Holland House and Portugal, 17931840
220 pages
English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Holland House and Portugal, 17931840 , livre ebook

-

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus
220 pages
English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

Description

First serious study on Lord Holland’s relations with Portugal and on his contribution to the establishment of a constitutional regime in that country.


‘Holland House and Portugal’, a study in political and diplomatic history, focuses on the relations between Lord Holland and Portugal from 1793 to 1840. The book traces the evolution of Holland’s views on Portugal from the time of his first visit to Spain to his later contribution to the establishment of a constitutional regime in Portugal. It pays particular attention to the Hollands’ visits to Portugal in 1804–5 and 1808–9. On their travels, they met a number of prominent Portuguese, notably Palmela, who were to remain in contact with Holland House for many years. The Portuguese journeys and the continuing contact with people like Palmela were to play an important part in the development of Lord Holland’s views, not only on Portugal but also on broader political and constitutional issues.


Thus ‘Holland House and Portugal’ investigates Lord Holland’s influence on the establishment of a constitutional regime in Spain in 1809–10 and – indirectly and unintentionally – in Portugal in 1820–23. It includes a study of Holland’s contribution to the creation of a government in Brazil in 1808 – when the Braganças moved from Portugal to Rio de Janeiro – and his indirect influence on the establishment of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in 1815.


Lord Holland’s contribution to the establishment of a Liberal regime in Portugal in 1834 is examined at some length in ‘Holland House and Portugal’. The book includes a study of the extent of Holland’s support for the Portuguese Liberal Cause after Dom Miguel’s usurpation of the throne in 1828 and of his subsequent role in the ‘Liberal invasion’ of Portugal. To this end it investigates relations between Portuguese émigrés and the Holland House Circle, and Holland’s role in the triangular diplomacy between Lisbon, St James and South Audley Street in 1828 and later. Finally, it considers Holland’s contribution to the end of the Portuguese Civil War in 1834 and to the subsequent establishment of a constitutional regime in that country.


Acknowledgements; Foreword by John Clarke; Foreword by Maria Leonor Machado de Sousa; Preface; List of Abbreviations; Introduction: A Long-Lasting Relation; Part 1. Champion of Liberties; Chapter One First Impressions; Chapter Two Renewed Acquaintance; Chapter Three La Grande Affaire: The Hollands’ Influence on the Spanish Liberalism; Chapter Four Glimpses of Liberty; Part 2. The Portuguese Question; Chapter Five Road to Absolutism; Chapter Six Super Flumina Babylonis; Chapter Seven The Affair of Terceira; Chapter Eight The Affairs of Portugal; Chapter Nine The Return of the Whigs; Chapter Ten Pedro’s ‘Argonauts’; Chapter Eleven Boulevard of Freedom; Part 3. Aftermath; Chapter Twelve Revolution; Chapter Thirteen Liberalism and Its Problems; Bibliography; Index.

Sujets

Informations

Publié par
Date de parution 22 février 2018
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781783087587
Langue English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0076€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Holland House and Portugal
Holland House and Portugal
English Whiggery and the Constitutional Cause in Iberia
José Baptista de Sousa
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2018
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

© José Baptista de Sousa 2018

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-756-3 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-756-0 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.
To my grandmother, Mimi,
&
my mother, Maria Elvira
CONTENTS
Foreword by John Clarke

Foreword by Maria Leonor Machado de Sousa

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations
Introduction
A Long-Lasting Relation
Part 1. Champion of Liberties
Chapter One
First Impressions
Chapter Two
Renewed Acquaintance
Chapter Three
La Grande Affaire : The Hollands’ Influence on Spanish Liberalism
Chapter Four
Glimpses of Liberty
Part 2. The Portuguese Question
Chapter Five
Road to Absolutism
Chapter Six
Super Flumina Babylonis
Chapter Seven
The Affair of Terceira
Chapter Eight
The Affairs of Portugal
Chapter Nine
The Return of the Whigs
Chapter Ten
Pedro’s ‘Argonauts’
Chapter Eleven
Boulevard of Freedom
Part 3. Aftermath
Chapter Twelve
Revolution
Chapter Thirteen
Liberalism and Its Problems

