Luís I, King

(1838-89)

   King Luís I was the second son of Queen Maria II and Dom Fernando. When his older brother, King Pedro V, died suddenly in October 1861, he ascended the throne. Well-educated, with the temperament of a writer and artist, Luís probably preferred the literary life to politics and public affairs. In the history of Portugal's literature, Luís is noted for his translations into Portuguese of several of Shakespeare's plays. During his 28-year reign, Portugal experienced a phase of the Regeneration and, for part of the period after 1870, relatively stable politics and a lack of military intervention in public life. During his reign, too, there was material progress and great literary accomplishment; for example, the famous novels of José Maria Eça de Queirós and the poetry of Antero de Quental. While republicanism became a greater force after 1871, and the first republican deputy was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1878, this party and its ideology were not a threat to the monarchy until after the reign of Dom Luís. When King Luís died in 1889, he was succeeded by his oldest son, Dom Carlos, whose stormy reign witnessed the rise of republicanism and serious degeneration of the monarchy.