Carlos I of Portugal
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Carlos I (Pronounced ˈkaɾɫuʃ in IPA; Eng. Charles), the Martyrized (Port. o Martirizado) - (Lisbon, September 28 1863 - Lisbon, February 1 1908) named Carlos Fernando Luís Maria Victor Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga Xavier Francisco de Assis José Simão de Bragança was the 33rd (or 34th according to some historians) and penultimate King of Portugal and Algarves.
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Family
He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, the son of King Luís and Princess Maria Pia of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy.
He was an older brother of Infante Afonso, Duke of Porto. His paternal first cousins included (among others) Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Ferdinand I of Romania.
His maternal first cousins included (among others) Napoléon Victor Bonaparte, Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta, Vittorio Emanuele, Count of Turin, Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, Umberto, Count of Salemi
King of Portugal
Carlos became King on October 19 1889. An intelligent but vastly extravagant man, Carlos's policies, misperceived wastefulness and extramarital affairs effectively sealed the fate of the Portuguese monarchy. Colonial treaties with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (one signed in August 1890 that defined their African borders along the Zambezi and Congo rivers and another signed on October 14 1899, that confirmed colonial treaties of the 17th Century) stabilised the situation in Africa. Domestically, Portugal was twice declared bankrupt - on June 14 1892, and again on May 10 1902 - causing industrial disturbances, socialist and republican antagonism and press criticism of the monarchy. Carlos responded by appointing João Franco as prime minister and subsequently accepting parliament's dissolution.
On February 1 1908 the royal family returned from the palace of Vila Viçosa to Lisbon. They travelled by coach to Almada and, from there, took a boat to cross the Tagus River and disembarked in Cais do Sodré in downtown Lisbon. On their way to the royal palace, the carriage with Carlos I and his family passed through Terreiro do Paço. While crossing the square, shots were fired from the crowd by at least two men: Alfredo Costa and Manuel Buiça. The king died immediately, his heir Luís Filipe was mortally wounded, and Prince Manuel was hit in the arm. The assassins were shot on the spot by members of the bodyguard and later recognized as members of the Republican Party. About twenty minutes later, Prince Luis Filipe died and days later, Manuel was acclaimed king of Portugal, the last one of the Braganza dynasty.
Marriage and children
Carlos was married to Princess Amélie of Orléans in 1886. She was daughter of Philippe, Comte de Paris and Marie Isabelle d'Orléans. Their children were
- Luis Filipe, Duke of Braganza (1887-1908)
- Manuel II, king of Portugal between 1908 and 1910 (1889-1932)
- Maria Anna of Braganza, princess of Portugal (1887–1887).
A woman known as Hilda Toledano claimed (many years after his death) that she was the illegitimate and adulterine daughter of Carlos I by Maria Amelia Laredo e Murca. However her claims are generally regarded as a hoax.
Influence on Jack London
Jack London's science fiction story "The Enemy of All the World", published less than five years after the assasination of King Carlos I (see [1]), included a fictional account of an assassination of the King and Queen of Portugal, directly after their marriage, set in 1933 - then a future date - and evidently inspired by the recent actual assasination:
(...) It was their wedding day. All possible precautions had been taken against the terrorists, and the way from the cathedral, through Lisbon's streets, was double-banked with troops, while a squad of two hundred mounted troopers surrounded the carriage. Suddenly the amazing thing happened. The automatic rifles of the troopers began to go off, as well as the rifles, in the immediate vicinity, of the double-banked infantry. In the excitement the muzzles of the exploding rifles were turned in all directions. The slaughter was terrible - horses, troops, spectators, and the King and Queen, were riddled with bullets. To complicate the affair, in different parts of the crowd behind the foot-soldiers, two terrorists had bombs explode on their persons. These bombs they had intended to throw if they got the opportunity. But who was to know this? The frightful havoc wrought by the bursting bombs but added to the confusion; it was considered part of the general attack.
Ancestors
| Carlos I of Portugal Cadet branch of the House of Wettin Born: 28 September 1863 Died: 1 February 1908
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Louis I | King of Portugal and the Algarves 1889 – 1908 | Succeeded by Manuel II |
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Carlos I of Portugal. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of this Wikinfo article is available under the GNU Free Documentation License and the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. |
