred by a number of internal revolts and conflicts with neighboring countries. Unrest among planters, the military, and the republicans finally culminated in a coup that overthrew the emperor and established (1889) the first republic. Pedro spent the last two years of his life with his family in Europe.
Leopoldina and future Pedro II
