From 1807 to 1811
French forces invaded Portugal thrice. As a result, the
Portuguese royal family was transferred to the Portuguese colony of
Brazil, where it remained until 1821. From Brazil, the Portuguese King
John VI ruled his
transcontinental empire for thirteen years. Following the defeat of the French forces in 1814, Portugal experienced a prolonged period of political turmoil, in which many sought greater self-rule for the Portuguese people. Eventually, this unrest put an end to the King's long stay in Brazil, when his return to Portugal was demanded by the revolutionaries. During and after the Peninsular War, the Portuguese people found themselves being ruled from Brazil and being subject to extensive control by Britain. Much of the
Portuguese Army's officer corps were angered that the army was subject to British control and commanded by an Englishman,
William Beresford. The 1808 opened Brazilian markets to foreign trade, while the 1810
Strangford Treaty guaranteed
favored status to British goods in Portugal and resulted in Portuguese goods, in particular those produced in
Lisbon and
Porto, being unable to compete with them and setting off an economic crisis which deeply affected Portugal's
bourgeoisie. Porto, with a prosperous and influential bourgeoisie who had maintained a rich liberal tradition, was the place where the Liberal Revolution began. After Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, a clandestine Supreme Regenerative Council of Portugal and the Algarve was formed in Lisbon by Portuguese army officers and
freemasons, headed by General
Gomes Freire de Andrade—
Grand Master of the
Grand Orient of Portugal and former general under Napoleon until his defeat in 1814—with the objective to end British control over Portugal, aiming to promote "the salvation and independence" of the
pátria. In its brief existence the movement attempted to introduce liberalism in Portugal, although it ultimately failed to do so. In 1817 three masons, João de Sá Pereira Soares, Morais Sarmento and José Andrade Corvo, denounced the movement to the authorities, who arrested many suspects, including Freire de Andrade, who was charged with conspiracy against John VI, represented in
continental Portugal by a regency, then overseen by a military government led by Beresford. In October 1817, the Regency found the twelve of the accused guilty of treason against the nation and sentenced them to death by hanging. Beresford intended to suspend the sentence until it was confirmed by John VI, but the Regency, judging that such a move was a slight to its authority, ordered their immediate execution, which took place on 18 October at Campo do Santana (today, , "Field of the
Martyrs of the
Fatherland"). Freire de Andrade was executed on the same day at the
Fort of São Julião da Barra. The executions sparked protests against Beresford and the Regency and intensified anti-British sentiments in Portugal. A couple of years after the executions, Beresford left for Brazil to ask the King for more resources and powers to suppress the lingering presence of what he called "
Jacobinism," which were granted to him. In his absence, the Revolution of Porto broke out in 1820, and upon his arrival from Brazil, he was forbidden to disembark in Lisbon. ==Revolution==