Pedro I ( ; English: Peter of Alcantara Francis
Anthony John Charles Xavier of Paula Michael Raphael Joachim Joseph
Gonzaga Pascal Cyprian Seraphim) (full name: Pedro de
Alcântara Francisco Antônio João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel
Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim), known
as "Dom Pedro Primeiro"
(October 12, 1798 – September 24, 1834), proclaimed Brazil
independent
from Portugal
and became
Brazil's first Emperor
. He
also held the
Portuguese throne
briefly as
Pedro IV of Portugal,
the
Soldier-King (
Port. o
Rei-Soldado), 28th (or 29th according to some historians) king
of
Portugal and the
Algarves.
Early years
Pedro was
born on 12 October 1798 at the Palácio Nacional de Queluz
, near Lisbon
. His
father was the prince regent at the time and would later become
King
John VI of Portugal (João
VI); his mother was
Charlotte of
Spain (Carlota Joaquina), daughter of
Charles IV of Spain. Under the full name
Pedro de Alcântara Francisco António João Carlos Xavier de
Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim
de Machado e Bragança e Bourbon, he was the second son born to
the royal couple. When his elder brother the
Infante (Prince) António Francisco died in
1801, Pedro was made
Prince of Beira
as he was the
heir-apparent of the
then-
Prince of Brazil, his father.
In 1807, when Pedro was nine, the royal family left Portugal as an
invading
French Army approached Lisbon.
(See
Napoleonic Wars.) They arrived
in Brazil with an English escort in early 1808. The family would
remain in the country for 13 years.
Their presence made Rio de Janeiro
the de facto capital of the Portuguese
Empire, and led to Brazil's elevation to the status of a kingdom
co-equal with Portugal.
It is said that Pedro was João's favorite son, although the same
could not be said about Carlota, who cherished her second son
Miguel. The education of Pedro I was very much neglected. Both
Pedro and his brother Miguel were brought up haphazardly. Pedro and
Miguel would often run away from their tutors to mingle with stable
boys and spent their days running around the streets with
uneducated children. This led the boys to pick up habits that may
have been considered uncouth by some of their contemporaries, and
the colloquialisms of the so-called
plebeian classes. As a
result of his familiarity with street life, Pedro grew up with
little respect for the symbols and conventions of his age. Because
of this, he felt himself to be the son of the people rather than
the son of royalty. All his life he would become familiar with
individuals in every different aspect of life.
Pedro adapted well to the Brazilian milieu. He was an excellent
horseman, enjoyed the military life, and could compete with common
soldiers and officers equally. Also, he demonstrated early musical
talents and later composed some music of creditable amateur
quality. Besides music, he displayed a knack for
drawing,
Sculpting, the
manual crafts, and even
poetry. He was considered to be handsome, and was
soon to be the talk of the town. Riding on horseback, he would
often be bold enough to draw back the curtains of passing coaches,
in search of beautiful women. His young endeavors with these women
would give him a bad reputation that he would not be able to shed
in the future.
In 1817, Pedro married Archduchess
Maria Leopoldina of Austria, a
daughter of
Francis II,
Holy Roman Emperor. Although she married him for imperial
reasons, she loved her husband even if it wasn’t reciprocal.
Throughout Pedro’s difficult days, she proved to be a devoted
collaborator. Leopoldina’s intelligence, consideration, and
personality quickly earned her the respect and admiration of the
Portuguese and Brazilians, as well as of her husband, but she was
unable to distract him from his amorous affairs. Leopoldina lacked
many of the feminine traits, which appealed to Pedro. She was very
modest in her appearance and had little interest in personal
adornment. As she began to get to know the Brazilians better and
understand their noble qualities of freedom and independence, she
started to love the Brazilians and considered herself as being
one.
João VI returned to Lisbon in 1821 because
Napoleon of France had been defeated and
the country was having problems with the liberal Cortéz. He did not
leave empty handed, however; he took from Rio de Janeiro to
Portugal all the money in the treasury, leaving his son Prince
Pedro behind in Rio to watch the Brazilian situation. Some of the
duties that came with being regent were the task of appointing and
dismissing ministers, administering justice, handling finances,
commuting, or pardoning death sentences, making war and concluding
peace, and conferring honors and decorations. At the time, the
Brazilian elites were scared of recolonization and the loss of
control over the provinces. The elites discovered a sense of
patriotic pride of native birth and popular sovereignty. Observing
what was happening in the New world, João VI advised Pedro to
declare Brazil independent and take the throne for himself rather
than allow a usurper to take over the country. This way there would
still be a Portuguese king in power in Brazil. By the year’s end,
Pedro had officially declared Brazil an independent constitutional
monarchy with himself as monarch.
