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Portugal Revolution of 1820
In 1816 Maria I, after twenty-four years of insanity,
died
and the prince regent was proclaimed João VI (r.1816-26).
The new
king, who had acquired a court and government in Brazil
and a
following among the Brazilians, did not immediately return
to
Portugal, and liberals continued to agitate against the
monarchy.
In May 1817, General Gomes Freire Andrade was arrested on
treason
charges and hanged, as were eleven alleged accomplices.
Beresford, who was still commander in chief of the
Portuguese
army, was popularly blamed for the harshness of the
sentences,
which aggravated unrest in the country. The most active
center of
Portuguese liberalism was Porto, where the Sinédrio was
situated
and quickly gaining adherents. In March 1820, Beresford
went to
Brazil to persuade the king to return to the throne. His
departure allowed the influence of the liberals to grow
within
the army, which had emerged from the Peninsular Wars as
Portugal's strongest institution. On August 24, 1820,
regiments
in Porto revolted and established a provisional junta that
assumed the government of Portugal until a cortes could be
convoked to write a constitution. The regency was bypassed
because it was unable to cope with Portugal's financial
crisis,
and Beresford was not allowed to enter the country when he
returned from Brazil.
In December 1820, indirect elections were held for a
constitutional cortes, which convened in January 1821. The
deputies were mostly constitutional monarchists. They
elected a
regency to replace the provisional junta, abolished
seigniorial
rights and the Inquisition, and, on September 23, approved
a
constitution. At the same time, João VI decided to return
to
Portugal, leaving his son Pedro in Brazil. Upon his
arrival in
Lisbon, João swore an oath to uphold the new constitution.
After
his departure from Brazil, Brazilian liberals, inspired by
the
independence of the United States and the independence
struggles
in the neighboring Spanish colonies, began to agitate for
freedom
from Portugal. Brazilian independence was proclaimed on
October
12, 1822, with Pedro as constitutional emperor.
The constitution of 1822 installed a constitutional
monarchy
in Portugal. It declared that sovereignty rested with the
nation
and established three branches of government in classical
liberal
fashion. Legislative power was exercised by a directly
elected,
unicameral Chamber of Deputies; executive power was vested
in the
king and his secretaries of state; and judicial power was
in the
hands of the courts. The king and his secretaries of state
had no
representation in the chamber and no power to dissolve it.
Two broad divisions emerged in Portuguese society over
the
issue of the constitution. On the one hand were the
liberals who
defended it, and on the other, the royalists who favored
absolutism. The first reaction to the new liberal regime
surfaced
in February 1823 in Trás-os-Montes where the count of
Amarante, a
leading absolutist, led an insurrection. Later, in May,
Amarante
once again sounded the call to arms, and an infantry
regiment
rose at Vila Franca de Xira, just north of Lisbon. Some of
the
Lisbon garrison joined the absolutists, as did the king's
younger
brother, Miguel, who had refused to swear to uphold the
constitution. After the Vilafrancada, as the uprising is
known,
Miguel was made generalíssimo of the army. In April 1824,
Miguel
led a new revolt--the Abrilada--which sought to restore
absolutism. João, supported by Beresford, who had been
allowed to
return to Portugal, dismissed Miguel from his post as
generalíssimo and exiled him to France. The constitution
of 1822
was suspended, and Portugal was governed under João's
moderate
absolutism until he died in 1826.
Data as of January 1993
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