215 years ago Ukraine lived in Portugal – Observer
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1807. 27th of November. A military force of approximately 1,500 men is heading from Golegã to Lisbon. They fight against the time that they lack, against the bad ways, against the lack of supply, against the inclement weather that makes them. These men are like Napoleon’s troops. Commanded by Junot, they aim to get to Lisbon as quickly as possible to capture the Portuguese royal family there. In the bar of the Tagus, 8 ships, 3 cats, 3 brigs and 3 schooners wait for fractional winds. The royal family and a good part of the accommodation or better accommodated in these vessels, better wait for the moment when Vice Admiral Manuel da Cunha Souto Maior, commander of the departure squad. But the moment is late.
Junot is in Portugal on November 19, 1807. He came from Salamanca where he received instructions to hasten the march on Lisbon. The Tagus Valley is his route to Lisbon. On maps this was the shortest and safest option from the invader’s point of view as these lands didn’t even have military forts.
But the reality: there were no avenues of communication or anything that looked like another era; the unknown skies will open even more to the uncertainty of those traveling on land; in the towns they crossed, they did not obtain provisions… They looted, killed, desecrated, raped But the soldier was the specific target of the special family of the residents who broke them or right there.
On the 26th of November, Junot’s men entered Abrantes. They lost artillery pieces along the way. They walk without order.
On the 27th of November they arrive in Golegã. In Barra do Tejo, the fleet that will take the royal family and a good part of the court to Brazil knows that the French will soon arrive in Lisbon. Wait for favorable wind.
The 28th of November arrives. In the Tagus bar the wind blows from the south. You cannot leave. Junot’s men are already in Cartaxo. They are exhausted. Hungry But Lisbon is right there.
The 29th arrives. The wind blows from the northeast. The wide squadron of the bar of the Tagus. An English fleet will escort you to Brazil. There are also merchant ships.
Junot’s troops are already in Sacavém. Assurances were sent to the French that they would not encounter resistance in their march on Lisbon, thus fulfilling the determination of the Prince Regent Dom João, who on 26 November made the following proclamation: “that troops of the Emperor of the French and King of Italy march through the interior of my kingdom, who had united me on the continent, in the persuasion not to be disturbed anymore (…) and wanting to avoid the disastrous consequences that can follow from a defense, that you and my blood served, for their benefit, and with all the royal estates of my family, for the entire family, of America, and to settle in the City of Rio de Janeiro until general peace.”
On November 30, 1807, the French entered Lisbon. At that moment they have nothing to do with the grandiose image of Napoleon’s armies, they are mainly a group of troops all on foot, with torn uniforms, some barefoot, others with weapons that are almost disjointed.
Worse, all the effort we made was partly in vain: far away, on the Tagus, you can still see the lines of some of the boats that had left the day before. It’s the call watch ships.
The first French invasion arrived in Lisbon without facing any resistance from the attacks carried out from beyond the Tagus valley, but the “general peace” desired by Prince Dom João would not last more than fifteen days: the people of Lisbon came to the streets December 13, 1807, when Junot gave orders for the Portuguese flag to be rushed in São Jorge Castle to be replaced by the French flag.
From then on, the revolts followed one another. The looting, arrests and shootings of Portuguese as well. It is the time when Henri-Louis Loison, the One-armed, who had come with Junot shouted “already fuzilée!” And the Portuguese saw how “everything pro maneta” was going on! for Loison is charged by Junot to punish this mass of peasants, anonymous citizens, students, priests, almost invariably reactionaries, and some notables who revolt against the presence of the French. Régua, Beja and Évora are targets of what we today call massacres.
The rest is known: in September 1808, less than a year after having entered Lisbon, Junot left “with weapons and luggage”, that is, with the loot. He leaves behind a semi-destroyed and even poorer country. A country in which he, Junot, had encountered a popular resistance that he was not expecting and had directly confronted on the ground the consequences of the alliance between the interests of a foreign power, and this resistance of a people that sometimes strangled French people, sometimes sang. :
What generals should you
die at the sound of the trumpet?
The three boys of the order:
Jinot, Laborde and Maneta.
I could continue to unravel reasons to justify the need, marking the 215th anniversary of the first invasion. Popular resistance is always depreciated there, it’s that everything seems an echo of resistance that Ukraine: the first is resistance to popular resistance, to face the defeated resistance.
But actually that’s not why. Or that’s not the only reason why he decides to travel back in time. What definitely impelled me to do so is the puppetry in which they are transformed as commemorations of the 25th of April. What to celebrate was only the regime itself. It hurts me to watch this. Other not me, disgust me, as is the case of the date me of the Ordem da Liberdade, as is the case of Rosa Coutinho of the Ordem da Liberdade. Characters of that caliber prefer them with a few centuries on top. Therefore, in this year 2022, I plan to dedicate myself to the first French invasion also for the sake of hygiene. Which is like who, I’m going to read what you can say about “Jinot” and Maneta to save me from seeing Rosa Coutinho being awarded the Order of Liberty…
This chronicle returns on the 24th of April.