Carlos I of Portugal
Carlos I ruled Portugal from 1889 to 1908 and was assassinated in the street in Lisbon, the first European monarch killed by gunfire in the twentieth century. Born in Lisbon in 1863, the son of Luís I, he was a capable painter and a serious oceanographer who conducted his own expeditions, published scientific work on deep-sea species, and equipped a research vessel. He inherited a crisis. Portugal claimed the territory between Angola and Mozambique — the rose-coloured map — and Britain wanted a Cape-to-Cairo corridor. In January 1890 Britain delivered an ultimatum demanding Portuguese withdrawal, and Carlos complied. The humiliation was severe, was blamed on the monarchy, and gave the republican movement its cause; the song written in protest later became the national anthem. The state defaulted on part of its debt in 1892, and the rotativismo system of alternating parties lost what credibility it retained. He negotiated treaties fixing the African boundaries and, secretly, a further Anglo-German understanding about the eventual partition of the Portuguese colonies. Facing parliamentary paralysis, he appointed João Franco as prime minister in 1906 and in 1907 permitted him to dissolve parliament and govern by decree, which made the king personally responsible for a dictatorship. On 1 February 1908, as the open royal carriage crossed the Terreiro do Paço on the family's return from Vila Viçosa, two republican activists opened fire. Carlos was killed almost immediately, and his heir Luís Filipe died within minutes. His younger son Manuel was wounded and became king. The monarchy fell less than three years later, in October 1910.
- Lived: 1863 CE – 1908 CE
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Roles: king, head_of_state