Brazilian independence
When King João VI finally returned to Portugal, in the early 1820s,
most of the privileges that had been accorded to Brazil were
rescinded, sparking the ire of local nationalists.
Pedro, who had
remained in the country as regent, sided with the nationalist
element and even supported the Portuguese Constitutionalist
movement that led to the revolt in Porto
in
1820. When pressed by the Portuguese court to return, he
refused. For that, he was demoted from regent to a mere
representative of the Lisbon court in Brazil.
This news reached him
on 7 September 1822, when he had just arrived in São
Paulo
, from a visit to the port of Santos
. On the banks of the
Ipiranga River, he unsheathed his sword,
removed the blue and white Portuguese shield from his coat, and
declared "Independence or death!" This later became his famous
speech
O grito do Ipiranga (The Cry of Ipiranga). He was
proclaimed Emperor of Brazil on 12 October his 24th birthday, and
crowned on December 1.
Troubled reign
Portrait of the emperor D.
Pedro I, with imperial garment.
The early years of Brazilian independence were difficult. Dom Pedro
I assumed the title of
Emperor instead of
King to underline the diversity of the
Brazilian provinces, The
Napoleonic concept of
Empire as a more modern and progressive form of
monarchy embodying rejection of the
Ancien Régime also was useful in
uniting the relatively cosmopolitan society of Rio de Janeiro with
the more conservative, patriarchal stance held in the rest of the
country.
In early 1823, the first problem confronting Pedro I was drafting a
constitution. Brazil was divided between the Brazilian Party led by
José Bonifácio, which included the landed aristocracy who favored a
constitutional monarchy, and the Portuguese party which included
the commercial class, office holders and families of Portuguese
origin, who wanted an absolutist monarchy. In 1822, during the
struggle for independence, Dom Pedro I had considered himself a
liberal and had promised Brazil a constitution. He soon appeared to
forget his liberal ideals by enacting a Constitution that gave him
substantial power. This was seen as necessary to keep control of
the interior, particularly in the feudal North, and to prevent the
instability and democratic fractioning that characterized other
areas of Latin America during this time. The Brazilian party
dominated the assembly and refused to assent to so much power in
the hands of the emperor. Conflict increased further after Muniz
Tavares, a Brazilian assemblyman, attacked the Portuguese party,
which he believed resented Brazilian independence. The Sentinella
and the Tamoyo, two constitutionalist papers, were written to
attack Portuguese born officials. In response to the dispute, Dom
Pedro dissolved the assembly on 12 November 1823. He exiled many
assemblymen and jailed a few. Upholding his promise to provide a
constitution, he then gathered a committee of ten who then ratified
a new, but very similar, constitution on 25 March 1824. This
rewritten constitution remained in effect until the end of the
Brazilian empire in 1889.
The new constitution established a conservative, centralized
monarchy with significant constitutional limitations and
power-sharing. It sought to maintain stability and protect
property. Powers were divided into executive, legislative,
judiciary and moderating branches. The legislative branch contained
the
Senate and the
Chamber of Deputies, both of whose
members were elected to power. Unlike the Chamber of Deputies, the
Senate remained in office for life. The Council of State, or the
judicial branch, consisted of a council of respected elders whom
the emperor appointed for life and who exercised executive powers
to issue judgments in important issues, such as war. The emperor
held supremacy or moderating power. He could therefore veto all
resolutions. He was also empowered to appoint a senator from a
group of elected senators, appoint councils of state, pardon
criminals, review judicial decisions, and replace elected deputies,
presidents of provinces, ministers, bishops and senators. Pedro’s
failure to put the constitution in effect immediately, however,
left many Brazilians suspicious that Pedro's support of a
constitution was a ruse.
During 1824 and 1825, many Brazilians became opposed to the
accumulated powers of the emperor and the unpopular provincial
presidents he appointed. Secret opposition papers attacked the
emperor, his ministers, his servants and his mistresses, in
particular Domitilla de Castro, the Marchioness of Santos.
Dissatisfaction climaxed with the revolt of liberal urban forces in
Pernambuco.
Friar Joaquim do Amor Divino
(popularly known as "Frei Caneca") led a revolt in response to the
appointment of an unpopular governor, Francisco Paes Barreto. In
July 1824, Frei Caneca and Manuel de Carvalho sought to unite
several republics in the formation of the
Confederation of the Equator.
The Confederation failed to take hold and the emperor put many
revolutionaries to death, including Frei Caneca.
