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Portugal Moderate vs. Radical Liberals
Pedro survived his victory by less than three months.
After
his death, fifteen-year-old Maria da Glória was proclaimed
queen
as Maria II (r.1834-53). Despite their victory over the
absolutists, the liberals were themselves divided between
moderates, who supported the principles of the charter,
and
radicals, who wanted a return to the constitution of 1822.
Maria's first government was made up of moderates headed
by the
duke of Palmela, whose government collapsed in May 1835.
He was
succeeded by the duke of Saldanha, whose government fell
in May
1836. In July 1836, radicals were elected from Porto by
advocating a return to the constitution of 1822 as a way
of
resolving Portugal's economic crisis. When these deputies
arrived
in Lisbon, they were met by demonstrations supporting
their
cause. The following day, the moderate liberal government
collapsed and, in September, the radicals, led by Manuel
da Silva
Passos, formed a new government. The radicals nullified
the
Constitutional Charter and reestablished the constitution
of 1822
until it could be revised by a constituent cortes to make
it more
compatible with changed social and economic circumstances.
The actions of the radicals resulted in a violent
reaction
from the moderates, who saw their power threatened and
considered
the charter the symbol of the liberal victory in the War
of Two
Brothers. As a compromise, the Constituent Assembly,
convoked in
March 1838, attempted to reconcile the constitution of
1822 and
the Constitutional Charter. In April 1838, Portugal's
third
constitution was approved. The document abolished the
royal
moderative power and returned to liberalism's classical
tripartite division of government into legislative,
executive,
and judicial branches. It reaffirmed, as did the 1822
constitution, that sovereignty rested with the nation. It
abolished the Chamber of Peers and substituted a Chamber
of
Senators, and it established direct election of the
Chamber of
Deputies, although only selected citizens were allowed to
vote.
The monarch's role was enhanced and the Chamber of
Senators was
restricted to leading citizens, or notables.
The radicals, now called Septemberists after the
September
1836 revolution, held office until June 1841. On that
date, they
were replaced in a bloodless coup d'état by moderates, who
abolished the 1838 constitution and restored the charter.
António
Bernardo da Costa Cabral, who organized and led the
revolt, took
various measures designed to reform Portugal's political,
economic, and social systems. Some of these measures,
especially
new sanitary regulations that prohibited burials in
churchyards,
stirred the rural countryside, still Miguelist, into
active
resistance against the liberal government in Lisbon.
The women of the Minho region, who had traditionally
played
an important role in churchyard burials, began to
demonstrate
against the authorities. Supported by the rural nobility
and
clergy, the Maria da Fontes, as this movement was called,
spread
throughout the rural north. Unable to suppress it by
force, the
government of Costa Cabral fell on May 20, 1846. The new
government, a confusing hodgepodge of radicals and
moderates,
rescinded the cemetery regulations. The government divided
when
the duke of Palmela, who was its prime minister, called
for new
elections in October, hoping to unite the moderates,
themselves
divided into two factions. This sparked a reaction by the
Septemberists, who were particularly strong in Porto,
where they
rebelled and set up a provisional junta. The duke of
Saldanha,
Palmela's replacement, attempted without success to
suppress the
Septemberist rebellion, which by now had spread beyond
Porto to
other areas. With the country on the brink of a second
civil war,
Queen Maria sought help from the Quadruple Alliance,
consisting
of Britain and France, as well as Spanish and Portuguese
liberal
elements. After the alliance imposed a naval blockade and
sent
troops, the Septemberists capitulated, Saldanha resigned,
and a
peace agreement was signed on June 29, 1847. Costa Cabral
returned to power.
Data as of January 1993
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