page_title: John VI of Portugal
section_title: Regency
hierarchical_section_title: John VI of Portugal / Regency
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of John, Prince Regent of Portugal, in the Ajuda National Palace. Português: Retrato de D. João, Príncipe Regente de Portugal, no Palácio Nacional da Ajuda.
context_page_description: John VI, nicknamed "the Clement", was King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves from 1816 to 1825. Although the United Kingdom of Portugal, over which he ruled, ceased to exist de facto beginning in 1822, he remained its monarch de jure between 1822 and 1825. After the recognition of the independence of Brazil under the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro of 1825, he continued as King of Portugal until his death in 1826. Under the same treaty, he also became titular Emperor of Brazil for life, while his son, Pedro I of Brazil, was both de facto and de jure the monarch of the newly independent country.
  Born in Lisbon in 1767, the son of Maria I and Peter III of Portugal, he was originally an infante of Portugal. He only became heir to the throne when his older brother José, Prince of Brazil, died of smallpox in 1788 at the age of 27.
  Before his accession to the Portuguese throne, John VI bore the titles Duke of Braganza and Duke of Beja, as well as Prince of Brazil. From 1799, he served as prince regent of Portugal, due to the mental illness of his mother, Queen Maria I.
context_section_description: Meanwhile, the queen showed increasing signs of mental instability. On 10 February 1792, seventeen doctors signed a document declaring her unable to manage the kingdom, with no prospect for her condition to improve. John was reluctant to take the reins of power, rejecting the idea of a formal regency. This opened the way for elements of the nobility to form a de facto government via a Council. Rumors circulated that John exhibited symptoms of the same insanity, and that he might be prevented from ruling. According to longstanding laws that guided the institution of regency, were the regent to die or become incapable for any reason, and having children of less than fourteen years (which was John's situation at the time), government would be exercised by the guardians of those children or, if guardians had not been formally named, by the wife of the regent. In John's case, that would have been a Spanish infanta. Fear, suspicion and intrigue engulfed the entire institutional framework of the nation.
  At the same time, the French Revolution perplexed and horrified the reigning houses of Europe. The execution of the French former king Louis XVI on 21 January 1793 by the revolutionaries precipitated an international response. On 15 July, Portugal signed a treaty with Spain, and on 26 September allied itself with Great Britain. Both treaties pledged mutual aid against revolutionary France and brought six thousand Portuguese soldiers into the War of the Pyrenees (1793–1795), a campaign that began with an advance to Roussillon in France and ended in defeat with the French conquest of northeastern Spain. This created a delicate diplomatic problem, as Portugal could not make peace with France without damaging an alliance with England that involved several overseas interests. The Portuguese thus sought a neutrality that proved fragile and tense.
  After the defeat, Spain abandoned its alliance with Portugal and allied with France under the Peace of Basel. With Britain too powerful for France to attack directly, France set its sights on Portugal. In 1799, John officially assumed the reins of government as prince regent in the name of his widowed mother; that same year, Napoleon Bonaparte staged his coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in France and coerced Spain into issuing an ultimatum to force the Portuguese to break with Great Britain and submit the country to the interests of Napoleon. With John's refusal, neutrality became unviable. Spain and France invaded in 1801, setting off the War of the Oranges; a defeated Portugal signed the Treaty of Badajoz and the subsequent Treaty of Madrid, under which it ceded territory to Spain, in particular Olivenza, and made concessions to the French over certain colonial territories. With conflicting interests among all the countries involved, the war was marked by ambiguous movements and secret agreements. Portugal, as the weakest player, could not avoid continued struggle. At the same time, John had to face an enemy at home. His wife, Carlota Joaquina, loyal to Spanish interests, initiated an intrigue with the objective of deposing her husband and taking power herself, an attempt that failed in 1805. This resulted in the Princess's exile from court; she resided at Queluz Palace, while the regent took up residency at Mafra Palace.
caption: Prince Regent John with a bust of his mother Maria I (Sequeira, 1802)
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