The absolutist character of events in Rio raised concern in the
very mostly liberal Northeast. This region soon called for its own
constituent assembly. But the movement was not a success because it
was divided within itself on the issue of slavery and because Dom
Pedro hired British and French ships and mercenaries to repress
them. Because of this, Britain was able to underwrite much of the
transition to Brazilian independence. Britain could also facilitate
recognition from the international community, and Dom Pedro sought
this recognition of Brazil’s independence. At first European
nations were reluctant because of the hesitance of Portugal. The
United States became the first to recognize its independence. By
1825 Britain, realizing the importance of Brazil’s market,
convinced Portugal to accept Brazil’s independence. In exchange,
Pedro agreed to repay a loan from Britain for the war between
Portugal and Brazil. The loan implied that Pedro would inherit the
Portuguese throne. He also signed a treaty with Britain, continuing
the 15% import tariff and abolishing the slave trade within three
years. The concessions to end slavery especially made Pedro I
unpopular with the landed aristocracy, which constituted much of
the Brazilian party.
Republican
sentiment soared, and during the 1825 war with Argentina
, the Cisplatine
province seceded to become Uruguay. The
war lasted for two years, and as a result Brazil suffered great
military and financial devastation. When Pedro visited the troops
in November 1826, the beloved empress Leopoldina died. Pamphlets
were published accusing Dom Pedro of imposing physical violence on
her during her pregnancy, while having an affair with Domitilla.
Second marriage of D.
On the death of his father, Pedro chose to inherit his title as
King of Portugal (Pedro IV) on March 10, 1826, ignoring the
restrictions of his own Constitution. He promulgated the Portuguese
liberal constitution of 26 April, but was forced to
abdicate the throne of Portugal on 28 May 1826 in
favor of his daughter
Maria II.
Since she was then only 7 years old, he nominated his brother
Dom Miguel as regent, on the
promise that he would marry her. Dom Miguel, however, deposed
Maria, and Pedro spent the next years engineering her restoration.
Meanwhile, his apparent indecision between Brazil and Portugal
further damaged his waning popularity in Brazil.
On 17 October 1829, Pedro married his second wife, Princess
Amélie de
Beauharnais von Leuchtenberg, in Rio de Janeiro. Amélie was the
daughter of
Eugène de
Beauharnais, and the granddaughter of the
Empress Josephine. She was also the sister
of
Charles
Auguste Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais, who married Maria II
once her marriage to Dom Miguel had been annulled.
Domestically, Pedro was accused of mismanaging financial affairs.
During his reign, debt rose, inflation grew, the exchange rate
sunk, and the bank issued ineffective paper money which drove gold
and silver out of circulation. The cost of living rose in the
cities. British tariffs also troubled the elite and middle class,
who demanded imported consumer goods. The production of tobacco,
leather, cocoa, cotton, and even coffee declined. With the
Portuguese still in control of most of the retail market,
anti-Portuguese feelings mounted. The cumulative result of
military, domestic and economic setbacks prompted most of the urban
elite, who had been absolutists, to side with the liberals. Even
the army, discontented with Portuguese commanders and military
defeats, distanced itself from the emperor.
In the end, Dom Pedro's aspirations in Portugal cost him his rule
in Brazil.
Return to Portugal
In the aftermath of a political crisis that followed the dismissal
of his ministers, and amid a growing economic crisis, Pedro
abdicated his throne in Brazil in favor of his son
Pedro II on 7 April 1831, who was only
five at the time. Pedro reasserted his use of his old title,
18th Duke of Braganza.
With the death of João VI on 10 March 1826, Pedro, as the rightful
heir, briefly inherited as Pedro IV of Portugal. He abdicated the
throne to his seven year old daughter Maria da Gloria. However
there was a key condition, when she became of age (14 years), she
would marry Pedro's brother
Miguel. This announcement led to a
revision to the 1822 constitution. Pedro's sister
Isabel Maria became regent.
Miguel accepted this solution and distanced himself from the
absolutists, some of whom staged a rebellion, failed, and fled to
Spain.
In 1827, Miguel attempted to put a claim on the regency over Isabel
Maria, although nobody accepted the suggestion out of fear of the
absolutists. On 22 February 1828, Miguel returned to Portugal, and
four days later he took the oath to his brother and the charter and
was installed as lieutenant-general. This loyalty lasted long.
Margirita and his mother, Carlota Joaquina, immediately began to
oust the liberals and demonstrations in favor of Pedro or the
constitution were prohibited.
A group of exiled liberals landed at Porto from the British ship,
the
Belfast, and raised a rebellion. The rebellion failed
and the senior liberals were forced to take refuge back on the
Belfast, and leave again for England. Of all of Portuguese
territory, only the
Azores remained faithful
to Pedro, partly because the garrison stayed loyal. On 11 July 1828
Miguel was proclaimed king.
The United States
and Mexico
were the
only two countries to recognize him as King. The Holy See, Great Britain
, Austria
, France
, Naples
, and
Spain
protested against the illegal suppression of the
constitution.
