History of Brazil from 1500 to 1822 - Artifacts and Images

[Golden Iberian]

The oldest organ in Brazil

The Almeida e Silva / Lobo de Mesquita organ was built between the years 1782 and 1787 in the Church of the Venerable Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in Diamantina, Minas Gerais, by Father Manuel de Almeida e Silva.

It was entirely built in the old Arraial do Tejuco between 1782 and 1787 by Father Manoel de Almeida e Silva, in response to the demands of a cultured, sensitive society to endow divine worship with one of its most prestigious ornaments: the organ. The second instrument erected within the Church of Carmo in the old arraial, currently the city of Diamantina, it was under the orders of the eminent composer José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita (Serro, 1746? - Rio de Janeiro, 1805), from its completion until 1794. It is quite likely that the great musician from Serro directly influenced the conception of the instrument, the only remaining organ used by Lobo de Mesquita, whose name became inseparable from his own history.

It was in this organ that Lobo de Mesquita composed and performed much of his work. The support of BNDES contributed to the restoration of the instrument, carried out by organist Frédéric Desmottes from the Hermanos Desmottes workshop. The project included a mini-course held on the already restored instrument, aimed at qualifying the community for the preservation and use of the asset. At the Diamantina Early Music Festival, it is possible to attend concerts with the instrument.

[Golden Iberian]

The First Marriage of a European Royal Family in the Americas

On May 13, 1810, at the São Cristóvão Palace, Rio de Janeiro, the eldest daughter of Prince Regent Dom João VI of Portugal, Infanta D. Maria Teresa de Bragança, the Princess of Beira, married her first cousin, Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal, grandson of King Charles III of Spain.

From this marriage, a son was born, D. Sebastião da Espanha e Portugal, on November 4, 1811, the only pretender to the Spanish Crown born in Brazil. Infante Pedro Carlos died shortly afterward from tuberculosis in 1812 and was buried at the Convent of Santo Antônio, Rio de Janeiro.

Dom João VI of Portugal and Dona Carlota Joaquina had nine children throughout their marriage. Of these nine children, six were girls, with the eldest being Infanta Dona Maria Teresa de Bragança, the Princess of Beira.

Regarding the motive for the marriage with Infante D. Pedro Carlos, it is commonly referred to as a paternal love on the part of Dom João VI and antipathy from Dona Carlota Joaquina. The reasons why the former wanted the marriage of his nephew to his daughter Maria Teresa, while the latter repudiated it, was because D. Pedro Carlos was Dom João's trump card to secure Platine dominion, stealing from Dona Carlota the chance to be regent of the Spanish domains in America.

Not by chance or mere praise, Dom João appointed D. Pedro Carlos Admiral General of the Navy in 1808, a position created exclusively for his nephew with the intention that no one else would occupy it. Thus, it is evident that the encouragement for the marriage was not only based on emotional reasons but also served political purposes. Further investigation is still underway regarding D. Maria Teresa's choice to please her father, whom she served as a right-hand, instead of her mother.

As the eldest and only surviving son of Gabriel de Bourbon, Infante of Spain, and his wife Mariana Vitória de Bragança, his father, a very intelligent man, was the favorite son of King Charles III, but he and his wife died in 1788 from smallpox. King Charles III also died the same year, and his successor Charles IV of Spain sent the child to Portugal at the request of his grandmother, Queen Maria I of Portugal. Dona Maria I was concerned about the succession of Bragança, and D. Pedro Carlos was then her only grandson. He was raised by Dona Maria I, who made him an Infante of Portugal.

D. Pedro Carlos inherited a great fortune from his father and was received in Portugal. In 1792, his grandmother was officially declared insane, and her son João, Pedro Carlos's uncle, became regent of Portugal.

In 1807, France invaded Portugal, and the royal family moved to Brazil, including D. Pedro Carlos. They departed on November 29 aboard the Príncipe Real.

Although not sworn heir to the throne of Portugal, Infante Dom Pedro Carlos was the putative successor of D. João VI while the prince had no children. He and D. Maria Teresa de Bragança starred in the first marriage of European royalty in the New World, and they were the parents of the first Infante born in America. In 1812, the Infante was the first member of royalty to die in Brazil.

As the favorite nephew of Dom João VI he was inconsolable after his death. He commissioned José da Costa, the sculptor of the Royal House, to create the most imposing tomb in Brazil at that time, three meters high, to hold the remains of the Infante, in the Church of the Venerável Ordem Terceira de São Francisco da Penitência, next to the Convent of Santo Antonio, in Largo da Carioca.

In 1814, the Portuguese royal family began its return to Portugal, although Maria Teresa and her son Sebastião Gabriel remained in the tropical country until 1821. Upon their return to Europe, María Teresa settled in Madrid, where she claimed for her son the great inheritance that by law corresponded to him.

In order to improve relations between the two families, double marriages between the Portuguese infantas María Isabel and María Francisca with the Spanish king Fernando VII and his younger brother Don Carlos María Isidro de Borbón, respectively, were also agreed upon.

Maria Teresa, with a markedly conservative character, gave full support to her brother, King Miguel I of Portugal, during the civil war that devastated Portugal between 1826 and 1834.

