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'Manuel II, King of Portugal' KG GCVO (pron. IPA []; English: ''Emanuel II''), the ''Patriot'' (Port. ''o Patriota'') or ''the Missed King'' (Port. ''o Rei Saudade''), named ''Manuel Maria Filipe Carlos Amélio Luís Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga Francisco de Assis Eugénio de Saxe-Coburgo-Gotha e Bragança'' — (Lisbon, March 19, 1889 – Twickenham, July 2, 1932) reigned as Portugal and Algarves' 34th (or 35th according to some historians) and the last King from 1908 to 1910.

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Life

Life

Young Manuel was born in the last year of his grandfather's reign. He was created Duke of Beja.
He ascended the throne in 1908, following the assassination of his father, King Carlos and elder brother, Prince Luis Filipe, Duke of Braganza at the hands of radical republicans.
The young King sought to save the fragile position of the Braganza monarchy by dismissing the dictator João Franco and his entire cabinet in 1908. Free elections were declared in which republicans and socialists won an overwhelming victory. Revolution erupted on October 4, 1910, and Manuel fled to British ruled Gibraltar with the royal family as his palace was being shelled.
He lived in exile in the United Kingdom. On September 4, 1913, he married Princess Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1890–1966). Manuel wrote an invaluable guide to medieval and Renaissance Portuguese literature, but died young. Royalist movements in Portugal subsequent to 1910 failed to restore the Braganza dynasty.
Manuel died on July 2, 1932, at Fulwell Park, Twickenham, Middlesex, England. As the King had no children, before his death he recognised his cousin from a previously rival branch, Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza, to be the legitimate heir to the Portuguese Crown. Additionally, the king's mother god-fathered the son of the Duke, while he himself married a cousin from the Brazilian branch.
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