King of Portugal

“ If the king of Portugal should leave no male issue, his daughter shall be our queen, provided she marry a Portugueze nobleman; who, however, shall not bear the title of king till after the birth of a male child. In presence of the queen, he shall always be placed on her left hand, and shall not be permitted to wear the regal crown. ”

“ Things inadmissible to our present civilisation were not so to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—above all when the deed was that of an absolute king who had to render an account to God alone.
There is no doubt that the wealth and therefore the influence successively acquired by the nobility had reached such a pitch that they absorbed the best revenues of the land, vexing the people by the insolence, cupidity, and abuses which oppressed the vassals of the great lords and proprietors, though Portugal happily never suffered the terrors of feudalism. ”

“ In 1799 he assumed the title of regent, which he retained until his mother’s death in 1816. (For the political history of his regency, see Portugal.) In 1816 he was recognized as king of Portugal but he continued to reside in Brazil; the consequent spread of dissatisfaction resulted in the peaceful revolution of 1820, and the proclamation of a constitutional government, to which he swore fidelity on his return to Portugal in 1822. ”

“ The king of Portugal, in the mean time, was particularly active in disposing every thing in such a manner, as to secure his newly acquired throne, and place it on the firmest foundation. Immediately on his arrival at Lisbon, he appointed governors to all the frontier towns, and took care to make choice of faithful, brave, and experienced men, who set off directly for their respective governments, attended by a sufficient number of the military, and lost no time in fortifying and putting in the best state of defence the different places committed to their charge. ”

“ Eman′uel I, king of Portugal, called the Great or the Fortunate, was born on May 3, 1469, and became king in 1495. His reign is known as the golden age of Portugal. He prepared the code of laws which bears his name, and made his court a center of chivalry, art and science. ”

“ Couriers were dispatched the same evening into all the provinces, to engage the people to offer public thanksgivings to Almighty God for the restoration of their liberty; to proclaim the duke of Braganza king of Portugal, and to secure the persons of all Spaniards throughout the whole of the kingdom. Magnificent preparations were made in Lisbon for the reception of the new monarch, whose arrival was hourly expected; and the archbishop acquainted the vice-queen that it was necessary she should quit the palace, which must now be occupied by the king and his household. ”

“ Should the king’s daughter infringe this article and become the wife of a prince or nobleman of another country, she shall not be acknowledged queen; and this, because we will not suffer our people to be ruled by a king who was not born a Portugueze, since it is to our subjects and countrymen alone, without any foreign aid, who shed their blood in our service, and by their valour raised our country to regal dignity.
By the strict observance of the above wise laws, the crown of Portugal remained for several centuries in the possession of the royal family of Alphonso. ”

“ That is a [Pg xi] fact that must uplift and inspire those who study Portugal’s history or consider her future. For the Portuguese of the sixteenth century fought not against or not only against hordes of undisciplined savages, but against Moors and Turks highly civilised and well equipped with artillery.
Perhaps the secret of their success is that their motto was “God, King, and Country,” and that each man among them relied, under Heaven, on himself, not on this or that sect or party or philosophy, election promises or political programmes. ”

“ The great affection felt by the Portugueze for this monarch, will not appear extraordinary, if we trace back the whole of his conduct from the commencement of his administration as regent, and the situation of Portugal at the moment he took into his own hands the reins of government. Having settled every thing relative to the abdication of the king, with the states-general, his next care was to convince the people, that his true and only motive for taking upon himself the sovereign authority, was the good of the public. ”

“ About this time new instructions came from the regency of Portugal, announcing that Philip II. of Spain had been admitted as king of Portugal, and enjoining the governor and all the Portuguese in India to take the oath of allegiance to the new sovereign. ”

“ The certainty of his fate deprived him of speech; and the grand chamberlain, don Rodrigo de Sáa, having first fired at him with a pistol, the others stabbed him repeatedly with their swords, and throwing him out of the window, shouted, “The tyrant is dead; liberty for ever; long live don John, king of Portugal!”
These shouts were joyfully re-echoed by the populace, on seeing the body drop amongst them. ”

“ In 1820 the Cortes adopted a Constitution, and the King, John VI., returning from Brazil in 1821, swore to observe it, accepting it for Portugal and Brazil.
In 1826 John VI. died, and the Portuguese crown should descend in the regular line to his eldest son, Dom Pedro, then reigning in Brazil. As Emperor of the latter country, he could not at the same time be king of Portugal. Hence, in 1826, he renounced his claim to the Portuguese throne in favor of his daughter, Maria da Gloria, a child of seven years. ”

“ Not that a Restoration need be considered of any very great importance: if the moderate Republicans can provide a stable Government sensible Royalists would no doubt cease from all opposition to the Republic. But, of course, a Monarchy is in accordance with the old traditions of Portugal, and has value with regard to the colonial empire, in which unrest has increased, and very naturally, since the Revolution: the natives more readily yield obeisance to a king than to an abstraction. ”

“ The Queen of Portugal knew that I had deprived her of her secretary, fellow-gossip, reader, Spanish teacher, stewardess, confidante, and lady-in-waiting. She wrote to me complaining about this, and on taking leave of the King to go and reign in Portugal, she said, with rather a forced air of raillery:
"I shall hate you as long as I live, and if ever you do me the honour of paying me a visit some day at Lisbon, I'll have you burned for your pains." ”

“ The history of Portugal for many years has been a story of gradual decadence. The secret societies aided by English encouragement have honeycombed the country until the terror of the lodges invaded every institution and home in the land. A dynasty represented by a king like Carlos I., who showed himself utterly incapable of manly feelings or kingly instincts, gave color to the evil machinations of the hypocritical crew who love to feast upon the decay of ancient glory. ”

