Manuel Buica

Manuel Buica shot the king of Portugal and his heir from a crowd in Lisbon, and was killed on the spot by the royal guard. He was born in Villa Real, served in the cavalry and reached sergeant, and was a marksman and riding instructor; he left the army and worked as a primary schoolteacher. He was a republican in a country where the republican movement had been building for a generation and had been given a specific grievance: in 1906 King Carlos I had appointed Joao Franco to govern by decree, and Franco had dissolved parliament, ruled by dictatorship and, in January 1908, issued an order allowing opponents to be deported without trial. A conspiracy that month was broken up and its leaders arrested. On 1 February 1908 the royal family returned to Lisbon by ferry and crossed the Terreiro do Paco in an open carriage. Buica stepped from the crowd with a carbine hidden under his coat and fired several shots, killing Carlos immediately; Alfredo Costa, a clerk, fired at the same time and stabbed at the carriage. The crown prince Luis Filipe was hit and died within minutes. The younger son Manuel was wounded in the arm and became king. Both assassins were shot dead within seconds, and a bystander was killed by the guards as well. Franco was dismissed within days. Manuel II reigned for less than three years before the republic was proclaimed in October 1910, and the killings are generally treated as the point after which the monarchy could not be saved.

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