Maria I (Portugal)
_-_Google_Cultural_Institute.jpg)
Maria I (complete: Maria Francisca Isabel Josefa Antónia Gertrudes Rita Joana de Bragança) (* December 17, 1734 in Lisbon ; † March 20, 1816 in Rio de Janeiro ) was Queen of Portugal from the House of Braganza from 1777 to 1816 and in 1815 until 1816 also Queen of Brazil . She was the first woman on the Portuguese throne.
Early years
Maria I, called "the Pious" ( Portuguese a Piedosa ), was the eldest daughter of Joseph I of Portugal and his wife Maria Anna Viktoria of Spain . She was born in the Ribeira Palace in Lisbon and baptized under the name Maria Francisca Isabel Josefa Antónia Gertrudes Rita Joana . On the day she was born, her grandfather, King John V of Portugal , made her Princess of Beira.
When her father ascended the throne as Joseph I in 1750 , Maria became heir to the throne at the age of 16 and was the eldest child, and subsequently received the traditional titles of Princess of Brazil and Duchess of Braganza .
childhood
Maria grew up at a time when her father's government was completely dominated by the first Marquês de Pombal. Her father often withdrew to the palace in Queluz , which was later given to Maria and her husband. The Marquês took control of the government on November 1, 1755 after the terrible earthquake in Lisbon that killed around 100,000 people (the palace where Maria was born was also destroyed in the disaster).
After the earthquake, Maria's father often felt uncomfortable at the thought of staying in closed rooms and later suffered from claustrophobia. The king had a palace built in Ajuda, outside the city center. This palace became known as the Real Barraca de Ajuda (Ajuda Royal Hut) because it was made of wood. The family spent much of their time in the grand palace and it was the birthplace of Maria's first child. In 1794 the palace burned down and the Palace of Ajuda was built in its place .
Her father had no sons and Maria became heir to the throne. But as the female succession at this time but was still very unusual in Portugal, married her father Joseph I . his daughter with his younger brother Peter III. who would have been called next if he had retained the male line of succession. So it was that 26-year-old Maria married her own 43-year-old uncle in 1760 .
They had six children, of whom the eldest surviving son Maria followed after her death in 1816 as Johann VI .
Domination
When her father died in 1777, Maria became the first undisputed queen to ascend the Portuguese throne. Formally, she ruled together with her husband as an equal king, but the actual royal authority lay exclusively with Maria, since she was the direct heir to the crown and Peter III. showed little interest in the government. Since Peter's kingship was only jure uxoris, his reign would end in the event of Mary's death and the crown would be passed on to Mary's descendants. However, Peter died before his wife in 1786. Maria was considered a good ruler in the time before her madness.
Her first act as queen was to dismiss the kingdom's popular secretary of state, the Marquês de Pombal, whom she hated. Pombal tried to make Portugal a modern state through a series of reforms. From the old, clerical kingdom, he formed an enlightened absolutist state. However, these reforms quickly brought him into opposition to the Catholic Church , which he then consistently fought against (e.g. prohibition of the influential Jesuit order in Portugal and Brazil in 1759). Maria, on the other hand, was very pious, which is why she did not endorse Pombal's anti-clerical policy. As soon as she ascended the throne, she therefore dismissed Pombal just eight days after her father's death. From then on, Pombal was under house arrest until the end of his life. She reversed a number of the Margrave's anti-church reforms, released the political prisoners, but continued his foreign and economic policy. The renewal of the country's infrastructure was continued, the previous deficit in foreign trade with England was reduced and at the same time dependence on England was reduced through a diversification of trade and an alliance with Russia .
Notable events of this period include Portugal's membership in the League of Armed Neutrality (July 1782) and the cession of Delagoa Bay from Austria in favor of Portugal in 1781.
Deterioration in mental state
After the death of her husband in 1786, the queen increasingly fell into exaggerated piety. As in 1788, the eldest son Joseph to the smallpox died, reinforced the mental instability of Mary. In February 1792, she was treated by Francis Willis - the same doctor who served King George III. treated by Britain - and classified as insane. Willis wanted to bring them to England, but the plan was rejected by the Portuguese Cortes. Soon all hopes for an improvement in her mental condition were dashed. Maria's second son and new heir, Johann, who later became King John VI. , took over the government on their behalf, although he did not assume the title of Prince Regent until 1799.
When the Real Barraca de Ajuda burned down in 1794, the Cortes had to move to Queluz, where the sick queen lay in her apartments all day. Visitors are said to have complained of horrific screams that echoed throughout the palace.
The Napoleonic Wars
In 1801, Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy sent an army to invade Portugal with the support of Napoleon , which led to the Orange War . Although the Spaniards ended their invasion, the Peace of Badajoz on June 6, 1801 forced Portugal, Olivença and other border towns to cede to Spain (this cession is not recognized by the current Portuguese government and the country still officially regards these areas as Portuguese possessions ). On September 29, 1801, John VI signed. the Treaty of Madrid (1801) and ceded half of Portuguese Guyana to France, which then became French Guiana .
The Portuguese government's refusal to join the French- led continental blockade against Great Britain culminated in the Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal in late 1807 under the leadership of General Junot . The ultimate Napoleonic plan for Portugal was to split it into three sections. The northern parts of Portugal, from the Douro to the Minho, were to become the kingdom of North Lusitania , and his throne was promised to King Ludwig II of Etruria . The province of Alentejo and the Kingdom of Algarve would be amalgamated to form the Principality of the Algarve, of which Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy would be sovereign. The rest of Portugal would have been ruled directly by France.
