To “Your Most Serene Highness”: Petitions from women during the reign of King Miguel I (1828-1834)

Abstract

This article focuses on the relational aspects of gender during the reign of King Miguel I (1828-1834) and uses as its main source the petitions of women sent to the Secretaria de Estado dos Negócios Eclesiásticos e da Justiça. The rise of King Miguel to the throne intensified the disputes between counter-revolutionaries and defenders of the Portuguese Constitutional Charter of 1826 and its representative bodies. The scenario of persecution of those accused of being enemies of the king, coupled with the economic crisis, was even more significant for poor women. Using the methodology of micro-history, the study seeks to trace the specificities of the social and political experiences of the women petitioners, paying attention to the context of the Miguelist counter-revolution.