Abstract
This excellent work is important not only for its specific subject, the Braganzas, but also because of its contribution to the history of where they ruled – Portugal and Brazil, as well as a contribution to dynastic history. Indeed, this is the first in a new series from Reaktion. ‘Dynasties’ is designed as a series of narrative histories that look at the genesis of dynasties, their dynamics and consequences. The two others listed, the Borjgids and the Mauryans, are both Asian, but show that the choices will not be conventional ones. This offers opportunities for covering less familiar European dynasties. Moreover, the method proposes much for European history. Dynastic history is of course scarcely new, but it can be particularly valuable in the hands of able historians, and this is certainly the case with Malyn Newitt, formerly Charles Boxer Professor at King’s London, and an active and impressive publisher in the field, notably with his Portugal in European and World History (2009). The latter makes it possible for Newitt to focus in this new book on the Braganzas, a subject that has not been ably dealt with in the literature. Indeed, covering, as the dynasty did, many centuries, this is not an easy task.
However, Newitt ably links his account with a central theme. As he demonstrates, the history of a dynasty is that of the struggle of the monarchical principle with the competing forces within society that ultimately found expression in republicanism, as well as, more consistently, with the internal problems that affected any monarchical system. The hereditary principle did not guarantee ability, a point that emerges frequently in Newitt’s book. On the other hand, dynasticism was an important guarantee of independence from Spain, and therefore of the integrity of the state. This is an issue that can be overlooked today, but in societies that were reverential to the past and referential of it, legitimacy was in particular a matter of dynastic continuity. This helped monarchy to reinvent itself – it served a purpose. Indeed, it was the wider perspective that was therefore important. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the challenges to the position of monarchs was largely from religious dissidence, which was the background to ideas of tyrannicide. The context was very different by the nineteenth century, and the secular challenge of radical republicanism in Portugal is particularly apparent in this account.
Newitt’s coverage of the nineteenth century is particularly good. The sole criticism is that a developed comparative dimension would help, and not least with other monarchies that succumbed in the early twentieth century without the shock of defeat in World War One, notably Spain. Indeed, to a degree, Newitt offers a political history of nineteenth-century Portugal. The problems caused by division in the royal family are handled well. They are an echo of those in Spain, and also of the division in France between branches of the Bourbon family.
It is also worth considering continuities in both Portuguese and Brazilian history. In particular, having parted with dynastic monarchy, they turned eventually to dictatorial or at least authoritarian leaders, as, indeed, in other countries, did many former monarchies. Thus, dynastic monarchy might be seen as anachronistic because it was dynastic and not a monarchy. In the case of Salazar in Portugal there was a succession to a new leader, which was what Franco also sought in Spain. The ability of Newitt’s book to encourage such reflections is a measure of its value. The book is ably written with many pertinent quotations. The colour illustrations further lift the text, and the typeface is attractive. Thoroughly recommended.