http://www.instituto-camoes.pt/activity/o-que-fazemos/cultura-portuguesa/agenda/6964
Prince-Regent from 1792 until Queen D.Maria I's death in 1816, after a bad publicity for ages, his role in history has been changeing lately.
Napoleon I considered him the only king that has fooled him.
After years stalling Napoleon's exigences with vague promises to close the portuguese ports to the UK, he managed to allow british ships to come to Lisbon and other portuguese ports and reverse the continental bloccus Napoleon had decreted.
These days, the escape of the RF to Brazil is no longer seen as a disatrous run but as a strategic move.
Should the PRF had been captured after Maréchal Junot's invasion, they would have endured the same fate as the spanish RF who was attracted to France, emprisonned and forced to abdicate.
From Brazil, D.Joćo VI managed to keep his independence and allow the english to settle in Portugal and avoid a french permanent presence as in Spain (not with the best results as England acted as an occupant itself and allowed the french troops to retire with quite a loot ) .
He raised Brazil to an Empire status and, after the spanish south-american colonies declared their independence, he realized it would be impossible to keep Brazil and Portugal united and prepared its independence in favour of his son D.Pedro.
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