Proclamations of the absolutist government

The revolution that broke out in Porto on 24 August 1820, and was echoed in Lisbon on 15 September of the same year, established representative government, which the general Cortes (Portuguese parliament) sanctioned by promulgating the Constitution. The event was solemnly celebrated on this island, and the new system of government was proclaimed in this city on 28 January 1821, as already described on p. 301 ff. of vol. 1 of this work. Not even three years after the Porto revolution, on 3 June 1823, John VI addressed a proclamation to the country dissolving the Cortes, abolishing the Constitution and restoring absolute government. News of these extraordinary political events reached Madeira on the 16th of the same month, and the next day the establishment of the new order of things was publicly solemnised in this city. There were various demonstrations of rejoicing on that occasion, with the permission of the then governor, the captain-general (capitão-general, military governor of Madeira) António Manuel de Noronha.

The new governor of the archipelago, Dom Manuel de Portugal e Castro, arrived in Funchal on 26 August 1823, and on 1 September he at once ordered the destruction and levelling of the foundations of the planned monument to the Constitution, which had been laid 19 months earlier amid the greatest enthusiasm and with uncommon splendour and pomp. Dom Manuel de Portugal e Castro gave the act great solemnity and ceremony, so as to make the Madeirans fully aware that any attempt to restore the principles proclaimed by the Porto revolution would be futile. He reported to the government of mainland Portugal in close detail how he had carried out the complete levelling and destruction of the foundations of the monument that was to have been erected: the foundation stone, the silver casket and what it contained – the corresponding record (auto), the commemorative medal and the coins of the time placed there – were all entirely ruined and destroyed. (See Constitution of 1821 and Monuments (Monumentos).)

Dom Manuel de Portugal e Castro also ordered that the public offices should obliterate every trace left in their books and in any other documents of the acts of public administration during the period from 1821 to 1823 (see Burning of constitutional documents).

The article Special judicial commissions (vol. I, p. 31) gives a detailed account of the first administrative acts of this governor, and especially of the special judicial commission (alçada) that accompanied him to this island.

Less than three years later, on the death of John VI on 10 March 1826, Dom Pedro was recognised as King of Portugal. On 29 April of that year he granted the Constitutional Charter (Carta Constitucional), and representative government was thus restored (see Granting of the Charter).

Two years later, on 25 April 1828, Prince Miguel I, regent of the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal), was proclaimed absolute king after the Cortes (Portuguese parliament) had been dissolved. In Madeira absolute government was not proclaimed at once, because José Lúcio Travassos Valdez, the constitutional governor of this archipelago, remained loyal to the principles he represented and prepared to resist the attempts of the Miguelite (supporter of the absolutist King Miguel) troops who sought to seize the island. The article Occupation of Madeira by the Miguelite troops (p. 6 of vol. III) gives a brief account of this resistance and of its failure to prevent the royalist forces from landing.

The Miguelite governor José Maria Monteiro landed in Funchal on 24 August 1828 and took office that same day, holding the post until April 1830. This governor, who became known here in Madeira by the nickname ‘Baeta’ (baize), left a far from honourable memory of his administration because of the abuses of power he committed, as we have said in the article devoted to him in this work (vol. II, p. 390). He made the action of the special judicial commission (alçada) that the central government sent to this island (see Alçadas, vol. I, pp. 31 ff.) still more odious and oppressive, through the partial support he gave it and his encouragement of the various excesses and abuses committed by that tribunal.