D. Maria II was the daughter of the future King Pedro IV (Emperor of Brazil as Pedro I) and was born in 1819.
In March 1826, King Joao VI died, creating a succession crisis in Portugal. The king had a male heir, Dom Pedro, but Pedro had proclaimed the independence of Brazil in 1822 and he was now Emperor Pedro I of that country. The late king also had a younger son, Miguel, but he was exiled in Austria after leading a number of revolutions against his father and his liberal regime.
The king had nominated his favourite daughter, Isabel Maria, as regent until ‘the legitimate heir returned to the Kingdom’. But he didn’t specify who was the legitimate heir. Pedro, the liberal Emperor of Brazil, or Miguel, the absolutist exiled prince?
Most people considered that Pedro was the legitimate heir, but nobody wanted him to unite Portugal and Brazil’s thrones again. The European country had been under Brazilian rule when both were part of The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarve, established by the King Joao VI during his stay in Rio de Janeiro from 1808 until 1820. Aware that his brother’s supporters were ready to bring Miguel back and put him in the throne, Pedro decided for a more consensual option: he abdicated the throne to his eldest daughter, Maria da Gloria (who was only 7 years old), and she should marry her uncle Miguel, who should accept the Liberal Constitution and act as a regent until his niece was an adult.
Miguel pretended to accept, but when he arrived in Portugal he deposed Maria and proclaimed himself King, abrogating the liberal constitution in the process. During his reign of terror, Maria travelled to many European courts, including her grandfather’s in Vienna, as well as to London and Paris.
Pedro abdicated the Brazilian throne in 1831 in favour of his son (and Maria’s younger brother, Pedro II), and from his base in the Azores he attacked Miguel, forcing him to abdicate in 1834. Maria was thereupon restored to the throne, and obtained an annulment of her marriage.
Maria’s reign saw a revolutionary insurrection on May 16, 1846, but this was crushed by royalist troops on February 22, 1847, and Portugal otherwise avoided the European upheavals of 1848. Maria’s reign was also notable for a public health act aimed at curbing the spread of cholera throughout the country. She also pursued policies aimed at increasing the levels of education throughout the country.
After constant pregnancies and births, doctors kept informing Maria of the danger of giving birth to nearly one child per year. She neglected the risks that had also killed her mother; ‘If I die, I die in my post’, she said. Maria II died while giving birth to Prince Eugene in 1853. (Her mother had also died of miscarriage.) Maria II is remembered as a good mother and a kind person, who always acted according to her convictions in an attempt to help her country. She was later given the surname “The Good Mother.”
The values indicated below are a fair quotation to be used as reference for coin collectors. They do not represent any selling price.
VF (Very Fine): A coin where all the fine detail is present, but not the 'minute' detail and signs of wear and tear to its higher points make it obvious that it has been in circulation but only minimally.
