Patuleia, Revolt and Civil War of

(1846-1847)

   An important 19th-century civil war that featured political forces centered at Oporto pitted against the Lisbon government of Queen Maria II's constitutional monarchy. It began with a military revolt in Oporto on 6 October 1846. A provisional junta, led by the Sep-tembrist José da Silva Passos (1800-63), proclaimed goals including the ousting of the Lisbon government of the day and the restoration of the 1822 Constitution. Foreign intervention was sparked when the Oporto Septembrist Junta was joined by Miguelist rebels. On the pretext of preventing a restoration of a Miguelist absolutist government, Great Britain, France, and Spain intervened and dispatched armies and fleets to Portugal. Queen Maria II requested foreign assistance, too, and worked to safeguard her throne and political system.

   While a British fleet blocked Portugal's coast, Spain dispatched armies that crossed the Portuguese frontier in both south-central and northern Portugal. A siege of junta forces that lasted almost eight months followed. On 12 June 1847, the foreign powers presented an ultimatum to the Oporto junta, which, although it tried to continue resistance, decided to negotiate and then to capitulate to the foreign forces and the Lisbon government. With the signing of the controversial Convention of Gramido (1847), the Patuleia civil war ended.

   See also Gramido, Convention of.