NIGUEL, Dom MAniA. EVARIST, b. at Lisbon Oct. 26, 1802, was the third son of John VI. of Portugal. He spent his early years in Brazil, unrestrained and uneduc,ated. When he returned with the royal family to Portugal in 1821, he could neither read nor write, and showed no talent for anything but fencing. He joined his mother, Charlotte Joachime of Spaia, in her plots for the overthrow of the constitution and the establish ment of a despotic government; part of the scheme being, that his weak father should be either formally deposed, or virtually deprived of all power. The aged marquis of Loule, the faithful servant of the king, having been removed out of the way by assas sination, Miguel, as infant-generalissimo, caused the ministers to be arrested, April 30, 1824, and his father to be closely watched in his palace; but the plot failed, and Miguel and his mother were banished. He led for some time a remarkably wild and profligate life in foreign countries. After the death of his father in 1826, the queen's party set forth a claim to the throne on his behalf, as his elder brother, Dom Pedro, was emperor of Brazil; and on 3fay 2, 1826, Pedro resigned the crown of Portugal in favor of his eldest daughter, Donna Maria da Gloria, proposing that her uncle Miguel should be her husband, and regent of the kingdom till her majority, to all which Mig,uel ag,reed. But
queen Joachime's party had everything prepared for the restoration of absolutism. Miguel wa.s declared king of Portugal. War ensued, and at first 3figuel was victorious. He carried into full effect the principles of his party by a system of the most severe repression of all liberalisin, and signalized himself by the most extreme tyranny of every kind, whilst his own life was one of the wildest excess. In 1832 Dom Pedro took Oporto, and his arms gradually prevailing, 3figuel was obliged to sign a capitulation at Evora, on 3lay 26, 1834, by which he resigned all claim to the throne of Portugal, and agreed to retire altogether front the country. But scarcely had he been conveyed to Genoa, when he protested against this deed, and consequently all his estates in Portugal were confiscated, and an annual pension which had been secured to him was stopped. He went to Rome, where the papal government acknowledged him as rightful king of Portugal, solely because lie had petted the Portuguese priesthood in Ilia war against the national liberties. Latterly he lived at the castle of Bronnbach, in Baden, where he died Nov., 1866.