House of Braganza

“ Rio was therefore the best adapted for the asylum of the illustrious house of Braganza, and, on the 26th February, His Royal Highness sailed from Bahia, and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on the 7th March. ”

“ The people very Martial; and 'tis but a few years since they would be under no Government, but have now submitted to the House of Braganza, which makes a Pretty Penny out of them. Their Customs are very nasty; their Houses mar [61] vellously foul; and they are for ever smoking of Tobacco; but the Portugees are still a very friendly folk, cordial to us English, although they call us Heretics, and, but for their great love for roasting Jews, very tender-hearted. I like them much better than those Proud Paupers the Spaniards. A Beggar on Horseback is bad enough ”

“ The exiled king, Miguel, founded a branch of the family of Braganza which settled in Bavaria, and various noble families in Portugal are descended from cadets of this house. The title of duke of Braganza is now borne by the eldest son of the king of Portugal.
BRAGG, BRAXTON (1817-1876) , American soldier, was born in Warren county, North Carolina, on the 22nd of March 1817. He graduated at the United States military academy in 1837, and as an artillery officer served in the Seminole wars of 1837 and 1841, and under General Taylor in Mexico. ”

“ Seated in the centre of the province of Minho, in the very garden of Portugal, with abundant streams and fertile valleys for miles round, protected by the mountains on each side that enclose the plain from inclement winds, the town is in an ideal situation. Forming, as it did in old times, one of the fiefs of the left-handed royal house of Braganza, that made the dukes richer than the king, one of the legitimate Infantes is said to have exclaimed jealously, as he looked down upon the rich domain, Quem te deu não te via ”

“ The magnificent and extensive ruins of the palace of Braganza contain several hundreds of these idle people, much more wretched in their appearance than the gypsies of England. ↑ The Praça de Commercio, or Forum of Commerce, is one of the largest and most magnificent squares in Europe. Three sides consist of the Exchange and the public offices; the fourth is formed by the Tagus, which is here edged by an extensive and noble wharf, built of coarse marble. ”

“ Braganza was not so willing to resign its pretensions. The intrusive government had not been re-established in that city, notwithstanding the efforts of its adherents, and the apparent assent of General Sepulveda. Their penitent letters to the French ministry were stopped at Villa Real, where the people proclaimed their lawful Prince; and when the Braganzans, upon tidings of the second insurrection at Porto, formed a Junta, and required obedience to its edicts, its authority was disowned there. ”

“ Her first care on her marriage was to obtain the esteem and confidence of her husband, and she succeeded perfectly in her design, by her exemplary conduct, solid piety, and obliging compliance with his favourite pursuits. Indifferent to all the pleasures natural to her age and quality, she passed every leisure hour in cultivating her understanding, and adding fresh force to the natural strength and justness of her judgment. The duke of Braganza felt himself happy in the possession of so truly accomplished and amiable a woman ”

“ He illuminated his house, which was the signal for a general illumination: he ordered such arms as were in the city to be made ready for service, sent to Chaves for more, offered pardon to deserters upon their repairing to Braganza, called upon all reduced officers to come forward, and issued orders to all the governors and Capitaens mores within his jurisdiction to proclaim their lawful Prince, and enrol the peasantry for the service of their ♦Neves, iii. ”

“ The prospect of so great an enterprise excited the natural courage of her character, and awakened every aspiring sentiment in her bosom. She asked Braganza [15] in what manner he would act, in case his refusal of the crown should end in Portugal’s becoming a republic, and how he would conduct himself between that new form of government and the king of Spain? to which the duke replied, that he should ever remain inviolably attached to the interests of his country. ”

“ Securing the person of the duke was an object of so very great importance to the king his master, that he was determined on using all possible means to succeed in his design; but so great was the attachment of the Portugueze to the family of Braganza, that open force could not be attempted; he therefore sought to seduce him by the most flattering caresses, and to draw him from his retreat by professions of the sincerest friendship, and marks of unlimited confidence. ”

“ The Marquis of Tavora’s family had a nearer claim to the crown than that Duke of Braganza who got it, but not being [159] personally so well qualified for so great an attempt, or for want of alliances or other means, they were quietly governed by Spain, but when the Braganzas gained the Royal dignity, they grudged it to them, and ambition and envy may easily form conspiracy and assassination. Twelve of the first nobility will be brought to the scaffold. ”

“ Considerable difference of opinion exists as to the fate of the Braganza after King John's death. Did he give it to Don Miguel his second son? or was it a crown jewel and as such did it devolve upon Don Pedro the eldest along with [Pg 147] the kingdom of Portugal? Don Pedro preferred the young empire of Brazil to the old kingdom of Portugal, which he gave to his little daughter Donna Maria da Gloria for whom he contracted that unnatural marriage with his own brother. ”

“ These miserable wretches, so suddenly removed from a frightful dungeon, with the fear of a speedy death continually in their thoughts, and restored to the participation of the liberty now to be enjoyed by their country, were so grateful to their deliverers, and so apprehensive of falling once more into the hands of their tormentors, that they formed another company of conspirators, not less solicitous to secure the throne to the duke of Braganza, than the body of nobility who originally planned the revolution. ”

“ Such divisions amongst the first families of the nation, were calculated to ensure the safety and quiet of the minister, who had good reason to believe, that whilst the heads of those families were employed in planning schemes of private revenge, they would never be tempted to undertake any thing inimical to the government. The duke of Braganza alone, throughout the whole of Portugal, was in a situation to cause the Spaniards the smallest uneasiness. ”

