Monarchy of the North

The North of Portugal has often been the historical setting for revolutions and revolts against the position of the Portuguese government, from the Liberal Revolution of 1820, which went against the absolutist government, to the Republican Revolt of 1891, which went against the monarchist government. However, the North has also been the traditional seat of the Portuguese nobility.

When the 5 October 1910 revolution deposed King Manuel II of Portugal, the Portuguese monarchy, which traced its roots back to 868, was supplanted by the First Portuguese Republic. King Manuel II and the royal family, now banished from Portuguese soil, fled from Ericeira into exile, first to Gibraltar and then to the United Kingdom, where the British monarch gave them refuge.

After the revolution, King Manuel II and many others speculated the downfall of the newly installed republican regime, as it was installed without much popular support. Though King Manuel II was ready to reassume his rightful throne, he stressed the importance of being diplomatically and electorally restored, not militarily.

On 3 October 1911, Paiva Couceiro commanded the first counter-republican revolt after the revolution, the first monarchist incursion into the northern city of Chaves. The monarchist forces raised the blue and white flag of the monarchy at the city hall and held Chaves for three days, until they retreated when republican forces marched towards the city.

Monarchist counter-revolutionary soldiers holding the flag of the monarchy after the capture of Porto.

Though the first monarchist incursion into Chaves (1911) had failed, Paiva Couceiro regrouped with his supporters across the border in Galicia to launch a second, more powerful attempt at capturing the city. Unlike the initial incursion, the preparations for the second movement were well supplied and supported, having received unofficial aid from Spain, which feared that the radical republican policies of the First Portuguese Republic would cross the border into Spain, where the monarchy stood on uneasy stilts.

In total, about 450 men, both civilian and military, joined the monarchist revolt, and more volunteers and supporters were expected to join the movement as it made its way through the countryside. By the time the monarchist forces reached Chaves, on 8 July 1912, approximately 700 men were planned to take the city for the monarchy, but the incursion lacked the large amounts of public support that Paiva Couceiro had expected, being cheered on mainly by pacifist priests and noblemen who could not support the movement on a military basis.

By the time the monarchist forces made their way into the city proper, 150 local volunteers, with brief training, had organized themselves to protect the city in the name of the republican regime, while a company of 100 soldiers from the Portuguese Army marched towards the city.

Though the monarchist forces had superior numbers, they lacked the supplies that the 100 regular soldiers brought and by the end of the attack, 30 monarchists were killed and the rest either fled into exile or were arrested.

Though the royalist attack on Chaves was a failure for monarchist forces, it laid the ground for what would become the Monarchy of the North, in that it demonstrated that monarchists were prepared to use military force.

Proclamation of the Restoration of the Kingdom of Portugal, in Viana do Castelo, on 19 January 1919.

On 15 January 1919, Prime Minister Tamagnini Barbosa took control of the Portuguese republican government and made João do Canto e Castro President of the Portuguese Republic, filling the position after the assassination of Sidónio Pais.

Sidonists, supporters of the assassinated president, gathered under the command of General Almeida and formed the Provisional Military Junta outside of Lisbon, in opposition to President Canto e Castro. Similarly in the North of Portugal, Sidonists formed the Governing Military Junta, which proclaimed to control the North under provisional circumstances.

Taking advantage of the turmoil caused by President Sidónio Pais' assassination and replacement, Paiva Couceiro quickly made his way to North of Portugal, where he assessed that the setting was conducive to the restoration of the monarchy, to meet with the monarchist central command. The Integralismo Lusitano Central Junta met on 17 January 1919, where António Maria de Sousa Sardinha and Luís Carlos de Lima e Almeida Braga decided to proceed with Paiva Couceiro's plan of taking Porto, with the intention was to cut-off Porto from Lisbon and thereby foster unanimity for a restoration of the Portuguese monarchy.

Although António Sardinha and Paiva Couceiro marched into Porto, without any resistance from local military or citizens, on the morning of the 18 January, it was not until the following day (after a military parade) that a formal ceremony that included the hoisting of the blue and white royal flag proclaimed the Monarchy of the North. Following the proclamation of the restoration of the monarchy, the blue and white flag was hoisted at government buildings throughout the North, from Viana do Castelo to the historically contested city of Chaves.

After the events in Porto, on 21 January, the government of João Tamagnini Barbosa called the population to arms against the Monarchy and provides them with weapons and training.[2] This was particularly important because the garrison in Lisbon declared neutrality.[2] On the evening of 22 January, a group of monarchist military and citizens led by Aires de Ornelas and Álvaro de Mendonça gather on the Monsanto hill (nowadays a forest park).[2] They make their local proclamation of the Monarchy and hoist the monarchy flag.[2] The republican citizen militia gather in Eduardo VII Park and, along with some members of the National Republican Guard, the Fiscal Guard, and of the military and navy, march towards Monsanto.[2] On the morning of 23 January, the two forces meet and the republican forces siege the monarchic forces.[2] An attack by the republicans on 24 January afternoon led to the defeat of the monarchic forces, who surrender around 5 p.m..[2] The Monsanto assault led to the resignation of João Tamagnini Barbosa on 26 January and a union government led by José Relvas.[2]

The government was run without any sanction from the deposed King of Portugal, Manuel II.

The revolution's inability to gain strong popular support anywhere in the rest the country, coupled with its unorganized structure, led to its quick demise and the re-establishment of the Portuguese republican regime in the north.

On 13 February 1919, a revolt in Porto by civilians and National Republican Guard members leads to the end of the Monarchy of the North.[2]

• Diário da Junta Governativa do Reino de Portugal. Colecção Completa, nº 1 (19 Jan 1919) – nº 16 (13 Fev 1919), Porto, J. Pereira da Silva, 1919.
• Felix Correia, A Jornada de Monsanto – Um Holocausto Tragico, Lisboa, Tip. Soares & Guedes, Abril de 1919.
• A Questão Dinástica – Documentos para a História mandados coligir e publicar pela Junta Central do Integralismo Lusitano, Lisboa, Empresa Nacional de Indústrias Graficas, 1921.
• Luís de Magalhães, “Porque restaurámos a Carta em 1919”, Correio da Manhã, 27 e 28 de Fevereiro de 1924.
• Luís de Magalhães, Perante o Tribunal e a Nação, Coimbra, 1925.
• Hipólito Raposo, Folhas do meu Cadastro, Volume I (1911-1925), Edições Gama, 1940.
• António Sardinha, "Conrado não guarda silêncio!" em António Rodrigues Cavalheiro, Um Inédito de António Sardinha sobre a Monarquia do Norte, Separata do nº 15-16 da revista Sulco (2ª Série), Lisboa, 1968, pp. 43–55.
• José Manuel Quintas, "Os combates pela bandeira azul e branca", História, nº 10, Janeiro de 1999.
• Redacção Quidnovi, com coordenação de José Hermano Saraiva, História de Portugal, Dicionário de Personalidades, Volume VIII, Ed. QN-Edição e Conteúdos,S.A., 2004

Media related to Monarquia do Norte at Wikimedia Commons

• Fundação Mário Soares: Arquivo & Biblioteca - Monarquia do Norte