“ Pedro II, who ruled as Regent from 1656 to 1683, and as King from 1683 to 1706, was little better educated than his unfortunate brother, but he proved a wise and capable statesman with the good of his country constantly at heart. If personal ambition seemed to mark the first events of his public life, he redeemed these faults by a real devotion to Portuguese interests, and under his rule Portugal again attained a degree of importance which was clearly shown at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession, when all the European Powers eagerly sought her assistance. ”

“ About the beginning of the fifth Century, the Swedes, the Vandals, and all those other barbarous Nations, generally known by the Name of Goths, over-run the Empire; and, amongst other Places, made themselves Masters of the Provinces of Spain. Portugal was then made a Kingdom, and was sometimes govern'd by its own Prince, at other times it was reckon'd part of the Dominions of the King of Castile. ”

“ As it is plain the Portuguese, from the beginning, believed their religion could only be established by force, and were persuaded such means were lawful, the blame of so much bloodshed for so many years, and the total miscarriage of the whole scheme at last, lay at the door of their sovereign, the king of Spain and Portugal ”

“ The said peace was first negotiated by Dom João da Silveira, baron d'Alvito, member of the council of the said king of Portugal and his private secretary, inspector of the treasury, and chancellor-in-chief of the said prince of Portugal, and by Pero Botello and Rodrigo Alfonso, knights and members of the council of the said king of Portugal. ”

“ The events of 1820 in Portugal hastened the movement toward independence. Fired by the success of their Spanish comrades, the Portuguese liberals forthwith rose in revolt, demanded the establishment of a limited monarchy, and insisted that the King return to his people. In similar fashion, also, they drew up a constitution which provided for the representation of Brazil by deputies in a future Cortes. ”

“ In these the Spaniards and Portuguese played small part, according to the British histories, except to harass French communications by their guerillas and harass British security by their intrigues and jealousies.
But there is something to be said for the natives. The French democratic principles had made some progress in Portugal, and the cowardly and stupid king who fled to a colony and left his country for a foreigner to defend was not of much inspiration. In fact patriotism found here little to cling to except the rocks and vines, and those would remain in any case, whoever ruled. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The King’s untiring energy had the great incentive that whatever territory he won from the Moors he held in his own right, and if this territory became greater than that originally held in fealty to León, Portugal would almost naturally become independent. ”

“ She has almost completed national unity by the marriage of Isabella, the Queen of Castile, with Ferdinand, the King of Aragon. Then, with all her long sea-coast and the sea-going habits of its inhabitants, she will become for a while the greatest naval power in the world and play a leading part in the story. Portugal is independent of her and is opening up the trade with the East round the Cape of Good Hope.
Italy, as we have seen, is split into the five principal States, and has far to go yet before she can be one nation. ”

“ As soon as the news of the Cabot voyages reached the King of Portugal he arranged to send an expedition of discovery to the far north-west, perhaps to find a northern sea route to Eastern Asia. ”

“ As for the rest of the nobility, the only course was to remove them from the country, sending them to fill honourable posts in Flanders, Germany, and Italy. Proceeding in this manner the kingdom of Portugal could be monopolised and reduced to a province, and the people rendered powerless to make any movement; but by burdening them with taxes and subsidies, their anger would be roused, and hatred awakened, which would be fatal to the Spanish monarchy. ”

“ It is after all little more than a label (the label “Monarchy” being more useful in an Empire) ; the thing required is a Government willing and able to employ the services of all Portuguese in the work of making Portugal once more great and prosperous, to give free scope to individual energies under a régime of true liberty and toleration. ”

“ Meanwhile the Portuguese monarchy approached the summit of its power and glory. While Spain, under the dominion of Ferdinand and Isabella, began to form itself internally into a single state, the government and people of Portugal directed their attention to discoveries and conquests in Africa and India. A peculiar union of the heroism of chivalry, and the industry of social life which prevailed in Portugal, under the auspices of her enterprising sovereigns, impressed on the nation a consciousness of power, in which the Portuguese were in no respect inferior to the Castilians. ”

“ Education is backward. The Government is a limited monarchy, there being two houses of Parliament—Peers and Deputies. The Azores and Madeira are part of the kingdom; there are colonies in Africa and Asia, in which slavery was abolished only in 1878. The 14th and 15th centuries saw the zenith of Portugal's fortunes. At that time, in strict alliance with England, she raised herself by her enterprise to the foremost maritime and commercial power of Europe; her navigators founded Brazil, and colonised India. ”

“ The Portuguese flag fluttered over the most remote countries of the wealthy East. Her commerce sucked fabulous wealth from the abundant breasts of old Asia. India resigned herself to the conquest; Brazil was beginning to be peopled; China and Japan discovered, Oceania subjected, Abyssinia explored, were rich harvests of glory and gold, of heroic deeds and vast fortunes for Portugal. But this gold scarcely circulated in the country; instead of benefiting the latter, it went to enrich England, to give power to Italy and Flanders, stupidly to fill the ever insatiable coffers of the Vatican. ”

“ Few states have won back and maintained their independence in such masterful fashion as did Portugal, in the long ‘War of Independence’ that followed the insurrection of 1640 under the house of Braganza. But intense national spirit and heroic obstinacy on the part of the smaller people are not sufficient to account for the survival of the Portuguese kingdom as a separate entity. Its geography, which at the first sight seems hopelessly unfavourable to its defence, turns out on investigation to be eminently suitable for resistance against an attack from the east. ”