“ The territory west of Braganza is reported to be mountainous, well wooded and watered; wild coffee is abundant, and the people even make their huts of coffee-trees. The rivers Dande, Senza, and Lucalla are said to rise in one mountain range. Numerous tribes inhabit the country to the north, who are all independent. The Portuguese power extends chiefly over the tribes through whose lands we have passed. It may be said to be firmly seated only between the rivers Dande and Coanza. It extends inland about three hundred miles to the River Quango ”

“ In 1580 Philip II. of Spain claimed the crown of Portugal, and governed it by a regent. In 1640 Margaret was regent, and Velasquez her chief minister, a man exceedingly obnoxious to the Portuguese. Don Juan and his wife Louisa of Braganza being very popular, a conspiracy was formed to shake off the Spanish yoke. Velasquez was torn to death by the populace, and don Juan of Braganza was proclaimed king.
Louisa duchess of Braganza. Her character is thus described:
Bright Louisa,
To all the softness of her tender sex, Unites the noblest qualities of man: A genius to embrace the amplest schemes... ”

“ Sepulveda found as little obedience in Torre de Moncorvo and some other74 Juntas in that district, when he issued a circular order requiring that every town which was entitled to a voice in the Cortes should send a deputy to assist at the provincial Junta of Tras os Montes, the title which that of Braganza had assumed. Opposed in their pretensions on that side, after contesting the authority of the Porto Junta, concluding a treaty with it, and then again disputing with it, and arraigning its measures, the Junta of Braganza ended at length in ♦Neves, iii. 151–162. ”

“ Where is your loyalty?” Meanwhile some of the conspirators, having forced open all the doors they had found closed, courteously compelled her to withdraw from the window. She wished to descend to the courtyard, and as the nobles prevented her: “Enough, gentlemen!” she cried, “the guilty minister has already paid for his sins. Go no further, I pledge my word that the king of Castile shall not merely pardon you, but shall thank you for having delivered the kingdom from the excesses of the secretary.” The nobles replied that they no longer recognised any king but Dom João de Braganza. ”

“ Don GASPAR ALONCO Perez de Gusman, Duke of Medina Sidonia, Marquiss, Earl, and Baron of Saint Lucar de Barameda, Captain General of the Ocean, of the Coasts of Andalusia, and of the Armies of Portugal, Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to his Catholick Majesty;
Whom God Preserve.
hereas nothing has been more conspicuous to the whole World, than the treasonable Practices of John late Duke of Braganza ”

“ Wrung with grief, sick, pale, and languid, Kara Aziek could not have been seen by the man she wished to charm, at a moment more unfavourable for personal beauty; but there is a beauty of the soul, so transcending all mortal perfections, that it triumphs over deformity itself: that beauty now beamed from her tear-dimmed eyes and colourless cheek; it seemed to shed a glory round her, at once awaking love and veneration. Sebastian must have yielded to its sweet force, had not his heart been pledged to another. ”

“ In Portugal the revolution was primarily the work of the nobility, exasperated by Spanish arrogance and exclusiveness; but they were effectually supported by the people for the same reason; and the state of Spain, financially decrepit and embroiled in war abroad and rebellion in Catalonia, left the new dynasty of Braganza able to maintain itself, with French help, against the clerical and other elements of pro-Spanish reaction. The overthrow of the Dutch in Brazil was almost against the new king's will, for they had at first supported him against Spain ”

“ For in April, 1831, a revolt in Brazil had obliged the emperor Dom Pedro to resign his throne in favour of his son, Dom Pedro II, who was still a minor. In Europe a task lay ready to his hand: that of assisting his daughter Maria da Gloria to her throne, and at the same time freeing Portugal from her tyrant.
Countenanced by England and France, the duke of Braganza, as Dom Pedro now called himself, obtained a small land-force and a fleet, and with these he appeared at Terceira in March, 1832. ”

“ Don Antonio de Menezes answer'd, and assur'd her, "That so many Persons of Quality had not taken up Arms to murder a Wretch, who ought to have lost his Life by the hands of the common Hangman; but that their Design was to restore the Crown to the Duke of Braganza, to whom it lawfully belong'd, and which the King of Spain had unjustly usurp'd; and that they were all ready to sacrifice their Lives in so glorious a Cause." ”

“ But the instinctive unpopularity of the fourth Philip’s sway in Portugal, especially as deputed to a Spanish Vice-Regal lady, made more apparent the liberal and virtuous Duke of Braganza’s popularity with the Portuguese nation. After a deceitful calm, a very summary insurrection put the crown on the Duke’s head, and enthroned him in Lisbon as King John IV. This was in December 1640. For sixteen years he successfully defended his frontiers against the Spaniards, who could not attempt any bold stroke, on account of the drain upon their resources made by their war in Flanders. ”

“ This he was about to do, when he was interrupted, and the breaking out of the rebellion saved the duke from any similar attempt.—Robert Jephson, Braganza (1775) .
Rami ́ro (King) married Aldonza, who, being faithless, eloped with Alboa ́zar, the Moorish king of Gaya. Ramiro came disguised as a traveller to Alboazar’s castle, and asked a damsel for a draught of water, and when he lifted the pitcher to his mouth, he dropped in it his betrothal ring, which Aldonza saw and recognized. She told the damsel to bring the stranger to her apartment. ”