References
Index
Foreword
The salon at Holland House, presided over by the formidable Lady Holland herself, is well known as a major institution in British political and cultural history. It is rightly regarded as at least as important as the rival salons of Dorothea Lieven and the Duchess of Dino. Anecdotes abound – for example, the occasion when Lady Holland sent a note to T. B. Macaulay asking him not to dominate the conversation. But the conversation then flagged and Lady Holland was forced to send another note to Macaulay which read ‘Please do dominate the conversation Mr. Macaulay.’ The salon was at its most influential in the 1820s and 1830s, with Lord and Lady Holland – Lord Holland was the nephew of Charles James Fox – seen as the guardians of the pure traditions of English Whiggery.
Perhaps the most important element in the Whig tradition was a belief in the importance of aristocracy, literally ‘the rule of the best’. The role of a properly enlightened aristocracy was to place strict limits on the powers of absolutist-inclined monarchs and to provide leadership to the rest of society to protect it from the allure of demagogues and extreme radicals. The institutional embodiment of these principles was, of course, a parliament, but a parliament consisting of two chambers with the upper chamber largely composed of hereditary peers. In some respects, Whiggery was an ideology rooted in the England of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Long years of exclusion from office, coupled with a recognition that significant social and economic change was occurring, added a new dimension to the strategy – a readiness to enrol the new middle classes as junior partners in a sort of progressive coalition. Above all, this found expression in the Reform Bill of 1832. Whigs believed in religious toleration and were often somewhat sceptical about conventional religious beliefs; many were Freemasons. Within fairly broad limits, they believed in a free press and the rule of law. Although not completely identical, Whigs might be regarded as the precursors of later Liberals.
But Holland House stood for something more; it had a significant international dimension. In short, Lord and Lady Holland wanted to promote the development of societies and political systems based upon their own principles elsewhere in the world. Spain and Portugal – and to some extent South America – were of special interest to them. It is this that forms the main theme of José de Sousa’s book. The Hollands could claim to be particularly well informed about Spain and Portugal, having made two extensive tours of the Peninsula. They made their journeys during the particularly interesting times of the Napoleonic Wars. On both occasions the Hollands kept diaries, works that provide a major source for this book.
In some respects at least, Portugal might appear an attractive possibility for the adoption of Whig/Liberal ideas. The links between England and Portugal were strong and long-standing. English crusaders had helped to expel the Moors from Lisbon and a treaty between the two countries dating to the fourteenth century was still valid. Symbols of the alliance were the marriages of Philippa of Lancaster into the Portuguese Royal House and later the marriage of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II of England. In some English circles, the drinking of port wine was seen as a patriotic duty. Above all, England and Portugal were seagoing countries that came to look outwards from Europe, to the Atlantic, to the Indian Ocean and beyond. Both were challenged by powerful neighbours – England by France and Portugal by Spain. It was always in the common interest of England and Portugal to prevent any close alliance or union between France and Spain.
But did a common interest mean that England and Portugal could develop on similar lines? It was true that, in common with many other European countries, both had developed early forms of parliaments in the Middle Ages – and the early Cortes was a major source of interest to Lord Holland. Yet divergences emerged and these seemed to increase over the years. England adopted Protestantism while Portugal committed itself to a particularly stifling version of the Counter-Reformation. Whereas the English Parliament grew from strength to strength, ultimately deciding who should be king and on what terms, the Portuguese Cortes withered and died. Perhaps the Portuguese were too successful; their empire brought so much wealth to the Crown that there was no need to go cap in hand to any representative body. With a few exceptions, the Portuguese nobility and clergy had little interest in constitutional issues, and a thriving commercial middle class – so important to the Whig model – was notably absent.
There had been attempts to modernize Portugal in the past, but these had been in the shape of reforms imposed from above upon a reluctant population. In other words, the main instrument of change had been Enlightened Despotism, embodied in the figure of Pombal. One of the phenomena that caused most intellectual difficulty for Whigs like Holland was to decide whether the merits of such a despotism outweighed their shortcomings. By and large they approved of the objectives of such despots but deplored their methods. They also noted that any improvements tended to be short-lived; when the despot fell, his reforms were quickly discarded.
The Hollands knew enough to appreciate that it would not be easy to sow the seeds of Liberalism on the somewhat stony ground of Portugal, but this did not deter them from trying. Lord Holland was ready to offer advice on constitutional matters to the Portuguese, the Spaniards and the Brazilians. His advice was essentially pragmatic; constitutional arrangements, ideally based on a bicameral system of representation, must take account of the traditions and realities of the countries concerned. This contrasted sharply with advice based on abstract principles, whether those of the French Revolution or those of Jeremy Bentham. It must be admitted that, by and large, Holland’s advice was not listened to. Perhaps the story of constitutional government in Spain and Portugal and in South America might have been happier if his ideas had been more influential.
The Hollands’ interest in Spain and Portugal did not end when they returned to England after their tours. In the 1820s and 1830s both countries experienced extreme political instability and civil war. Successive revolutions and counter-revolutions brought many refugees to England. Holland was active in raising funds to assist refugees and exiled politicians who supported the constitutional cause. In these years, Portuguese exiles were frequent guests at Holland House. In particular, Holland sought to arouse public opinion against the seizure of power by Dom Miguel, the absolutist claimant to the Portuguese throne. There was a real danger that Wellington’s government would give formal recognition to Miguel’s regime, a development Holland was determined to prevent.
Holland’s influence increased when the Whigs under Charles Grey (1764–1845) came to power in November 1830. Although the new government was mainly preoccupied with drawing up and passing the Great Reform Bill, it also pursued a new line in foreign policy, aligning itself more clearly with the constitutional cause in both Spain and Portugal. Here again Holland’s influence w

  • Univers Univers
  • Ebooks Ebooks
  • Livres audio Livres audio
  • Presse Presse
  • Podcasts Podcasts
  • BD BD
  • Documents Documents