Note 340 — Chapter XXIV

Query Guerrilleros (see Glossary). These Miguelets were originally the partisans or followers of the Infante Don Miguel, the absolutist leader in the dreary civil war which ravaged Portugal from 1823–1834. It was their custom to escape into Spain when attacked by the Constitutional forces in Portugal, and nothing but Mr. Canning’s bold action in sending an English army to Lisbon in December, 1826, prevented their being utilized by both Spain and France for the overthrow of Queen Maria in Portugal (see Alison, History of Europe, vol. iv. ch. xxi. s. 50). But as “Miguelets,” part refugees, part rebels, part brigands, these bands of military ruffians were the terror of the frontier districts of Spain and Portugal for many years after the conclusion of the civil war in Portugal.