The arrival of the Portuguese court was a meeting of two distant worlds hitherto unknown to one another. Thus began the most noteworthy period of transformation in Rio de Janeiro. In no time, almost all of them had cut their hair and were using turbans to imitate the Portuguese noblewomen. When they saw the princesses dressed like that, the women of Rio de Janeiro assumed it was the latest fashion in Europe. To protect their heads when they disembarked in Rio de Janeiro, Carlota, her daughters, and other ladies-in-waiting wore turbans. This resulted in one of the most comic episodes in the history of the Brazilian court. Their bald heads were anointed with pig fat and dusted with antiseptic powder. On the ship Alfonso de Albuquerque, on which Princess Carlota Joaquina, wife of the crown prince, had traveled, a lice infestation had obliged the noblewomen to shave their heads and throw their wigs into the sea. Overcrowding and the lack of hygiene and sanitation favored the proliferation of pests. The old, poorly-equipped Portuguese ships and frigates were brimming with people.
After a journey of three months and one week, including a five-week stop in Salvador, hundreds of nobleman and illustrious passengers flocked to the ships’ rails to contemplate the magnificent vision unfolding before them: a small city with rows of white houses lining the beachfront, perched on the edge of a calm bay framed by tall granite mountains dripping with luxuriant, dark-green forest.Ĭrossing the Atlantic had been an adventure replete with hardship and suffering.
A strong wind was blowing in from the ocean to alleviate the suffocating heat. The sun was shining and the sky was blue.
Early in the afternoon on March 7, a naval squadron carrying the crown prince of Portugal, Dom João, and the Portuguese Royal family sailed into Guanabara Bay, fleeing French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops. How a mad queen, a fearful prince, and a corrupt court deceived Napoleon and changed the history of Portugal and Brazil foreverĪt the end of the summer of 1808, exactly 200 years ago, an unusual event took place as the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro looked on incredulously.
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