[2] The ideology after 1891 was peppered with concepts such as municipal autonomy, political and economic democracy, universal male suffrage, direct elections for legislative assemblies, a national militia instead of a professional army, the secularization of education and separation of church and state (all copied from French revolutionaries).

After the period of monarchist revanchism in France had waned and the daily Sud Express rail service between Lisbon and Paris was established in 1887, the leftist French Jacobin influence grew stronger in Portugal (especially because it counteracted the national humiliation caused by the British ultimatum of 1890).

[3] In the second year of the reign of King Carlos I, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Lord Salisbury delivered what is known as the 1890 British Ultimatum: a rejection of the territorial claims defined by the Pink Map of Portuguese Africa.

In passionate meetings, street demonstrations, political rallies, in countless poems, articles, pamphlets, even cartoons, Britain was depicted as a treacherous nation of pirates and profit-mongers able to commit the most outrageous and infamous action against her oldest ally.

The Minister of the Navy and Overseas Territories, Henrique de Barros Gomes, conspired with German diplomats to expand the Portuguese Empire and create "a new Brazil in Africa".

[5] King Carlos attempted to mitigate the losses with diplomacy and leveraging blood relations with both British and German royalty; he was moderately successful, but Portuguese Africa was ultimately limited to territory in Angola and Mozambique.

These republicans banded together after 1897, ostensibly to protest the 1890 ultimatum; their appeals were based upon fears in Portugal of the extent of British influence overseas, a possible invasion by Spain or anger at policies issuing by ruling parties that were widely perceived as being failures.

Teachers, journalists, small businessmen, clerks and artisans were drawn to the Republicans, who appealed to nationalism, universal suffrage, separation of church and state and (most notably) the abolition of the monarchy and the privileges of the nobility.

As a "party of attraction and assimilation",[3] it included in its membership (and as allies) other groups who were not so idealistic: secret societies, socialists and anarcho-syndicalists (who supported republicanism as a means of achieving change and ending the monarchy).

The British ambassador to Portugal at the time, Francis Hyde Villiers, explained the confusion and inefficiency of the Cortes (Parliament): Sittings of the Cortes...were spent in idle vociferation, and were often suspended for months together; the finances were carelessly if not corruptly conducted, annual deficits were accepted as inevitable, a considerable expenditure being always devoted to allowances granted, although not authorized by parliament, to supplement wholly inadequate salaries, taxation was unequal, and too often evaded by the wealthy, the administration of justice was notoriously imperfect, commercial policy consisted only in the imposition of the highest possible duties, no attention was paid to the promotion of agriculture or the development of natural resources, to education, to the housing of the poor, to the protection of labor, or to any of those social questions which directly affect the people.

Franco asked the king to dissolve the parliament to implement a series of political changes which included censoring the press, jailing reactionaries and establishing reforms to decentralize the government (a program stolen for the most part from the right wing and the republicans).

Franco then prohibited all public meetings, imposed stricter controls on press freedom and began to take judicial action against “all cases of offenses against the state”.

By then, members of the Republican Party had already decided to support direct (and indirect) dissident groups such as the Carbonária (organized by elements of Portuguese Freemasonry) to force regime change.

[17] In response to these events (in which the monarch faced reactionary elements opposed to policies he believed were fair), his government presented King Carlos with the 30 January 1908 Decree.

[19] On the morning of 1 February in the Quinta do Ché (in the parish of Santa Maria dos Olivais) and the days preceding it, the conspirators confirmed their decision to proceed with the attempt.

The previous political events had forced King Carlos to cut his retreat short and to return to Lisbon, the royal family catching the train from Vila Viçosa on the morning of 1 February.

Even in a climate of tension the monarch opted to travel in an open carriage, wearing his blue service uniform as Generalíssimo of the Army to present an air of normality.

As reported later, a bearded man had walked out into the road after the carriage had passed; he removed a Winchester carbine rifle hidden under his overcoat, knelt on one knee and fired at the King from a distance of about 8 metres (8.7 yd).

Taking advantage of this, the second assassin (Alfredo Luís da Costa, a clerk and editor), jumped onto the carriage step and fired at the slumped body of the King from passenger height.

João Sabino da Costa, a monarchist worker at a local jewellery store, was mistaken for a third assassin in the crowd and shot twice in the head in the presence of other prisoners.

In a macabre epilogue, the bodies of the deceased were transported to the Palace in two carriages as if still alive; the head of King Carlos was slumped on the shoulder of his brother Infante D. Afonso, now the new Prince Royal.

Newspapers around the world published pictures (some based on false descriptions and exaggerations) with the defiant Queen Amélia wielding a bouquet of flowers and attempting to strike the assailants with it.

Presiding over the Council of State on the afternoon of 2 February, with his hand on his chest and wearing his military uniform, the young monarch confessed his inexperience and lack of preparation in requesting aid from his loyal ministers.

Ferreira do Amaral abandoned the positions of the former king; he annulled dictatorial measures, liberated political prisoners, provided amnesty for marines involved in the 1906 revolt and consenting to republican demands.

Resuming his functions in Britain, however, he saw Edward VII in London who said, "Well, what kind of country is that, in which you kill the King and Prince, and the first thing to do, is ask for the resignation of the Prime Minister?

An extensive two-year enquiry was held on the events in 1908, initially presided over by judge Alves Ferreira and later by José da Silva Monteiro and Almeida de Azevedo.

In the meantime, new suspects were discovered: Alberto Costa, Aquilino Ribeiro, Virgílio de Sá, Domingos Fernandes and others who were in refuge in Brazil or France; two were killed by the Carbonária to silence them.

[34] Eight of the eighteen men have been identified; they constituted the first group in the Terreiro do Paço: Alfredo Luís da Costa, Manuel Buíça, José Maria Nunes, Fabrício de Lemos, Ximenes, Joaquim Monteiro, Adelino Marques and Domingos Ribeiro.

The questions of what level of planning the plot had attained and how involved was dissident José Maria de Alpoim continued to persist; although the two assassins (Buíça and Costa) were blamed for the attacks, the remaining plotters were never forgotten.

Many critics of the First Portuguese Republic believe regicide undermined the legitimacy of the regime from its inception and normalised political violence in Portugal, culminating in the assassination of Sidónio Pais in 1918 and the Bloody Night in 1921, followed by collapse in trust in the republican order.