Pedro I of Brazil

Pedro I was the Portuguese prince who declared Brazil’s independence in 1822 and became its first emperor. Conflict over constitutional power and Portuguese influence led him to abdicate in 1831; he then returned to Europe and fought to secure the Portuguese throne for his daughter Maria II.

Pedro I of Brazil also held the offices or ranks of King of Portugal and the Algarves, Emperor of Brazil, Duke of Braganza, and Monarch of Portugal. Pedro I of Brazil belonged to the House of Braganza and operated within Kingdom of Portugal; Empire of Brazil. Pedro I of Brazil was born in Palace of Queluz.

Robert Harvey’s Liberators centres the narrative on Francisco de Miranda, Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Bernardo O’Higgins, Thomas Cochrane, Agustín de Iturbide and Pedro I of Brazil. Napoleon’s invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and the collapse of established royal authority created the opening, but independence depended on local armies, shifting coalitions and campaigns conducted across immense distances. Robert Harvey’s Cochrane recounts the cruises of HMS Speedy, including the capture of the much larger Spanish frigate El Gamo, his later service in Pallas and Imperieuse, and the fireship attack at the Basque Roads. Cochrane’s public dispute with Admiral Gambier and the Admiralty was followed by conviction in the 1814 Stock Exchange fraud, expulsion from Parliament and the loss of his naval honours. Denied a British command, Cochrane became an admiral in the independence struggles of Chile and Peru, where his seizure of Valdivia and cutting-out of the Spanish frigate Esmeralda demonstrated the same appetite for irregular operations. He later served Pedro I in Brazil and the Greek revolutionary government, repeatedly quarrelling with ministers over money, authority and strategy. Pedro I of Brazil is treated fictionally in Allan Mallinson’s Rumours of War.