Queluz National Palace - Later History

Later History

Following a fire at the Ajuda Palace in 1794, the Prince Regent John VI and his wife Carlotta Joaquina began to use Queluz themselves. The Robillon wing was enlarged and given an upper floor for the use of the princess and her nine children. These additions were destroyed in the fire of 1934. To escape the forces of Napoleon I in 1807, the Portuguese royal family abandoned Queluz and fled to Brazil. The French occupational forces took control of the palace, and their commander, Marshal Junot, made several alterations to the building. On the royal family's return from exile in 1821, the King preferred to live at Mafra, leaving his wife, the Spanish Queen Carlotta Joaquina, to occupy Queluz with her aunt Princess Maria Francisca Benedita. The King visited Queluz infrequently. It was on one of these rare visits that João VI died in the circular domed King's Bedroom in 1826.

Carlotta Joaquina, sometimes described as sinister, is said to have been ambitious and violent. Her features were reportedly ugly, and she was short in stature. Whatever her shortcomings she lived in great style at Queluz, employing an orchestra which William Beckford described as the finest in Europe. The Queen also had a small private theatre in the gardens, of which nothing remains today. She died at the palace in 1830.

Following the death of Carlotta Joaquina, Queluz saw only intermittent use as a royal residence and was not again the primary residence of Portuguese royals. Carlotta Joaquina's son King Miguel used the palace during the three-year civil war which he fought against his brother King Pedro IV, before being forced by his brother in 1834 to abdicate and go into exile. A year later, Pedro IV died of tuberculosis at the age of 35 at Queluz, the palace of his birth. Pedro I's daughter Maria II ruled until her death in 1853 and was succeeded by her son Pedro V. Following his untimely death in the cholera epidemic of 1861, the throne passed to his brother Luís. From this time the royal family lived chiefly at the rebuilt Ajuda Palace in Lisbon. On the assassination of Luís' son Carlos I in 1908, the palace passed into the ownership of the state. Portugal was in the turmoil of revolution and the monarchy fell two years later.