1/02/1908- Assassination of King Charles I of Portugal

-Flag of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves (Flag adopted between 1830 and 1910)

-Flag of the Portuguese Republic (official country name according to the constitution) adopted in 1910

On this day, 1/02/1998, King Charles I of Portugal, crowned in October 19 1889, was killed in Terreiro do Paço (which is the "headquarters" of most of the governmental buildings such as the Ministry of Finances) in Lisbon. when he was returning from the Palace of Vila Viçosa (palace of the Dukes of Bragança) along with the royal family.


King Charles I of Portugal, son of King Louis I and Queen Maria Pia, daughter of Victor Emmanuel II, as (first) cousins he had:
Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Ferdinand I of Romania, Napoléon Victor Bonaparte, Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta, Vittorio Emanuele, Count of Turin, Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, and Umberto, Count of Salemi.



-A painting of King Charles, by A. Roque Gameiro (1902)


King Charles of Portugal was a very intelligent king, and had an intense education to rule as constitutional monarch and was sent to travel, as part of his education to England, France and Germany to increase his knowledge about modern civilization. He married Princess Amélia d'Órleans.

As King of Portugal, personally and from the point of view of a Portuguese, he wasn't a very good monarch, infact, Portugal never had the fortune of having brilliant monarchs, that made our country progress and protect our interests through force, if necessary.

In 1889, in the Berlin Conferece, hosted and arranged by Chancellor Bismarck of Germany, the european powers divided the African continent and Portugal, as an African colonial power attended the Conference, and presented the Pink Map (Mapa Cor-de-Rosa in Portuguese):




As you can see, Portugal's claims collided with the British ambition of uniting Cairo to Cairo, which subsequently caused the British to issue the 1890 Ultimatum, that basically says that either Portugal abandons the Pink Map claims or Britain will war.

The fact that we obeyed the Ultimatum caused some revolt and was seemed as unpopular because it was disadvantageous to our country and even led to some demand war on Britain.

The 1890 Ultimatum and the fact that Portugal had gone bankrupt in 1892 and 1902, that caused industrial disturbances, socialist and republican antagonism and press criticism of the monarchy led to the fact that the King, to promote 'stability', sponsored a 'dictatorship' of João Franco and dissolved the parliament.

All of this made the King unpopular and in on this day, February 1st of 1908 he was killed by 2 republicans members of the Carbonária, an anti-clerical, revolutionary, conspiratorial society and anti-monarchy that conspired several times against the monarchist regime.




A sign that marks the corner where the King and his Royal Prince, Luís Filipe were killed, it says:

Here, on February de 1st, 1908 El-rei (King) Carlos I of Portugal and Royal Prince Luís Filipe died for their country


Even though King Charles wasn't a brilliant monarch, his good diplomatic relations (he made numerous visits to Madrid, Paris and London) led to the fact King Afonso XIII of Spain, Edward VII of Great Britain Kaiser Wilhelm II and President Émile Loubet visited Lisbon.


Terreiro do Paço, where he was killed:





This was a sad day, a tragic day for the nation, and a day that changed Portugal's faith for eternity.


(Since Croatians do the same, I did the same too )

Who cares

I'm sorry ur king died 108 years ago. So sad.


I might even cry.

Nice history actually.

Escrito por AlBoZzZ, 01.02.2016 at 15:07

Who cares

That's how croatians be like, thought you should know, being nearly a croatian

Happy Groundhog Day Eve Charles!

Very interesting,we should have more topics like this,not constant flaming

Good to know

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 00:26

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

Why would we?

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 00:26

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

Why America never eat Cuba?

Escrito por Croat, 02.02.2016 at 10:32

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 00:26

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

Why America never eat Cuba?

cuba protected by russia

Escrito por RaulPB, 02.02.2016 at 10:04

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 00:26

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

Why would we?

Idk, similar cultures, much smaller population (smaller army) Colonial competitor. Originally same royalty.(brothers) in a time when you could conquer entire peoples with little intervention.

Escrito por Croat, 02.02.2016 at 10:32

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 00:26

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

Why America never eat Cuba?

Gone is correct.

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 11:02

Idk, similar cultures, much smaller population (smaller army) Colonial competitor. Originally same royalty.(brothers) in a time when you could conquer entire peoples with little intervention.

Why wasting time in defeating such a waste of land when we could simply be allies and collaborate? They became independent back in the Reconquest and didn't bother any of the other kingdoms. Castille and Aragon united but there was no need to waste more forces to kill Portugal. Then the race for America came and we split the territory with Portugal in a way that we wouldn't fight in between while other countries could take advantage. Then we united with Felipe II (heir to Portugal's throne) but afterwards they rose up against us and became independent again.... why keeping a land that would only bring problems? Afterwards, Spain simply kept declining until a point in which internal fights and misery coulnd't afford a war such as conquering Portugal.

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 00:26

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

They did try maybe twice, but it never worked out and they signed a agreement to recognize it's independence.
Also what Raul said, not every war should be fought for more tax money.

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 02:30

they signed a agreement to recognize it's independence.

Really? Did we?

Escrito por RaulPB, 03.02.2016 at 05:28

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 02:30

they signed a agreement to recognize it's independence.

