Luís I of Portugal

Luís I Louis I
Preceded by	Pedro V
Succeeded by	Carlos I
Personal details
Born	(1838-10-31)31 October 1838 Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal
Died	19 October 1889(1889-10-19) (aged 50) Cascais, Kingdom of Portugal
Spouse(s)	Maria Pia of Savoy
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Luís I (Portuguese pronunciation: [luˈiʃ]; English: Louis I, Full name: Luís Filipe Maria Fernando Pedro de Alcântara António Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga Xavier Francisco de Assis João Augusto Júlio Valfando de Saxe-Coburgo-Gotha e Bragança, the Popular, Port. o Popular; Lisbon, 31 October 1838 – 19 October 1889 in Cascais) was the King of Portugal and the Algarves between 1861 and 1889. He was the second son of Maria II and Ferdinand II and was created Duke of Porto and Viseu. Luís was a cultured man who wrote vernacular poetry, but had no distinguishing gifts in the political field into which he was thrust by the deaths of his brothers Pedro V and Fernando in 1861. Luís's domestic reign was a tedious and ineffective series of transitional governments called Rotativism formed at various times by the Progressistas (Liberals) and the Regeneradores (Conservatives – the party generally favoured by King Luís, who secured their long term in office after 1881). Despite a flirtation with the Spanish succession prior to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Luís's reign was otherwise one of domestic stagnation as Portugal fell ever further behind the nations of western Europe in terms of public education, political stability, technological progress and economic prosperity. In colonial affairs, Delagoa Bay was confirmed as a Portuguese possession in 1875, whilst Belgian activities in the Congo (1880s) and a British Ultimatum in 1890 denied Portugal a land link between Portuguese Angola and Portuguese Mozambique at the peak of the Scramble for Africa.

Luís was mostly a man of the sciences, with a passion for oceanography. He invested great amounts of his fortune in funding research boats to collect specimens in the oceans of the world. He was responsible for the establishment of one of the World's first Aquariums, Aquário Vasco da Gama in Lisbon, which is still open to the public with its vast collection of maritime life forms, including a 10 meter long squid. His love for sciences and things new was passed to his two sons.

Marriages and descendants

Luís married Princess Maria Pia of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and Maria Adelaide of Austria. The both had a deep love at first, but Luis's countless mistresses lead Maria Pia to depression. Together they had two sons who survived childhood, and a stillborn son in 1866. Maria Pia also gave birth to another stillborn son in 1869, and suffered miscarriages in 1872 and 1879. The King also fathered one illegitimate child, born in 1874 in Lisbon, a son named Carlos Augusto.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
By Princess Maria Pia of Savoy (16 October 1847 – 5 July 1911; married on 6 October 1862)
Dom Carlos, Prince Royal of Portugal	28 September 1863	1 February 1908	Who succeeded him as Carlos I, the King of Portugal, murdered in 1908 by the Carbonária.
Dom Afonso, Prince Royal of Portugal	31 July 1865	21 February 1920	Infante of Portugal, Duke of Porto, Viceroy of India, and after 1908 Prince Royal.

Ancestry

Royal styles of King Luís I of Portugal
Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Portugal (1640-1910).png
Reference style	His Most Faithful Majesty
Spoken style	Your Most Faithful Majesty
Alternative style	Sire