She also supported the cause of her brother-in-law, Infante Carlos María Isidro de Borbón, who claimed the Spanish throne for himself. During the last years of the reign of Fernando VII of Spain, María Teresa resided in Madrid with her son. After the death of Fernando VII in 1833 and refusing to accept the accession to the throne of Isabel II, María Teresa went into exile along with her sister, María Francisca, her brother-in-law Carlos, and their children in Portugal, a country from which they later had to leave as well.

On October 20, 1838, in Azcoitia, Maria Teresa married her brother-in-law, the widower Carlos, who was also her uncle. There were no children from this marriage, although they both raised their respective children together, as Maria Teresa's stepchildren were also her nephews. Since their exile, the entire family lived in exile.
In 1845, Carlos abdicated his rights to his eldest son, also named Carlos, who became known as Carlos VI. The elderly Carlos died in Trieste, in present-day Italy.


After Carlos VI's death, María Teresa published several manifestos to the Carlists from exile, the most well-known being her letter to the Spaniards in 1864, in which she invalidated her stepson, Juan de Borbón y Braganza, as the "legitimate king" due to his liberal thinking and his recognition of Isabel II's constitutional monarchy.

The Bishop of Seo de Urgel, José Caixal, and the director of the newspaper La Esperanza, Pedro de la Hoz, collaborated in drafting this and other manifestos of the Princess of Beira.
Maria Teresa died in Trieste in 1874, after nineteen years of widowhood.

In 1820, Sebastião accompanied his grandfather and mother back to Portugal. In 1828, at the age of 17, the couple's son, Infante Dom Sebastião, entered politics by supporting his uncle Miguel of Portugal in the Civil War against his other uncle Dom Pedro IV (I of Brazil). In 1833, Sebastião became one of the generals of the Carlist Army in Spain, a traditionalist and legitimist political movement characterized by its anti-liberal, anti-revolutionary, and anti-Masonic stance, which emerged in Spain in the second quarter of the 19th century, aiming for the establishment of an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty on the Spanish throne and originally advocating a return to the Old Regime. After the defeat of the Carlists, Sebastião was excluded from the line of succession to the Spanish throne, as was his mother, D. Maria Teresa, and his deposed uncle D. Miguel I of Portugal.

However, D. Sebastião restored his Spanish titles due to his second marriage, to the Spanish princess and granddaughter of Carlos IV. He then returned to Spain. Married in 1860, they had five children. The three eldest became dukes. After the overthrow of Isabel II in 1868, Dom Sebastião unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile the Carlists and the Isabellines of the House of Bourbon. He died at the age of 64 in 1874, the same year as his mother.

[Golden Iberian]

Today marks the Anniversary of Rio de Janeiro's Foundation in 1565. Painting by Antônio Firmino Monteiro, 1881. Pedro Ernesto Palace in Rio de Janeiro.



To reaffirm its power over the Brazilian territory, Portugal sent Mem de Sá to Brazil to prevent France from advancing into the lands not yet colonized by the Portuguese crown in Rio de Janeiro. In 1557, Estácio de Sá landed in the country for the first time to assist his uncle in the mission. The initial attempt to dominate the Guanabara Bay was unsuccessful. Despite conquering Fort Coligny on Serigipe Island with the support of settlers and Jesuits from the Village of São Vicente in 1560, Estácio and Mem de Sá faced difficulties in staying in the region due to problems with the ships.

In 1563, Queen Catherine, regent of the Portuguese throne, ordered Estácio de Sá to return to Brazil as the head of the squadron destined to dominate the region. He received support from Jesuit priests Manuel de Nóbrega and José de Anchieta, who recruited local inhabitants, especially Temimino warriors under the leadership of Chief Araribóia, to join Estácio de Sá. After several weeks of battle, the French were expelled from the former Antarctic France.

After years of war, Estácio founded the City of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro on March 1, 1565, at the foot of Pão-de-Açucar (Sugarloaf) Mountain. The city's original name was a tribute to the young King of Portugal, D. Sebastião.

In the center of the painting is Governor Mem de Sá handing over the keys of the city to the alcaide-mor and appointing the Senate of the Chamber, represented just behind the main scene, with very ornate and pompous attire, distinguishing themselves from the disorganized popular crowd located in front of the city entrance. To the left of the senators are the Jesuits who possibly concluded the religious ceremony moments before, as indicated by the reference to the still lit candles in the scene. Among the Jesuits, the figure of Father Nóbrega was identified, as well as Father Anchieta and Bishop D. Leitão.

In the foreground, there is a representation of Portuguese soldiers with shiny weapons and armor performing ceremonial guard duty. And next to the soldiers is a group of indigenous people with bows, headdresses, and animal skins observing what was happening in the center of the scene.

As we observe the painting, we notice the great emphasis on these characters in the foreground, with our attention drawn to the passage. The lack of proportion between these men and the others in the scene may be the way Monteiro found to draw attention to the indigenous role in colonization, especially the figure of Chief Araribóia and his Temimino warriors who helped Estácio de Sá in the Defeat of the French in the Guanabara Bay.