O Elefante Fugiu

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Power and revolt

Kings, plots, uprisings and revolutions: how power was seized in Portugal, and how it was lost.

7 stories3 stories5 stories

Hidden stories: 4.

Hidden stories: 2.

Avis and the Discoveries1 story0 stories

  • A young knight in armour points at the ground, soldiers dig ditches and drive in stakes, an army with banners in the distance.

    14 August 1385 · Aljubarrota

    The Battle of Aljubarrota

    • Documented
    • 12+

    At 25, he left the war council and chose the battlefield himself.

Pombal and the Earthquake6 stories3 stories4 stories

  • Blue-and-white azulejo-style illustration: a crowd fills a narrow street in Porto, protesting with raised arms.

    23 February 1757 · Porto

    Death to the Company!

    • Documented
    • 12+
    • Heavy topic

    Porto rose against the king's minister, shouting 'Long live the king!'

  • Blue-and-white azulejo-style illustration: a Spanish commander holds up an orange branch in front of his soldiers, with the bastioned fortress of Elvas behind.

    May–June 1801 · Upper Alentejo

    The War of the Oranges

    • Documented

    The war named after a sprig of oranges sent to a queen.

  • Blue-and-white azulejo-style illustration: peasants dig trenches and fill earth baskets on a hill, officers study a map and oxen haul a cannon, with a signal mast and a windmill behind.

    11 October 1810 · Sobral de Monte Agraço

    The Lines of Torres Vedras

    • Documented
    • 12+
    • Heavy topic

    Portugal spent a year building forts the French barely knew existed.

  • Blue-and-white azulejo-style illustration: on a snow-covered plain, a small group of soldiers in heavy coats walks with a flag, with a broken cart, a drum and a rifle lying in the snow beside them.

    1812 · Borodino

    Portuguese in Napoleon's Army

    • Documented
    • 12+

    After Russia, about a hundred of Napoleon's Portuguese Legion were left.