Really? Did we?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lisbon_%281668%29

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 07:07

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lisbon_%281668%29

Oh yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about... they became independent shortly after the union of the peninsula with Felipe II and Spain had already too many fights to attend and not enough resources to fight in Portugal. Therefor, the best solution was to let it go and go back to how things used to be before.

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 02:30

They did try maybe twice, but it never worked out

We didn't even try once. It was pure coincidence since Felipe was the second heir to the Portuguese throne and the actual portuguese king died. The thing is that Spain was too big that we left poor portuguese land unattended and eventually they got mad XD

Escrito por RaulPB, 03.02.2016 at 07:24

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 07:07

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lisbon_%281668%29

Oh yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about... they became independent shortly after the union of the peninsula with Felipe II and Spain had already too many fights to attend and not enough resources to fight in Portugal. Therefor, the best solution was to let it go and go back to how things used to be before.

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 02:30

They did try maybe twice, but it never worked out

We didn't even try once. It was pure coincidence since Felipe was the second heir to the Portuguese throne and the actual portuguese king died. The thing is that Spain was too big that we left poor portuguese land unattended and eventually they got mad XD

Actually the Spanish did try to fight Portugal, but got defeated for a instance, in a battle near Lisbon.

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 11:28

Actually the Spanish did try to fight Portugal, but got defeated for a instance, in a battle near Lisbon.

One thing is try to fight, another very different is try to conquer, which we didn't.
When was that battle near Lisbon?

Escrito por RaulPB, 03.02.2016 at 12:54

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 11:28

Actually the Spanish did try to fight Portugal, but got defeated for a instance, in a battle near Lisbon.

One thing is try to fight, another very different is try to conquer, which we didn't.
When was that battle near Lisbon?

Wikipedia: ''The Battle of Alcântara took place on 25 August 1580, near the brook of Alcântara, in the vicinity of Lisbon, Portugal, and was a decisive victory of the Spanish Habsburg King Philip II over the Portuguese pretender to the Portuguese throne, Dom António, Prior of Crato.''

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 13:00

Wikipedia: ''The Battle of Alcântara took place on 25 August 1580, near the brook of Alcântara, in the vicinity of Lisbon, Portugal, and was a decisive victory of the Spanish Habsburg King Philip II over the Portuguese pretender to the Portuguese throne, Dom António, Prior of Crato.''

That wasn't a battle in order to conquer Portugal, Felipe had already shown he was the rightful pretender of the throne... he was simply teaching a lesson to some annoying throne pretender... anyway, that's around the same time the only little battles in Portugal happened, while Spain and Portugal were actually united. Really ironic.

Escrito por RaulPB, 03.02.2016 at 13:04

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 13:00

Wikipedia: ''The Battle of Alcântara took place on 25 August 1580, near the brook of Alcântara, in the vicinity of Lisbon, Portugal, and was a decisive victory of the Spanish Habsburg King Philip II over the Portuguese pretender to the Portuguese throne, Dom António, Prior of Crato.''

That wasn't a battle in order to conquer Portugal, Felipe had already shown he was the rightful pretender of the throne... he was simply teaching a lesson to some annoying throne pretender... anyway, that's around the same time the only little battles in Portugal happened, while Spain and Portugal were actually united. Really ironic.

Yeah, you're right.

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 13:06

Yeah, you're right.

You're one of the very very very super few select group of people that have ever used that sentence in this forum.... I congratulate you for that, you have my love

Escrito por RaulPB, 03.02.2016 at 13:19

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 13:06

Yeah, you're right.

You're one of the very very very super few select group of people that have ever used that sentence in this forum.... I congratulate you for that, you have my love

Only thing I truly enjoy in this forum is the clan politics/drama and dissent against mods when they screw up, if I were to completely believe what I was told so far.

Escrito por QuasiCasual, 03.02.2016 at 13:23

Only thing I truly enjoy in this forum is the clan politics/drama and dissent against mods when they screw up, if I were to completely believe what I was told so far.

Clan drama is always fun, if you don't get involved in it XD clan politics can be interesting sometimes, boring other times, simply annoying other times. And... poor mods... there hasn't been a single month (maybe even a single week) without any drama involving mod decisions or similar things. Some of them have been hilarious

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 11:02

Escrito por RaulPB, 02.02.2016 at 10:04

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 00:26

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

Why would we?

Idk, similar cultures, much smaller population (smaller army) Colonial competitor. Originally same royalty.(brothers) in a time when you could conquer entire peoples with little intervention.

Despite the fact Spain had a bigger (Iberian) territory and thus a bigger army, and they even tried to invade Portugal several times, our strategic superiority, terrain and anti-spaniards feeling the portuguese throughout its history always had, they never quite managed to have an effective control over Portugal.

Escrito por Helly, 02.02.2016 at 00:26

Why did Spain never eat portugal?

Because annexation of Portugal would imply tough resistance by the Portuguese people and a war against the British, and because it wouldn't interest them to actually annex us if a colonial competitor, because we would be a pain in the ass.

Escrito por Al Fappino, 03.02.2016 at 15:21

Because annexation of Portugal would imply tough resistance by the Portuguese people and a war against the British, and because it wouldn't interest them to actually annex us if a colonial competitor, because we would be a pain in the ass.

Not to mention all the pain in the ass we had coming from England, Netherlands, France, Italy, etc. Why would we even be interested in Portugal? It had no special richness compared to what America had. There were no resources, no interest and no benefit from doing that.