PRÍNCIPE REAL

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PRÍNCIPE REAL

Post by shipstamps » Thu Sep 11, 2008 5:11 pm



Portugal and Brazil issued in March 2008 each two stamps with the same design for the 200th Anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family in Brazil, the design depicts among others, two ships, both vessels are not identified. The stamp was designed after a painting in the Museum dos Coches in Lisbon, showing the embarking for Brazil of the Prince Regent Dom Joäo VI.
The Portuguese Post gives the following story by the stamps:

No one knows exactly how many thousands of Portuguese set sail from Lisbon for Brazil on 27th November 1807 along with Queen Maria I and Prince Regent Dom Joäo in their pioneering voyage from Europe to the American continent.

The decision to transfer the (Portuguese) court to Brazil was made on 22nd October following intense secret discussions between Portugal and England. A few days later on 27th October the French and Spanish agreed to the partition of Portugal in Fontainebleau.
Events then moved swiftly, Carlos IV of Spain was forced to abdicate in favour of his son Fernando VII, while the Portuguese Royal Family settled in Rio de Janeiro, saving national sovereignty.
A little over two months later, in May 1808, the brother of the French emperor acceded the Spanish throne.

The French troops marched into Portugal on 17th November at Segura and, starving and tattered, gradually proceeded towards Lisbon., where they arrived on 30th meanwhile, over fifty Portuguese ships and a British naval escort commanded by Sidney Smith had been crossing the Atlantic since the previous day; having been delayed by bad weather on 28th and the degree signed ion 26th November by the Prince Regent was fulfilled.
In December, the English commanded by Beresford landed in Funchal, taken possession of Madeira and thousands of Portuguese set sail for Brazil.

In February 1808, Junot dissolved the Regency Counsel appointed by the Prince Regent, replacing it with a Government Council. The assets of the house of Braganza were confiscated, and the end of the dynasty was proclaimed.

On 30 August, England and France signed the convention of Sintra, in which Portugal had no part, and French troops, withdrew from the country in September however not without much looting and killing in a number of towns.

In mid-January, after his ship had been becalmed for some days, Dom Joäo informed the English escort of his decision to head for Salvador, where accompanied by the Queen mother and his wife Carlote Joaquina, he landed on 23rd with the great possible pomp given the circumstances.
It was the first time America and the first capital of Brazil had welcomed a royal family, and with it over one thousand Portuguese. Meanwhile, the part of the fleet that had decided to proceed to Rio de Janeiro weighed anchor there on 17th January.
In Salvador, the Prince Regent decreed Brazilian Ports open to friendly nations on 28 January and created the Medical-Surgical School, today the Facility of Medicine.

At the beginning of the summer 1808, there where anti French uprisings throughout Portugal and a number of regency councils were formed aimed at safeguarding the public administration in the name of the Prince Regent.
Marshals Soult, in 1809 and Massena in 1810 marched into a country devastated by starvation and war, yet both were forced to retreat, the former north of the Douro River and the latter in front of the Torres Vedras Lines.

In Brazil the Prince Regent ordered the occupation of French Guyana in February 1810, and the Treaties of Commerce and Navigation and Alliance and Friendship were signed with Great Britain.

In Brazil the court arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 11th March 1808. The arriving regent appointed his government and set the administrative machinery in motion, creating the Higher Military Council the following month. King Joäo then prepared to remain in Brazil.

Over the following months, the immense wealth brought from Lisbon was organised, resulting in the creation of the Impresa Nacional (Mint), Botanical Garden, Royal Library among many other institutions that would benefit Rio de Janeiro.

In June 1808 a number of uprisings against the French began in Portugal and as a result, regency councils proliferated at the beginning of summer 1808.

In June 1814 Napoleon abdicated the French throne.
On 16th November 1815 the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve was founded.
Queen Maria died in June 1816.
In 1818 Prince Regent Joäo was proclaimed King, the first in America.

Portugal had been governor by Field Marshal Beresford under a new Regency Council since the second half on 1808, in 1816 he was granted additional powers by the then Prince Regent. He sailed to Brazil in April 1820, however while he was there, the Oporto revolution occurred and he never returned to Portugal.

Portuguese politics began to change. While still in Brazil the King approved the draft of the constitution which he would later swear to uphold in 1822, and on 3rd July 1821, King Joäo VI landed at Cais das Colunas, Lisbon.
Liberals wind would soon be blowing over Portugal and Brazil.

Written by Rui Ras Quilho.

Then is given by Mr. Dan Rodlie, Editor of Watercraft Philately that one of the vessels on this stamp has been identified as the Portuguese ship PRÍNCIPE REAL (84-guns) by the Napoleonic Study Group and published in their latest newsletter.

The right stamp depict Prince Dom Joäo stepping from his carriage at the docks in Lisbon to board the Portuguese ship PRÍNCIPE REAL bound for Brazil amid farewells from friends.
The left stamp depict Dom Joäo arriving in Brazil with the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Salvador in the background where ships carrying the Royal Family first deocked.


She was built as a 1st rate ship-of-the-line in Lisbon for the Portuguese Navy.
When ordered or keel laid down not known.
13 August 1771 launched under the name NOSSA SENHORA DA CONCEIÇAO.
Tonnage 2.400 ton. Dim. length of keel 200ft, beam 50ft draught 23ft. (all are approximate)
Armament when built 30 – 36pdrs., 30 – 18pdrs, 12 – 18pdrs. 18 – 9pdrs.
Crew?
Commissioned?

1794 Rebuilt and renamed PRÍNCIPE REAL.
1795 Served in the (British?) Channel Fleet.
1796 With Nelson fleet before the Battle of the Nile.
1807 Brought the Portuguese Royal family to Brazil.
1822 Out of service, and the same year on 23 September sold to Brazil, not renamed, the first vessel under that name in the Brazilian Navy.
Under command of Francisco Rodrigues de Lima Pinto used as a floating battery vessel at Rio de Janeiro.
1830 Broken up.

The voyage to Brazil is given: http://www2.fcsh.unl.pt/congressoceap/k-light.DOC

Source: http://www.naval.com.br/NGB/P/P119/P119.htm http://3decks.pbwiki.com/HMFMS+N+S+da+Conceicao+(1771)

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