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In March 1820, Beresford went to Brazil to persuade the king to return to the
throne. His departure allowed the influence of the liberals to grow within the
army, which had emerged from the Peninsular Wars as Portugal's strongest
institution. On August 24, 1820, regiments in Porto revolted and established a
provisional junta that assumed the government of Portugal until a cortes could
be convoked to write a constitution. The regency was bypassed because it was
unable to cope with Portugal's financial crisis, and Beresford was not allowed
to enter the country when he returned from Brazil.
In December 1820, indirect elections were held for a constitutional
cortes,
which convened in January 1821. The deputies were mostly constitutional
monarchists. They elected a regency to replace the provisional junta, abolished
seigniorial rights and the Inquisition, and, on September 23, approved a
constitution. At the same time, Joćo VI decided to return to Portugal, leaving
his son Pedro in Brazil. Upon his arrival in Lisbon, Joćo swore an oath to
uphold the new constitution.
*****
Portugese Military Revolt 1820...In 1820, when a military revolt in Spain forced the revived absolutist regime
of Fer-nando VII (1784-1833) to restore the liberal constitution of 1812, the
Portuguese military followed suit by expelling the British officers and forming
revolutionary juntas. The military petitioned the king's return and summoned a Cōrtes
(the Portuguese Parliament), the first since 1697 when the crown had dispensed
with such bodies.
Unable to do more, Joćo pardoned the juntas' usurpation of his prerogative
to summon a Cōrtes and acknowledged that a Cōrtes could be useful in making
proposals to him on how best to govern the United Kingdom.
*****
In the timeframe of the "Portugese Civil War 1820-1834" in Dunnigan
and Martel's How to Stop a War list.
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