1808: The Flight of the Emperor: How a Weak Prince, a Mad Queen, and the British Navy Tricked Napoleon and Changed the New World

by Laurentino Gomes

Overview

In a time of terror for Europe’s monarchs—imprisoned, exiled, executed—Napoleon’s army marched toward Lisbon. Cornered, Prince Regent João had to make the most fraught decision of his life. Protected by the British Navy, he fled to Brazil with his entire family, including his deranged mother, most of the nobility, and the entire state apparatus. Until then, no European monarch had ever set foot in the Americas.
            Thousands made the voyage, but it was no luxury cruise. It took two months in cramped, decrepit ships. Lice infested some of the vessels, and noble women had to shave their hair and grease their bald heads with antiseptic sulfur. Vermin infested the food, and bacteria contaminated the drinking water. Sickness ran rampant.
            After landing in Brazil, Prince João liberated the colony from a trade monopoly with Portugal. As explorers mapped the burgeoning nation’s distant regions, the prince authorized the construction of roads, the founding of schools, and the creation of factories, raising Brazil to kingdom status in 1815. Meanwhile, Portugal was suffering the effects of abandonment, war, and famine. Never had the country lost so many people in so little time.
            Finally, after Napoleon’s fall and over a decade of misery, the Portuguese demanded the return of their king. João sailed back in tears in 1821, and the last chapter of colonial Brazil drew to a close, setting the stage for the strong, independent nation that we know today, changing the New World forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762796663
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/29/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	367,342
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Laurentino Gomes is a journalist and bestselling author. His first book in a trilogy on the history of Brazil, 1808, the Flight of the Emperor, has sold nearly 1 million copies and won the prestigious Jabuti Prize, Brazil’s highest literary honor. The Brazilian Academy of Letters chose 1808, the Flight of the Emperor as 2008’s best work of nonfiction. Gomes has worked for thirty years as a writer and editor for some of the most important Brazilian media outlets, including Veja magazine and the newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo.

Table of Contents

Introduction x

Part 1 The Flight of the Emperor

I Flight from Lisbon 3

II The Era of Deranged Monarchs 8

III The Plan 15

IV The Declining Empire 23

V Departure 31

VI The Royal Archivist 40

VII The Voyage 46

VIII Salvador 57

IX The Colony 68

X Tree Frog, the Reporter 84

XI A Letter 96

Part 2 The Rise of Brazil

XII Rio de Janeiro 101

XIII Dom Joao 115

XIV Carlota Joaquina 125

XV Hands in the Coffers 132

XVI A New Court 138

XVII Empress of the Seas 144

XVIII Transformation 151

XIX The Chief of Police 162

XX Slavery 169

XXI The Travelers 184

XXII Napoleons Downfall 196

XXIII The Republic of Pernambuco 203

XXIV Tropical Versailles 210

Part 3 The Return of the Monarch

XXV Portugal Abandoned 221

XXVI The Return 230

XXVII A New Brazil 235

XXVIII The Conversion of dos Santos Marrocos 242

XXIX The Secret 249

Acknowledgments 253

Notes 255

Bibliography 296

Index 310

Editorial Reviews

Incapable of fending off Napoleon, Portugal’s Prince Regent João —ruling since 1799 in the stead of his demented mother—bluffed France with promises of surrender while signing a secret agreement with Britain to secure safe passage to Brazil for João and his entire court, comprising up to 15,000 people. On November 29, 1807, the fleet set sail from Lisbon, leaving Portugal at the mercy of Napoleon (who once declared João “the only one who tricked me”). During the 13 years that João reigned in exile from Rio de Janeiro, Portugal lost one-sixth of its population—half a million people—due to emigration, starvation, or in battle. Meanwhile, “the idle, corrupt, and wasteful” royal court stayed financially afloat by levying taxes on Brazilians and granting titles in exchange for donations from wealthy colonists—many of them slave traffickers. Nevertheless, the weird king (he had a “crippling fear of crustaceans and thunder” and had a valet regularly masturbate him) raised Brazil to the status of a kingdom in union with Portugal, improved infrastructure, reorganized the government, promoted the arts, and essentially began the process of decolonization. Despite Nevins’s awkward translation, Gomes’s (1822: The Prince Left Behind) account is fascinating. Illus. and 2 maps. Agent: Jonah Straus, Straus Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

