HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 113

Bravo Murillo, Juan (1803-1873)
Spanish statesman
Intended for a position in the church and
for a time a professor of philosophy, Bravo
Murillo instead pursued a career in politics.
By the early 1830s he had settled in M ADRID
and taken a leading role in the controver-
sies that grew out of the confrontation
between conservatism and liberalism. He
was elected to the Cortes (see CORTES ) as a
deputy from S EVILLE , in 1837, and from
Ávila in 1840, but his opposition to the
dominance of General B ALDOMERO E SPAR -
TERO forced him into exile in France until
the general had surrendered power. Bravo
Murillo's adroit maneuvering and subtle
political manipulations led to his nickname
“the Lawyer,” which reflected the hostility
of those who saw him as a cunning and
unprincipled politician. For others his insis-
tence on an orderly civilian process of con-
stitutional law represented a welcome
contrast to the incessant military coup-
making of the period. During the 1840s he
was successively minister of justice, public
works, and finance, and by 1850 he had
become president of the Council of State.
Bravo Murillo, convinced of the rightness
of his ideas and plans, became increasingly
authoritarian, insisting upon his own
wishes and refusing to accept political com-
promises. Although he was not a strong
supporter of I SABELLA II, her opponents
marked him for removal in the crisis of
1854, and he again left the country. He
accepted a number of diplomatic assign-
ments in subsequent years, but the revolu-
tion of 1868 effectively ended his political
career.
Bravo Murillo is posthumously honored
by statues and streets named for him but suf-
fered the fate of many strong and determined

philosophical analysis and more ardently
committed to a militant nationalism that
was reflected in his voluminous writings.
His work included history, literary criticism,
and poetry and exhibited a steady growth
of anticlericalism and antimonarchism. By
1910, recognized as one of his country's
leading intellectuals, Braga was called upon
to become the first president of the newly
proclaimed republic of Portugal. His tenure
was almost as brief as that of King M ANUEL
II, who had reigned only two years. Braga
left the presidency in 1911 and was obliged
to endure the domestic tumults and the
disastrous results of entry into World War I
that led his county into so many sufferings
during the next two decades.

Bragança (Braganza)
This district in northern Portugal and the
town from which it derives its name were
formerly held by the dukes of Bragança, a
line of nobles descended from an illegiti-
mate son, Afonso, of King John (João) I,
who had conferred the ducal title upon his
son in 1442. Duke John (died 1583) briefly
opposed P HILIP II of Spain when the latter
claimed the Portuguese throne in 1580 but
was persuaded to abandon his claim. His
grandson was proclaimed King John IV in
1640 when Portugal broke away from
Spanish rule at the end of the so-called
Sixty Years' Tyranny. The descendants of
John IV ruled Portugal during the 18th and
19th centuries, with the line being ousted
in 1910 by a republican revolution. M ANUEL
II died in exile, bringing an end to the Bra-
gança dynasty, although claimants to the
throne remain in Europe and a Brazilian
branch descended from J OHN VI still resides
in that country.