, 8 July 1832 , 5 July 1833 This alleged usurpation did not go unchallenged by the Liberals. On May 18, the garrison in
Porto, the center of Portuguese progressives, declared its loyalty to Pedro IV and his daughter Maria II, and the Constitutional Charter. The rebellion against the absolutists spread to other cities. Miguel suppressed these rebellions, and many thousands of Liberals were either arrested or fled to Spain and Britain. There followed five years of repression. Meanwhile, in Brazil, relations between Pedro and Brazil's agricultural magnates had become strained. In April 1831, Pedro abdicated in Brazil in favor of his son,
Pedro II, and sailed for
Britain. He organized a military expedition there and then went to
Terceira island in the
Azores, which was in the hands of the Liberals, to set up a government in exile. The government of Miguel blockaded the island, but the blockading squadron was attacked by a French squadron during the run-up to the
Battle of the Tagus, where several
Miguelist ships were captured. (Half of the liberal army consisted of French, British, Spanish and Belgian soldiers). under the command of the British admiral
George Sartorius on 8 July 1832. In July 1832, with the backing of Liberals in Spain and Britain, an expedition led by Pedro landed near Porto, in the
Landing at Mindelo, which the Miguelites abandoned and where, after military activities including the
Battle of Ponte Ferreira, Pedro and his associates were
besieged by Miguelite forces for nearly a year. To protect British interests, a naval squadron under Commander
William Nugent Glascock in
HMS Orestes was stationed in the
Douro, where it came under fire from both sides. In June 1833, the Liberals, still encircled at Porto, sent to the
Algarve a force commanded by the
Duke of Terceira supported by a naval squadron commanded by
Charles Napier, using the alias 'Carlos de Ponza'. The Duke of Terceira landed at
Faro and marched north through the
Alentejo to capture Lisbon on July 24. Meanwhile, Napier's squadron encountered the absolutists' fleet near
Cape Saint Vincent (
Cabo São Vicente) and decisively defeated it at the fourth
Battle of Cape St. Vincent. The Liberals were able to occupy Lisbon, where Pedro moved from Porto and repulsed a Miguelite siege. A stalemate of nine months ensued. Following the death of Ferdinand VII Spain changed sides and started to support the liberals. Towards the end of 1833, Maria da Glória was proclaimed queen, and Pedro was made regent. His first act was to confiscate the property of all who had served under King Miguel. He also suppressed all religious houses and confiscated their property, an act that suspended friendly relations with Rome for nearly eight years, until mid-1841. The absolutists controlled the rural areas, where they were supported by the aristocracy, and by a peasantry that was galvanized by the Church., from ca. 1836, the nickname of José Joaquim de Sousa Reis (Estômbar, 19 October 1796 – Faro, 2 August 1838), a civil servant and wealthy land tenant who became a notorious guerrilla leader of the Algarve in Portugal, defending the rights of King Miguel to the Portuguese throne and the antiliberal absolute monarchy in the Kingdom of Portugal The Liberals occupied Portugal's major cities, Lisbon and Porto, where they commanded a sizable following among the middle classes. Operations against the Miguelites began again in earnest in early 1834, a year marked by the end of Spanish support which had changed sides to the liberals in 1833. Meanwhile, the Liberal army had suffered a sound defeat at
Alcácer do Sal, which proved that, despite the Duke of Terceira's recent march from Faro to Lisbon, the south was still loyal to the Miguelites. In the southernmost region of
Continental Portugal, the region of
Algarve, a man known as
Remexido, hidden in the mountainous terrain around
São Marcos da Serra, became a legend as a guerrilla loyal to the legitimist, antiliberal Miguelites until well after the end of the Liberal Wars. ==Peace==