Miguel I (Miguel Maria do Patrocínio João Carlos Francisco de Assis Xavier de Paula Pedro de Alcântara António Rafael Gabriel Joaquim José Gonzaga Evaristo de Bragança e Bourbon; October 26, 1802 - November 14, 1866) was the 30th (or 31st according to some historians) King of Portugal and the Algarves between 1828 and 1834, during the Portuguese civil war.
Miguel was an avowed conservative and admirer of the Austrian Empire under the guidance of Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. He led two revolts against his father in the 1820s, earning himself a sentence of exile at one point. In 1826 he was betrothed to his young niece Maria II. Miguel subsequently proclaimed himself regent (February 26, 1828) and then took the throne as sole monarch (June 23, 1828) at which time he overthrew his brother Pedro IV's constitution.
The last Monarchic Constitution of 1838, never revoked, in the article 98 categorically excluded the collateral line of the king Miguel of Portugal and all his descendants.
Also Spain, by law of Cortes on 15 January 1837 in midst of the First Carlist War (1833-39), excluded Miguel from the Spanish succession, on grounds of him being with the rebellion of his maternal uncle don Carlos, the first Carlist pretender of Spain. Miguel's eldest sister Teresa, and his nephews (three sons of late infanta Francisca, and Sebastian, son of Teresa) were so excluded.
Marriages and descendants
In 1851, when already 48, he married Princess Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, by whom he had six daughters and a son. In a similar fashion to Queen Victoria, he would become known as the grandfather of Europe, however this occurred after his own death. His widow succeeded in securing advantageous marriages for their daughters.
Natural daughter from a relationship with a Lady of the Portuguese nobility living in Rome named Dona Antónia Francisca Ribeiro do Carmo, daughter of the Duke of Algarve. Recognized as his child in 1839, thereby being semi-legitimized. According to public records, she died in Minas Gerais State, Brazil in 1910. Offspring unknown.
Natural daughter from a relationship with a woman from the Portuguese peasantry living in Santarém at the time the King was living there during the end of the civil war. She was however never acknowledged. She married D. Tomás José Fletcher de Melo Homem, born in Moita, February 23, 1836 and died in Lisbon, October 3, 1905, and had female issue now extinct at the generation of her two grandsons.