Overview
Dom Miguel I (; English: Michael I; 26 October 1802 – 14 November 1866), nicknamed "the Absolutist", "the Traditionalist" and "the Usurper", was the King of Portugal between 1828 and 1834, the seventh child and third son of King John VI and his queen, Carlota Joaquina of Spain.
Following his exile as a result of his actions in support of absolutism in the April Revolt (Abrilada), Miguel returned to Portugal as regent and fiancé of his niece Queen Maria II. As regent, he claimed the Portuguese throne in his own right, since according to the so-called Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom his older brother Peter IV and therefore the latter's daughter had lost their rights from the moment that Pedro had made war on Portugal and become the sovereign of a foreign state (Brazilian Empire). This led to a difficult political situation, during which many people were killed, imprisoned, persecuted or sent into exile, and which culminated in the Portuguese Liberal Wars between authoritarian absolutists and progressive constitutionalists. In the end Miguel was forced out from the throne and lived the last 32 years of his life in exile.
In order to counter the Republican opposition from the Portuguese Freemasons, the dynastic order known as Order of Saint Michael of the Wing was revived in 1848, with statutes issued by King Miguel I of Portugal.
Early life
Miguel Maria do Patrocinio de Bragança e Bourbon, the third (second surviving) son of King John VI and Carlota Joaquina, was born in the Queluz Royal Palace, Lisbon, and was created by his father Duke of Beja. Some sources have suggested that Miguel I could be the illegitimate son from an adulterous affair between his mother, Queen Carlota, and one of her alleged lovers, possibly D. Pedro José Joaquim Vito de Meneses Coutinho, Marquis of Marialva. Apparently sources close to King John VI confirmed as much by asserting that he had not had sexual relations with his wife for two and a half years prior to Miguel's birth (a period when his parents carried out a conjugal war, during which they were involved in permanent conspiracies, and only encountered each other in rare official circumstances).
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