required all continental states to close their ports to British
ships. As Portugal again refused to obey, another secret Franco-Spanish
treaty was signed at Fontainebleau on the
Peninsular 27th of October 1807, providing for the partitionThe Peninsular War.
of Portugal. Entre-Minho-e-Douro was to be given
to Louis II. of Etruria in exchange for his Italian kingdom;
Algarve and Alemtejo were to form a separate principality for
Godoy; the remaining provinces were to be garrisoned by French
troops until a general peace should be concluded. To give effect
to these terms, General Junot hastened westward across Spain,
at the head of 30,000 French soldiers and a large body of
Spanish auxiliaries. So rapid were his movements that there
was no time to organize effective resistance. On the 29th of
November D. John, acting on the advice of Sir Sidney Smith,
British naval commander in the Tagus, appointed a council of
regency and sailed for Brazil, convoyed by Sir Sidney Smith’s
squadron. For a detailed account of the subsequent military
operations, see Peninsular War.
Junot, who was everywhere well received by the Portuguese democrats, entered Lisbon at the end of November 1807. He assumed command of the Portuguese army, divided the kingdom into military governments, and, on the 1st of February 1808 announced that the BraganzaInvasion by Junot, November 1807–August 1808. dynasty had forfeited its right to the throne. He himself hoped to succeed D. John and sought to conciliate the Portuguese by reducing the requisition demanded by Napoleon from 40,000,000 francs to 20,000,000. But the action of the French troops in occupying the fortresses of northern Spain provoked in May 1808 a general rising in that country, which soon spread to Portugal. The Spanish garrison in Oporto expelled the French governor and declared for the Braganzas, compelling Junot to march towards the north. He left Lisbon under the control of a regency, headed by the bishop of Oporto, who applied to Great Britain for help, promoted an insurrection against the French, and organized juntas (committees) of government in the larger towns. On the 1st of August 1808 Sir Arthur Wellesley, with 9000 British troops, landed at Figueira da Foz. He defeated a French division at Rolica (“Roleia”) on the 17th, and on the 21st won a victory over Junot at Vimeiro (“Vimiera”). Fearing an attack by Portuguese auxiliaries and the arrival of British reinforcements under Sir John Moore, Junot signed the convention of Cintra by which, on the 30th of August 1808, he agreed to evacuate Portugal (see Wellington). The regency appointed by D. John was now reconstituted and in October Sir John Moore assumed command of all the allied troops in Portugal. From Lisbon Moore marched north-eastward with about 32,000 men to assist the Spanish armies against Napoleon; his subsequent retreat to join Sir David Baird in Galicia, in January 1809, diverted the pursuing army under Napoleon to the north-west, and temporarily saved Portugal from attack.
In February Major-General William Carr Beresford was given command of the Portuguese army. Organized and by disciplined by British officers, the native troops played a gallant part in the subsequent campaigns. In March 1809 the second invasion of Portugal began;Invasion by Soult, March–May 1809. Soult crossed the Galician frontier and captured Oporto, while an auxiliary force under General Lapisse advanced from Salamanca. On the 22nd of April, however, Wellesley, who had been recalled after the convention of Cintra, landed in Lisbon. On the 12th of May he forced the passage of the Douro, subsequently retaking Oporto and pursuing Soult into Spain. Valuable assistance had been rendered by the Portuguese generals Antonio da Silveira and Manoel de Brito Mousinho—the first a leader, the second an organizer.
After the battle of Wagram (July 6, 1809) the French armies in the Peninsula received large reinforcements, and Marshal Masséna, with 120,000 men, was ordered to operate against Portugal. He crossed the frontier in June 1810 and besieged Almeida, which capitulatedInvasion by Masséna, June 1810–April 1811. on the 27th of August. Wellesley, who had now become Viscount Wellington, opposed his march southwards, and won a victory at Bussaco on the 27th of September, but Masséna subsequently turned the position of the allied army on the Serra de Bussaco, and caused Wellington to fall back upon the fortified lines which he had already constructed at Torres Vedras. Here he stood upon the defensive until the invaders should be defeated by starvation. The Portuguese troops cut Masséna’s communications; the peasants, under instructions from Wellington, had already laid waste their own farms, destroyed the roads and bridges by which Masséna might retreat, and burned their boats on the Tagus. On the 5th of March 1811, after a winter of terrible sufferings, Masséna’s retreat began; he was harassed by the allied troops all the way to Sabugal, where the last rearguard action in Portugal took place on the 3rd of April. The invaders retired with a loss of nearly 30,000 men; Almeida was retaken on the 6th; and the remainder of the war was fought out on Spanish and French soil. The Portuguese troops remained under Wellington’s command until 1814, and distinguished themselves in many actions, notably at Salamanca and on the Nivelle.
At the congress of Vienna (1814–1815) Portugal was represented by three plenipotentiaries, who were instructed to press for the retrocession of Olivenza and to oppose the restoration of French Guiana, which the Brazilians had conquered in 1809. Neither object was attained;Results of the War and this failure, which was attributed to the lack of British support, hastened the reaction against British influence which had already begun. Since 1808 Portugal had theoretically been governed by the regency representing D. John. But as the regency was corrupt and unable to co-operate with Wellington and Beresford, the British government had demanded that Sir Charles Stuart (son of the Sir Charles Stuart mentioned above) should be appointed one of its members. The real control of affairs soon afterwards passed into the strong hands of Stuart and Beresford; and while the war lasted the Portuguese acquiesced in what was in fact an autocracy exercised by foreigners. In 1815, however, they desired to resume their independence. A further cause of dissatisfaction was the mutual jealousy of Portugal and Brazil. The colony claimed as high a political status as the mother-country, and by a decree dated the 16th of January 1815 it was raised to the rank of a separate kingdom. Thenceforward, until 1822, the Portuguese sovereignty was styled the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. The importance of this change became apparent when Queen Maria I. died (March 1816) and D. John succeeded to the united thrones as John VI. The king refused to leave Brazil, partly owing to the intrigues of Carlota Joaquina, who hoped to become queen of an independent Brazilian kingdom. Thus Portugal, which had been almost ruined by the war, was now humiliated by the failure of her diplomacy at Vienna and by her continued dependence upon Great Britain and Brazil. The resultant discontent found expression in the cry of “Portugal for the Portuguese” and in the demand for a constitution.
In 1817 a military revolt (pronunciamento) in Lisbon was
crushed by Beresford, and the leader, General Gomes Freire de
Andrade, was executed; but on the 16th of August
1820, after Beresford had sailed to Brazil to secure
the return of John VI., a second rising took placeThe Con-
stitutional Movement, 1820–1826.
in Oporto. It soon spread southward. A new
council of regency was established in Lisbon, the British oihcers
were expelled from the army; Beresford, on his return from
Brazil, was not permitted to land; a constituent assembly was
summoned. This body suppressed the Inquisition and drew
up a highly democratic constitution, by which all citizens were
declared equal before the law and eligible to any office; all class
privileges were abolished, the liberty of the Press was guaranteed,
and the government of the country was vested in a single
chamber, subject only to the suspensive veto of the Crown.
So extreme a change was disliked by most of the powers and
by many Portuguese, especially those of the clerical party.
Great Britain insisted on the return of John VI., who entrusted
the government of Brazil to his elder son D. Pedro and landed
in Portugal on the 3rd of July 1821. In 1822, on the advice of
