LUIGI I of Braganza, king of PORTUGAL. - B. in Lisbon on 31 Oct. 1838, d. at Cascais on 19 Oct. 1889. Second son of Queen Maria II and her royal consort Ferdinand of Coburg, he succeeded his brother Peter V in 1861. The following year he married Maria Pia of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel II, by whom he had an heir named Charles, who succeeded him as Charles I in 1889.
His reign, stormy because of the rivalries of the political factions, was marked by important reforms, including the abolition of entail, the promulgation of the Civil Code, the suppression of the death penalty, and the abolition of slavery in the colonies. A candidate for the succession to Isabella II on the throne of Spain, he declined. Sincerely religious, he appointed the bishop of Vizeu to the presidency of the government, followed by the duke of Loulé and Marshal Duke of Saldanha; but the statesman most favoured by the King was Fontes Pereira de Melo, who led the ministry from 1871 to '78, associating his name with the aforementioned reforms.
In 1862, through the Treaty of Tien-Tsin, he obtained from China the peninsula of Macao. An excellent writer, he translated into Portuguese much of Shakespeare’s plays.