Maria II of Portugal

Maria II, Queen of Portugal (April 4, 1819 - November 15, 1853). . Maria da Gloria Joana Carlota Leopoldina da Cruz Francisca Xavier de Paula Isidora Micaela Gabriela Rafaela Gonzaga was the daughter of the future King Pedro IV (Emperor of Brazil as Pedro I) and his first wife, Archiduchess Maria Leopoldine Josepha Caroline, daughter of Empereror Francis II of Austria.

In March 1826, King John VI died and a crisis was instaled in Portugal. The king had a male heir, but he had proclaimed the independence of Brazil in 1822 and he was now Emperor Peter I of that country. He also had a second son, Michael, but he was exiled in Austria after leading a number of revolutions against his father and his liberal regime.

The king had nomenated his favourite daughter, Isabel Maria, as regent until "the lagitimate heir retuned to the Kingdom". But he didn't speciefied who was the legitimate heir. Peter, the liberal Emperor of Brazil, or Michael, the absolutist exiled prince?

Most people considered that Peter was the legitimate heir, but nobody wanted him to unite Portugal and Brazil's thrones again. Awere that his brother supporters were ready to bring Michael back and put him in the throne, he decided for a more consensual option: he abdicated the throne to his eldest daughter, Maria da Gloria (who was only 7 years old), and she should marry her uncle Michael, who should aceppt the Liberal Constitution and act as a regent until his niece was an adult.

Michael pretended to accept, but when he arrived to Portugal he deposed Maria and proclaimed himself Absolutist King. During his rign of terror, Maria traveled for many European Courts, including her gandfather's, Vienna, London and Paris.

Peter abdicated the Brazilian throne in 1831 and, from his base in the Azores he attacked Michael, forcing him to abdicate in 1834. Maria was thereupon restored to the throne, and an annulment of her marriage obtained.

On 26 January 1835 she married, at the age of 15, Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais, 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg, son of Eugène de Beauharnais, and grandson of the Empress Josephine. He died after two months on 28 March 1835.

On 1 January 1836 she married the cultured and able Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gothawhowho ruled with her as King Consort.

Maria's reign saw a revolutionary insurrection on May 16, 1846, but this was crushed by royalist troops on February 22, 1847, and Portugal otherwise avoided the European upheavals of 1848. Maria's reign was also notable for a public health act aimed at curbing the spread of cholera throughout the country.

From her second marriage, she had the following chidren:

1. Peter V, who suceeded her;

2. Louis, who eventually suceeded his brother;
3. Maria (1840)
4. John, Duke of Beja, born in 1842, who died of cholera in 1861
5. Maria Ana, (1843-1884) who married King George I of Saxe
6. Antonia, (1845-1913) who married prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Signaringen and was the mother of King Ferdinand I of Romania
7. Ferdinand, who was born in 1846 and also died of cholera in 1861
8. Augustus, Duke of Coimbra (1847-1889)
9. Leopold (1849)
10. Maria da Glória (1851)
11. Eugene (1853)

After constant pregnancies and births, the doctors kept telling Maria the danger of giving birth to almost one child per year. She seemed, though, not to mind about the risk (the same thing that killed her mother) - "If I die, I die in my post", as she used to say. Unfortunately, that actually happened. She did not survive litle Prince Eugene's birth, in 1853.

Maria II is remembered as a good mother and a kind person, who always acted according to her convictions to help her country.

See also: War of the Two Brothers

Preceded by: Peter IV	King of Portugal First Reign	Succeeded by: Miguel
Miguel	King of Portugal Second Reign	Peter V