Alçada of 1828 1Background and arrival of the commission
Alçada of 1828
Original title: Alçada de 1828
Account of the special judicial commission (alçada) sent to Madeira in 1828 by D. Miguel's absolutist government to investigate and punish supporters of the constitutional cause after Governor Travassos Valdez proclaimed the rights of D. Pedro IV and D. Maria. It records the mass arrests, the flight of liberals and the sentences imposed.
1Background and arrival of the commission
The governor and captain-general of Madeira, José Lúcio Travassos Valdez, was a supporter of constitutional principles and used every means within his reach to promote their establishment here. On 22 June 1828, disregarding the threats of Miguel I’s government, he had the rights of Pedro IV and of his daughter Maria II proclaimed with great official ceremony and various public festivities, which greatly angered the supporters of absolute government. Valdez’s stance led to the dispatch to Madeira of a squadron carrying the new governor, José Maria Monteiro. The squadron attacked the island and surrendered it to the Miguelist forces, as we shall relate elsewhere (see Occupation of Madeira by the Miguelist troops).
By a royal letter (carta régia) of 6 August 1828, the central government instructed Francisco Antonio Maciel Monteiro, high court judge (desembargador) of the Casa da Suplicação (supreme court of appeal in Lisbon), to come to this island and conduct a rigorous judicial inquiry (devassa) into the political events that had taken place here, and to punish severely those who had shown themselves hostile to the principles of absolute government. The clerk (escrivão) assigned to this inquiry was not just any court official but Dr Manuel Luciano Abreu de Figueiredo, a high court judge of the High Court of Appeal (Relação) of Porto. The two high court judges came with the squadron and landed in Funchal on 25 August.
2Arrests and sentences
The work of the judicial inquiry (devassa) began on 30 August and continued for several months. By 6 September, that is, 8 days after the special judicial commission (alçada) had begun its judicial investigation, 51 people were already being held in the city gaol, 15 in the Fort of São Tiago (St James the Greater), 16 in the Pico fortress (Fortaleza do Pico), 4 in the Forte do Ilhéu (Islet Fort), 45 aboard the frigate Príncipe D. Pedro, 15 aboard the corvette Princesa Real, and 21 clergymen in the ecclesiastical prison (Aljube). The number of people in hiding throughout the island was considerable. Some sought refuge in remote places, entirely lacking in comforts, until many were able to find in exile a relative peace from the dangers that threatened them. The governor and captain-general Travassos Valdez, the officers who had come from England and several Madeirans took refuge aboard the British warship, the corvette Alligator (see that entry). The special judicial commission indicted about 220 people, some of whom were released because nothing had been proved against them. Of those indicted, 77 were sent as prisoners to Lisbon to have their fate decided there, and they were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment and penal exile (degredo).
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 01-
Governor Valdez solemnly proclaimed in Madeira the rights of D. Pedro IV and D. Maria.
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A royal letter appointed Francisco António Maciel Monteiro to hold an inquiry (alçada) in Madeira.
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The two judges of the alçada landed in Funchal with the Miguelist fleet.
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The alçada began its inquiry into Madeiran liberals.
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By this date the alçada had imprisoned some 167 people, including 21 clergy.
Place
Places mentioned · 08
Abroad
- Aljube
Funchal. Ecclesiastical prison where 21 clergy were held.
The Aljube was the ecclesiastical prison of Funchal, dating from about 1562 and still in use in 1834. Many priests were held there during the Miguelist–Liberal struggles, including 21 clergy under the Alçada of 1828, and Pimentel was imprisoned there on the bishop's orders.
- England
United Kingdom. Country from which officers who supported Valdez had come.
England appears in the Elucidário as the first main market for Madeira embroidery and the main importer of Madeiran wicker. It was also the source of most butter consumed in Funchal in the early nineteenth century. It was a chief refuge for liberal emigrants fleeing Miguelist persecution, and several Madeirans studied or served as diplomats there.
- Fortress of São Tiago
Funchal. Fortress where 15 prisoners were held in September 1828.
A fortress on the Funchal waterfront at the eastern end of the landing shore, dated 1614 during Spanish rule and rebuilt in 1767; it later housed a mountain artillery battery. Prisoners were held there in 1823 and 1828, the Republican flag was raised there on 7 October, and it fired during the 1916 bombardment of Funchal.
- Fortress of the Pico
Funchal. Fortress where 16 prisoners were held.
A fortress above Funchal in São Pedro parish, begun under Philippine (Spanish) rule and completed after the Restoration, containing the profaned chapel of São João. It was fixed as a city boundary mark in 1809 and long served as a place of confinement, holding the deposed governor in 1668, 16 prisoners of the Alçada of 1828 and the 1844 prisoners from the cutter Andorinha. It was ceded in 1888 and proposed again in 1909 for use as a prison, but its cost as a prison prompted a move to São Lázaro.
- Funchal
City where the judges landed on 25 August 1828 and prisoners were held.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Lisbon
Portugal. Destination of 77 prisoners sent for sentencing.
The Portuguese capital, seat of the Relação court and of the Misericórdia whose privileges and statutes were extended to Funchal. Henrique Franco de Sousa studied at its Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and Luiz José Baiardo moved there in 1821.
People
People mentioned · 07-
Judge of the Casa da Suplicação appointed in August 1828 to conduct the inquiry into Madeiran liberals.
- José Lúcio Travassos Valdez1787–1862
Governor and captain-general of Madeira who proclaimed the rights of D. Pedro IV and D. Maria in 1828 and later took refuge on the British corvette Alligator.
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New Miguelist governor who came with the fleet that attacked and subdued Madeira in 1828.
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Judge of the Relação do Porto who served as clerk of the 1828 inquiry in Madeira.
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Daughter of D. Pedro IV, later Queen Maria II, whose rights were proclaimed in Madeira in 1828.
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Absolutist king of Portugal whose government sent the fleet and the alçada to Madeira in 1828.
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Constitutional claimant whose rights were proclaimed in Funchal on 22 June 1828.