1808: The Flight of the Emperor by Laurentino Gomes Read Free Book Online

To Carmen, my wife and companion on this journey
    Copyright © 2007 by Laurentino Gomes
    Translation copyright © 2013 by Laurentino Gomes
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.
    First published in Brazil in 2007 by Editora Planeta do Brasil as 1808: Como uma rainha louca, um príncipe medroso e uma corte corrupta enganaram Napoleão e mudaram a História de Portugal e do Brasil. First published in the United States of America in 2013 by Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.
    Frontispiece portrait by José Leandro de Carvalho.
    â€œOne Hundred Days between Sea and Sky” map on page vi by Andréia Caires, courtesy of Editora Planeta do Brasil. Map on page vii by Melissa Baker © Morris Book Publishing, LLC.
    Project editor: Meredith Dias
Layout: Mary Ballachino
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Gomes, Laurentino, 1956-
  [1808. English]
  1808 : the flight of the emperor : how a weak prince, a mad queen, and the British navy tricked Napoleon and changed the new world / Laurentino Gomes : translated from the Portuguese by Andrew Nevins.
    pages cm
  Originally published in Portuguese under the title: 1808 : como uma rainha louca, um príncipe medroso e uma corte corrupta enganaram Napoleão e mudaram a história de Portugal e do Brasil. São Paulo : Editora Planeta do Brasil, 2007.
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN 978-0-7627-9665-6
1. Peninsular War, 1807-1814—Portugal. 2. Portugal—History—Maria I, 1777-1816. 3. Portugal—History—John VI, 1816-1826. 4. Brazil—History—1763-1822. 5. Monarchy—Portugal—History—19th century. 6. Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821—Relations with Latin Americans. I. Nevins, Andrew, translator. II. Title.
  DP644.G6613 2013
  946.9'034—dc23
    2013016667

“He was the only one who tricked me.”
    â€”N APOLEON B ONAPARTE ON J OÃO VI





I NTRODUCTION
    In 1784, five scant years before the French Revolution began, Bernardino da Motta Botelho had put his cattle to graze in Monte Santo, one of the most arid regions in the backlands of the state of Bahia, Brazil, when a rock different from any other in the middle of the pasture attracted the boy’s attention. It was smooth and dark and was a discovery that soon became famous. In 1810, scientists from the Royal Society of London concluded that it was a meteorite, a rock that, after traveling millions of miles through the darkness of the universe, had crashed into Earth’s surface. At just over six feet in diameter and weighing five tons, the Bendegó meteorite—the largest ever found in South America—today stands proudly on display in the lobby of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.
    Situated in the Quinta da Boa Vista gardens a few hundred yards from Maracanã stadium, with a view of the Mangueira favela, it is one of the strangest museums in Brazil. In addition to the meteorite, its collection features stuffed birds and the traditional clothing of indigenous tribes, all housed in glass cases that resemble the storefront window displays of rural cities. The pieces appear randomly, without any apparent criteria for organization or identification. The National Museum is even stranger for what it hides than for what it displays, though. The building that houses it, the Palace of São Cristovão, supplied the setting for one of the most extraordinary events in Brazilian history.
    There lived the only European sovereign ever to set foot in the