An Amazon.com History BestsellerWinner of the Jabuti PrizeA Brazilian Academy of Letters Best Work of NonfictionCritical Acclaim for 1808: The Flight of the Emperor"This vivid portrait of an unkempt, self-preserving king provides insight into the obscure history of Brazil. ... A meticulous and encyclopedic account of life in the colony of Brazil, as well as the doings of the Portuguese royalty in their new home ... 1808: The Flight of the Emperor offers important knowledge for understanding how modern-day Brazil, a diverse mix of the ancestors of Europeans, slaves, and natives, was created. ... Gomes tells that story completely, with vivid accounts from historians as well as original sources."—Foreword"Highly readable ... a well-researched, engaging history."—Kirkus Reviews"Good airline reading on your next flight to Rio."—Library Journal"Fascinating."—Publishers Weekly"A light and informative history ... Gomes offers a broad perspective on the period, portrayed in bright colors."—Folha de São Paulo "A rare portrait ... Gomes's research shines . . . in his ability to recreate with unparalleled flair a portrait of daily life in the colonies and how this all changed with the arrival of the Portuguese."—Estado de São Paulo"This is a book that you will read with a broad smile. ... The result of ten years of research, 1808 is a veritable guidebook through all the events that formed part of this little-known episode of history. ... It conjures up a delicious blend of good humor and erudition to create a broad portrait of events and people that crossed paths during the thirteen-year adventure in the tropics. ... Through short, cinematic chapters, Gomes successfully sets up a jigsaw puzzle in which each piece fits right into the preceding one. ... In addition to supporting the historical record with primary source documents and with more recent studies, he makes the people of the era jump off the page. ... 1808 reveals these events with grace and weightlessness. ... It's a historical synthesis that shines for the clarity of its explanations and for the interest of the past it projects onto the present. It's a well conceived idea sustained by a flawless methodology."—Veja magazine

From the Publisher

The author of this study has produced a book that is enjoyable to read. .. .it does a fine job and gives casual readers a valuable overview. The book is a bestseller and has drawn a lot of popular attention to an important period of Atlantic World colonial history, which is of course desirable and impressive. .. .If one were asked to recommend the book as light reading for a popular audience, one would do so enthusiastically. -Historian

Historian

In 1807, the royal court of Portugal fled Napoléon's armies by sailing for colonial Brazil. Brazilian journalist Gomes's popular history, a best seller in its original 2007 publication, recounts how a sleepy Rio de Janeiro welcomed Europe's most conservative and absolute monarchy. Prince Regent Dom João and his 10,000 or so parasites found themselves in a beautiful but squalid town of 60,000 people, perhaps half of them slaves. Among those in the prince regent's train were his mother, the mad Queen Maria I, and his wife, Carlota, who participated in several unsuccessful coups against him. Not until 1821, as King João VI, did he reluctantly return to Portugal as a constitutional monarch while his son Pedro remained behind as nominal monarch of an independent Brazil. VERDICT Unfortunately, this book is not nearly as much fun as it should be. Gomes's work (translated awkwardly by Nevins) takes a surprisingly Eurocentric view of the royal family's time in Brazil. The author argues that the presence of the Portuguese court propelled backward Brazil toward improved education, scientific exploration, and independence. Readers might mistakenly think no Brazilian culture existed before the royals arrived. Nonetheless, this book could make good airline reading on your next flight to Rio.—Stewart Desmond, New York

Library Journal

A journalist's highly readable account of Portuguese monarch João VI's historic 1808 flight from Europe and subsequent exile in Brazil. In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself emperor of the French. But by 1807, the year Gomes' book opens, he "ruled as absolute lord of Europe." Aside from Britain, only one continental nation, Portugal, remained unconquered. Unwilling to surrender but unable to fend off a full-scale invasion, the fearful and often indecisive Prince Regent João VI, whose "sickly obesity gave him the air of a peaceful dullard," deceived Napoleon long enough to transfer his entire court to Brazil. Shepherded by the indomitable British navy, the trans-Atlantic voyage was fraught with challenges for the Portuguese ruler and his retinue, who faced the ever-present risk of disease. But it was João's abandoned people who paid the price for his ultimately successful flight. By 1814, 500,000 Portuguese had starved or died or fled the country to escape the chaos created in the wake of their monarch's departure. Meanwhile, the court lived comfortably in sultry Rio de Janeiro. The greedy beneficiaries of the colony's mineral and agricultural wealth, João and his nouveau riche ministers still managed to lay down the cornerstones of a national infrastructure. They built roads, schools and factories, opened up Brazilian ports to trade with other countries and united quarreling colonial provinces. The king many dismissed as unfit to rule departed in 1821, with only one-third his retinue, to return to a Portugal wracked by chaos and revolution. In a grand twist of historical irony, what he left behind became the makings of a vibrantly complex society that now stands poised to become a major economic power. A well-researched, engaging history.

Kirkus Reviews