Manuel II (Portugal)
Manuel II ( Portuguese Dom Manuel II ), with the nickname of the Patriot ( Portuguese o Patriota ) or the unfortunate ( Portuguese o Desventurado ), (born November 15, 1889 in Lisbon , † July 2, 1932 in Fullwell Park ) was from 1908 to 1910 the last king of Portugal . He came from the Portuguese branch of the Wettins of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , which died out with him. His full name was Manuel Maria Filipe Carlos Amélio Luís Miguel Rafael Gonzaga Xavier Francisco de Assis Eugénio de Saxe-Coburgo-Gotha e Bragança .
Life
Manuel II was the second son of Charles I of Portugal and his wife Amélie von Orléans . The circumstances of his accession to the throne were dramatic. On February 1, 1908, his father, the king, and his older brother, Crown Prince Ludwig Philipp , were killed in an assassination attempt. Emanuel ascended the Portuguese throne at the age of 18.
The reign of his father was marked by a rapid loss of reputation of the Portuguese monarchy and by a strong growth of republican and socialist currents. His father had finally appointed João Franco ( Liberal Regeneration Party ) as prime minister, who ruled by dictatorial means and persecuted the Republicans with a hard hand. As a first act after his accession to the throne, Manuel II dismissed João Franco, whom he blamed for the deaths of his father and brother because of his indomitable policy towards the Republicans. The new government appointed by Manuel II issued the motto of the "policy of calming" (Politica de Acalmação) . Most of the anti-Republican measures taken by the Franco government have been revoked, and censorship has also been lifted. New elections were called in which the Republicans could achieve their greatest success to date.
These calming measures could not change the bad reputation of the monarchy, the reforms came too late and were not sufficient. The king also had to struggle with the fact that the representatives of the official monarchist parties were hopelessly at odds with one another. In addition, because of the overwhelming sympathy of the intellectuals in Portugal for the Republicans, it was difficult to find suitable candidates for the government at all.
On October 3, 1910, Republican MP Miguel Bombarda , a psychiatrist and thought leader of the Republican movement, was murdered by a former patient under unexplained circumstances. That night, even if the act apparently had no political background, riots broke out in Lisbon and other major cities in the country. Two days later a provisional government was formed under the leadership of the republican Teófilo Braga , and the republic was proclaimed in Porto on October 5, 1910 . Manuel II went into exile in England . With him ended the 771-year history of the Portuguese monarchy .
Developments in Exile
In 1913, already in exile, he married Auguste Viktoria von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen . The marriage remained childless. In 1911, 1912 and especially 1918 there were uprisings of the monarchists against the first republic in Portugal. In 1918 the kingdom was even proclaimed again. Manuel II could not make up his mind to support the putschists, and the republic was able to defend itself against these attempts at overthrow.
In addition to Manuel II, there was another exiled Portuguese royal family, the so-called Legitimists , the descendants of King Michael I. After he had been forced into exile in the Miguelistenkrieg , he never officially abdicated. His descendants also maintained their claim to the Portuguese throne, so they did not recognize the kings of the Saxon-Coburg-Gotha family. In 1921 it was already foreseeable that Manuel II could not have children of his own and that the Portuguese line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha would end with him. Manuel II recognized the head of the legitimist line, Duarte II Nuno von Braganza , a grandson of King Michael, as his successor. The two warring lines were thus reconciled, at least in exile. The current Portuguese pretender to the throne is Duarte III. Pio , son of that Duarte II. Nuno.
See also: History of Portugal , Timeline of Portugal , First Portuguese Republic
ancestors
| Pedigree of Manuel II, King of Portugal (1908–1910) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great-great-grandparents |
Prince Ferdinand von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld |
|
|
|
|
Hereditary Grand Duke |
|
|
| Great grandparents |
|
|
Prince |
Prince |
||||
| Grandparents |
|
Prince Louis Philippe Albert d'Orléans, comte de Paris |
||||||
| parents |
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
Individual evidence
- ↑ WDR: 100 years ago: Portugal's King Manuel II is overthrown , October 4, 2010
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Charles I. |
King of Portugal 1908–1910 |
- Office canceled |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Manuel II |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Emanuel II |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese nobleman, King of Portugal (1908–1910) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 15, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lisbon |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 2, 1932 |
| Place of death | Fullwell Park |