Carlos I
King of Portugal
Dom Carlos I (28 September 1863 – 1 February 1908), known as the Diplomat (Portuguese: o Diplomata), the Martyr (Portuguese: o Martirizado), and the Oceanographer (Portuguese: o Oceanógrafo), among many other names, was King of Portugal from 1889 until his assassination in 1908. He was the first Portuguese king to die a violent death since King Sebastian in 1578. Carlos was born in Lisbon, Portugal, the son of King Luís and Queen Maria Pia, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, and was a member of the House of Braganza. He had a brother, Infante Afonso, Duke of Porto. He was baptised with the names Carlos Fernando Luís Maria Víctor Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga Xavier Francisco de Assis José Simão. He had an intense education and was prepared to rule as a constitutional monarch. In 1883, he traveled to Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, where he increased his knowledge of the modern civilization of his time. In 1883, 1886 and 1888, he ruled as Regent as his father was traveling in Europe, as had become traditional among the Portuguese constitutional kings. His father Luis I advised him to be modest and to study with focus. His first bridal candidate was one of the daughters of German Emperor Frederick III, but the issue of religion presented an insurmountable problem, and diplomatic pressure from the British government prevented the marriage. He then met and married Princess Amélie of Orléans, eldest daughter of Philippe, comte de Paris,
pretender to the throne of France. Carlos became king on 19 October 1889. After the 1890 British Ultimatum, a series of treaties were signed with the United Kingdom. One signed in August 1890 defined colonial borders along the Zambezi and Congo rivers, whereas another signed on 14 October 1899 confirmed colonial treaties dating back to the 17th century. These treaties stabilised the political balance in Africa, ending Portuguese claims of sovereignty on the Pink Map, a geographical conception of how Portuguese colonies would appear on a map if the territory between the coastal colonies of Angola and Mozambique could be connected with territory in central Africa. These central African territories became part of the British Empire with the Portuguese concession becoming a source of national resentment in the country. Domestically, Portugal declared bankruptcy twice – on 14 June 1892, then again on 10 May 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. As a patron of science and the arts, King Carlos took an active part in the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Prince Henry the Navigator in 1894. The following year he decorated the Portuguese poet João de Deus in a ceremony in Lisbon. Carlos took a personal interest in deep-sea and maritime exploration and used several yachts named Amélia on his oceanographical voyages. He published an account of his own studies in this area.
The Portuguese Army (Portuguese: Exército Português) is the land component of the Armed Forces of Portugal and is also its largest branch. It is charged with the defence of Portugal, in co-operation with other branches of the Armed Forces. With its origins going back to the 12th century, it can be considered one of the oldest active armies in the world. The national defense strategy of the late 19th century focused mainly on the defense of Lisbon, as the major populational, economical and political center of the country and its only part considered defendable against possible aggression from a major power. Lisbon was so transformed in a national redoubt, with a modern system of fortifications built around the city, equipped with advanced systems of armament and communications. This fortified system protected the city against both land and sea attacks and became known as the Lisbon Entrenched Camp. The last Army organizations in the Monarchy occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By that time, the Army was administratively organized in three grand military circumscriptions (North, Center and South), each including two military territorial divisions, plus two military commands (Azores and Madeira). Distributed by the several territorial divisions, there were four cavalry brigades and 12 infantry brigades, each including two regiments. Each division, brigade and military command had its own headquarters. The Lisbon Entrenched Camp constituted a separate military command headed by a general, with its own permanent garrison artillery and engineering units. In 1901, the units of Army
included one engineering regiment (with sappers-miners, pontoneers, telegraph and railway companies), three engineering independent companies (fortress sappers, torpedoes and fortress telegraph), six mounted artillery regiments, one horse artillery batteries group, one mountain artillery batteries group, six garrison artillery groups, four garrison artillery independent batteries, 10 cavalry regiments, six caçadores battalions (these including also troops of cyclists and machineguns) and 27 infantry regiments. Besides these, the Army also included a number of service support units, schools and other establishments. When mobilized to enter in operations, the Army constituted the Field Army. The Field Army included a commander-in-chief and its headquarters, four active army divisions, active army independent troops (including two cavalry brigades), active army train and garrison and reserve troops. Each active division included a headquarters, two infantry brigades (each with three infantry regiments), a caçadores regiment, a cavalry regiment, three field artillery groups, a sappers-miners company and a divisional train. If needed army corps could be organized through the grouping of divisions and composite brigades which included all arms and service supports units.
The Most Serene House of Braganza (Portuguese: Sereníssima Casa de Bragança), also known as the Brigantine dynasty (dinastia Brigantina), is a dynasty of emperors, kings, princes, and dukes of Portuguese origin which reigned in Europe and the Americas. The house was founded by Afonso I, 1st Duke of Braganza, illegitimate son of King John I of Portugal of the House of Aviz, and would eventually grow into one of the wealthiest and most powerful noble houses of Iberia during the Renaissance period. The Braganzas came to rule the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves after successfully deposing the Philippine Dynasty in the Restoration War, resulting in the Duke of Braganza becoming King John IV of Portugal, in 1640. The Braganzas ruled Portugal and the Portuguese Empire from 1640 and with the creation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, in 1815, and the subsequent independence of the Empire of Brazil, in 1822, the Braganzas came to rule as the monarchs of Brazil. The House of Braganza produced 15 Portuguese monarchs and all four Brazilian monarchs, numerous consorts to various European kingdoms, such as Catherine of Braganza (wife of Charles II of England who introduced tea to Britain) and Maria Isabel of Braganza (wife
of Ferdinand VII of Spain who founded the El Prado Museum), as well as sometime candidates for the thrones of Poland and Greece, Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém and Pedro, Duke of Braganza, respectively, and numerous other notable figures in the histories of Europe and the Americas. The Braganzas were deposed from their thrones in Europe and the Americas at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, when Emperor Pedro II was deposed in Brazil, in 1889, and when King Manuel II was deposed in Portugal, in 1910. The House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (also known as the House of Saxe-Coburg-Braganza or the Constitutional Branch of the Braganzas) is a term used to categorize the last four rulers of the Kingdom of Portugal, and their families, from 1853 until the declaration of the republic in 1910. Its name derives from the four kings descended in a patrilineal line from King Ferdinand II of Portugal (of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry) and in a matrilineal line from Queen Maria II of Portugal (of the House of Braganza). Nonetheless, the 1838 Portuguese constitution stated that the House of Braganza was the ruling house of Portugal, by way of Queen Maria II, and her descendants still continued to style themselves as members of the House of Braganza, as opposed to Saxe-Coburg-Braganza. With the death of King Manuel II without legitimate issue in 1932, the dynasty became extinct.
The king is dressed in the uniform of a general of the Portuguese Army. He wears the collar of the Ancient and Most Noble Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of the Valour, Loyalty and Merit and the Sash of the Three Orders. On the king's chest there are stars of highest Portuguese royal orders of chivalry: the Order of the Tower and Sword, Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa and the Three Orders, that combines the insignia of the Grand Crosses of the Military Orders of Christ, Aviz and St. James of the Sword.