Escape to Brazil
At the urging of the British government, the entire Braganza dynasty decided to flee on November 29, 1807 in order to establish a government in exile in the Portuguese viceroyalty of Brazil. In the midst of a fit of madness, Maria was carried by her grandson Dom Miguel to the carriage that was to take her to the port. As they moved from the royal palace to the docks, they could be heard screaming throughout the journey. The queen's dementia was so severe that she feared she would be tortured or robbed by her servants during her transport. Together with the royal family, Maria was brought on board the Príncipe Real carrack. In the carriage she then uttered the famous sentence with a touch of former majesty: "Not so fast, otherwise people will still think we are fleeing!" (" Nicht vão tão depressa! Eles vão pensar que estamos a fugir! ")
In January 1808 the Prince Regent Johann VI came. and his court in Salvador da Bahia . Under pressure from the local aristocracy and the British, the Prince Regent signed a trade ordinance upon his arrival that opened trade between Brazil and friendly nations, which in this case was primarily in the interests of Great Britain. This law broke an important colonial pact that allowed Brazil to only maintain direct trade relations with Portugal.
On August 1, 1808, the British general Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington ) landed with a British army in Lisbon and thus triggered the war on the Iberian Peninsula . Wellesley's victory over Junot in the Battle of Vimeiro (August 21, 1808) led to negotiations by his superiors and resulted in the Cintra Convention (August 30, 1808). This enabled the French troops to withdraw peacefully from Portugal.
Wellesley (now Lord Wellington) returned to Portugal on April 22, 1809 to resume the campaign. The Portuguese armed forces, under British command, distinguished themselves by defending the lines of Torres Vedras (1809-1810) and the subsequent invasion of Spain and France. In 1815 the government of Prince Regent Johann proclaimed Brazil a kingdom. Brazil lost its colonial status and remained linked to the Kingdom of Portugal through a personal union. Maria I was thus appointed Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves . When Napoleon was finally defeated in 1815, Maria and her family stayed in Brazil.
Death and legacy
Maria lived a total of eight years in Brazil without ever actively taking over the government again. In 1816, she died at the age of 81 in the Carmo Monastery in Rio de Janeiro . After the royal family returned to Portugal in 1821, their remains were brought back to Portugal and buried in the Basílica da Estrela , which she and her husband had built as a thank you for the birth of their first son. Maria I and Peter I , buried in the Monumento à Independência do Brasil in São Paulo, are the only monarchs of the Portuguese Braganza dynasty who are not buried in the Panteão da Casa de Bragança . After her death, Prince Regent Johann was appointed King of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
Maria is a very admired figure in both Brazil and Portugal due to the tremendous changes and events that took place during her reign. In Portugal she is celebrated as a strong female figure. Her legacy shines in the Portuguese Queluz Palace, a masterpiece of Baroque Roccoco that she helped design. A large statue of her stands in front of the palace, and a pousada near the palace is named in her honor. A large marble statue of the Queen was placed in the Portuguese National Library in Lisbon by the students of Joaquim Machado de Castro .
In Brazil she is admired as a key figure for the later independence of Brazil . During her reign, albeit through her son's reign, many of Brazil's national institutions and organizations were established. These institutions were the forerunners of their current counterparts and granted the Brazilian colonial rulers a great deal of power. While she is often referred to as A Louca (The Mad One) in Brazil , Brazilian and Portuguese historians highly value her.
family
With her husband Peter III. she had the following children:
- Joseph Franz Xaver by Paola Dominik Antonius Augustin Anastasius (* August 21, 1761 - September 11, 1788 ), ⚭ 1777 Maria Francisca Benedita of Portugal , his aunt
- Joseph Johann (born September 26, 1763 ; † October 10, 1763 )
- Johann VI. ( May 13, 1767 - March 10, 1826 )
- Maria Anna Viktoria Josepha Franziska Xaver by Paola Antonia Johanna Dominika Gabriela (* December 15, 1768 - November 2, 1788 ), ⚭ 1785 Prince Gabriel of Spain , a younger son of King Charles III.
- Maria Clementina Franziska Xaver by Paola Anna Josepha Antonia Dominika Feliciana Johanna Michaela Julia (born June 9, 1774 - † June 27, 1776 )
- Maria Elisabeth (* December 22, 1776 - † January 14, 1777 )
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c H. V. Livermore: A History of Portugal . University Press, Cambridge 1947, pp. 352-375 .
- ^ O'Shea, John J .: Portugal, Paraguay and Pombal's Successors . In: The American Catholic Quarterly Review . tape XXXIII , 1908.
- ^ A b c Marques, Antonio Henrique de Oliveira .: History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire . Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38501-5 , pp. 327 .
- ^ A b Marques, Antonio Henrique de Oliveira .: History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire . Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38501-5 , pp. 328 .
- ^ Marques, Antonio Henrique de Oliveira .: History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire . Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38501-5 , pp. 292 .
- ↑ a b c Birmingham, David,: A concise history of Portugal . Third ed. Cambridge, United Kingdom, ISBN 978-1-108-42419-6 , pp. 93-107 .
- ↑ a b c H. V. Livermore: A History of Portugal . University Press, Cambridge 1947, pp. 376-403 .
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Joseph I. |
Queen of Portugal 1777–1786 together with Peter III. 1786-1816 alone |
Johann VI. |
| –– |
Queen of Brazil 1815–1816 |
Johann VI. |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maria I. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mary the Pious; Maria Piedosa |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Queen of Portugal and Brazil |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 17, 1734 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lisbon |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 20, 1816 |
| Place of death | Rio de Janeiro |