In August 1829, Miguel sent a squadron of 22 ships to the Azores,
which were controlled by Pedro. After a day of battle, the liberals
under the Count of Vila Flor emerged victorious, taking hundreds of
prisoners. In April 1831, Pedro abdicated the throne in Brazil in
favor of his son, Pedro II, and sailed for Britain where he began
to organize a military expedition against his brother Miguel.
Pedro entered Porto on 9 July 1832, and was attacked by the
Miguelite army. In the subsequent weeks the absolutist besieged the
city. The Siege of Porto lasted over a year, with many failed
assaults and battles. Pedro took a risk and sent an expedition to
the Algarve by sea (June 1833) despite the fact Porto was still
under siege. This proved a war winning strategy as although the
siege of Porto continued it became a secondary theatre of
operations.
Marshal
Saldanha eventually broke the siege in August 1833 and later
that month the city was free. In July 1833, Pedro arrived in
Lisbon. This gave the liberals both of Portugal's major cities,
Lisbon and Porto, where they commanded a sizeable following among
the middle classes. In contrast, the absolutists controlled the
rural areas, where they were supported by the aristocracy, and by a
peasantry that was galvanized by the Church. A stalemate of nine
months ensued. During this time Maria da Glória was proclaimed
Queen, with Dom Pedro as Regent. Pedro dismissed Miguelite
ministers and clergy and appropriated church property. On 25 August
1833 Lisbon was under siege. The most active period seemed to be
between 5 and 14 September, but the liberal lines held. Saldanha
broke the siege on 10 October 1833, and forced the Miguelites east
toward
Santarém.
On 22 April 1834 the
Quadruple
Alliance was drawn up. Portugal, Spain, Britain and France
agreed to banish Dom Miguel from Portugal and
Don Carlos from Spain. Spain
committed to keep troops in Portugal until the end of the
Portuguese Liberal War, Britain promised naval support for Dom
Pedro and Isabel of Spain, and Portugal agreed to supply an
auxiliary force for operations against Don Carlos in Spain. This
nearly signalled the end of the war. On 27 May 1834 Miguel's
officers were unwilling to risk a final battle after nearly two
years of warfare, despite still having 18,000 men in the ranks.
Miguel was induced to seek terms of capitulation and eventually
renounced all claims to the throne of Portugal and agreed to go
into exile.
Pedro had finally put his daughter Maria da Gloria back on the
throne but this would be his last act. He had returned to his
homecountry, Portugal, to fight for his political ideologies and
personal interests, after he had abdicated his throne in Brazil in
favor of his son in 1831.
He died in Queluz, the palace of his birth, aged 35, of tuberculosis. In 1972, his remains were
returned to Brazil and re-interred in the present
Ipiranga Museum.
Ancestors
Children
By his first wife,
Maria Leopoldina,
Archduchess of Austria (22 January 1797–11 December 1826):
- Maria II of Portugal (4
April 1819–15 November 1853)
- Miguel, Prince of Beira
(26 April 1820, stillborn)
- João Carlos de
Bragança, Prince of Brazil (6 March 1821–4 February 1822)
- Januária de
Bragança, Princess Imperial of Brazil (11 March 1822–13 March
1901). Married Prince
Louis, Count of Aquila, son of Francis I of the Two Sicilies,
and had issue.
- Paula de Bragança, Princess of Brazil (17 February 1823–16
January 1833).
- Francisca de
Bragança, Princess of Brazil (2 August 1824–27 March 1898).
Married Francis
d'Orleans, Prince de Joinville, son of Louis-Philippe of France, and had
issue.
- Pedro II of Brazil (2
December 1825–5 December 1891)
By his second wife,
Amélie
de Beauharnais, Duchess of Leuchtenberg (31 July 1812–26
January 1873):
He had also nine illegitimate children, including five with his
best-known lover
Domitila, Marchioness of
Santos, one with her sister, and one with a
nun in Portugal.
List of compositions
He was a pupil of Nunes Garcia,
Marcos
Portugal and
Sigismund von
Neukomm (known as the best pupil of
Joseph Haydn) and he composed some
pieces:
- Credo (solists, choir and orchestra)
- Te Deum Ouverture
- Many marches and anthems
Bibliography
• John A. Crow. 1992. The Epic of Latin America. Fourth Edition.
California University Press.• Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H.
Smith. 2004. Modern Latin America. Sixth Edition. Oxford University
Press. (hereafter S&S)
- Fausto, Boris. A Concise History of Brazil. Translated by
Arthur Brakel. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- Macaulay, Neill. Dom Pedro: The Struggle for Liberty in Brazil
and Portugal, 1798-1834. Duke University Press 1986.
- Manchester Alan K. The Paradoxical Pedro, First Emperor of
Brazil. The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 12, No. 2.
(May, 1932), pp. 176–197.
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