Manuel Buíça
Manuel Buíça | |
---|---|
Gunshot wounds | |
Occupations | |
Spouse | Hermínia Augusta da Costa |
Parents |
|
Details | |
Date | 1 February 1908 |
Location(s) | Terreiro do Paço |
Target(s) |
|
Killed | 2 |
Injured | 1 |
Weapons | Winchester Model 1907 |
Manuel dos Reis da Silva Buíça (31 December 1875[1] – 1 February 1908) was a Portuguese schoolteacher and soldier involved in the regicide of King Carlos I of Portugal and Prince Royal, Luís Filipe, during the events that became known as the Lisbon Regicide.
Biography
Son of Abílio da Silva Buíça, parish priest of Vinhais, and Maria Barroso.
Buíça married twice: the first lasted from 1896 to 1898, and his second, to Hermínia Augusta da Costa, with whom he had two children (Elvira and Manuel).
Manuel Buíça had few friends, outside his professional acquaintances, although he was a close colleague of Alfredo Luís da Costa and Aquilino Ribeiro (the latter of whom he referred to in his last testament by name), with whom he mingled at the Café Gelo in the Rossio.
His professional career started with his conscription into the army, where he would achieve the status of second Sergeant, and hold the title of field instructor in shooting, while at the Cavalry Regiment in
After the army, Buíça enrolled in courses at the Colégio Nacional, and participated in lessons in music and French.
Elevator coup
On the night of 28 January 1908 several men were arrested by the police around the Lisbon Municipal Library Elevator.[2] This group of people were later determined to be the principal revolutionaries in an attempted republican coup that was to have effectively occurred on January 28, 1908, but failed. The Janeirada (which colloquially means the January thing), or more commonly referred to as the Municipal Library Elevator Coup, was an attempted coup to assassinate João Franco, proclaim a republic, and abolish the monarchy (by this, its King, Carlos I of Portugal).
A
The Janeirada was planned by members of the
The back room of the Café Gelo, then a popular meeting place for republican and Carbonária sympathizers, was empty in the following days, except for Manuel Buíça and Alfredo Costa who had escaped the sweep and were not afraid to be seen.
Assassination
On the morning of 1 February 1908, Manuel Buíça met with
By four in the afternoon, Buíça, Domingos Ribeiro, and José Maria Nunes positioned themselves in the Terreiro do Paço, near the statute of King Joseph I and near a tree in front of the Ministry of the Kingdom, alongside a kiosk. Costa, de Lemos, and Ximenes assumed positions below the arcade of the Ministry, and mingled with the population gathered for the king's arrival by boat.
At about 17:20, as the landau rounded the square, Buíça advanced from his position, and from 8–10 metres behind the carriage, he dropped to one knee and fired the first shot. His aim was perfect: the bullet hit Carlos I in the neck, immediately snapping his spine and effectively killing him. His second shot only guaranteed the king's death, but may have been directed to the young Prince Royal seated in front of the King.[7] This second shot clipped the epaulette on the left shoulder of the King, and caused the king to slump to the right. At this time Alfredo Costa jumped on the landau and firing two shots into the back of the king. Buíça moved in and fired at Luís Filipe as the latter was confronting Costa; the first bullet missed, but the second hit him in the face, exiting the cranium.
Buiça however, was not finished, and attempted to move position for another volley, when he was interrupted by Henrique da Silva Valente, a soldier of the 12th Infantry, who was in the square. By then a cavalry officer, Lieutenant Francisco Figueira fired on Buíça, hitting him in the leg. As Buíça attempted to flee, Figueira immobilized him with a shot to the thigh. A police officer finally killed Buíça in the square.
Afterward
Manuel Buíça was buried on 11 February 1908; three men, members of the Associação do Registo Civil (English: Association of the Civil Registry) had protested outside the morgue, in order to convince the director to allow them to have a civil funeral.
Earlier that day, the autopsy found: a contusion at the top of the cranium, a laceration in his lower back (likely caused by Lieutenant Figueiro's sabre) and a wound to the left breast. This wound was the fatal entry, the bullet clipped the heart and perforated the liver.[8] The recovered bullet was a 6.35 caliber bullet from an automatic pistol, a weapon that was not used by the Portuguese police at the time, fueling speculation that some para-military personnel had killed him.
In the afternoon, his body, along with that of
Around six months before the regicide of King Carlos I and Prince Luís Filipe, Manuel Buíça had become a widower, and his children, ages seven and four years, would be left with their maternal grandmother.
There is a belief, primarily in republican circles, that Buíça was an idealist, whose assassination of the King and Prince Royal was accomplished as a form of justice and honourable duty for the Fatherland.[10] In his final will, dated 28 January 1908, four days before the Lisbon Regicide, he wrote the following:
"Manuel dos Reis da Silva Buiça, widower, son of Abílio Augusto da Silva Buiça and Maria Barroso, resident of Vinhais,
Trás-os-Montes), married D. Hermínia Augusta da Silva Buíça, daughter of a retired major in the cavalry and D. Maria de Jesus Costa. The major was João Augusto da Costa, widower. My wife left me two children, that I know: Elvira, who was born on 19 December 1900, in Rua de Santa Marta, bottom floor, and who is not yet baptised nor civilly registered and Manuel who was born on 12 September 1907 in Escadinhas da Mouraria, No. 4, fourth floor and was registered in the administration of the first barrio of Lisbon, on 11 October, in the year above referred. The witnesses were Albano José Correia, married, employed in commerce and Aquilino Ribeiro, single, publicist. Both my children live with me and their maternal grandmother in Escadinhas da Mouraria, No. 4, 4th floor, left. My family lives in Vinhaes, where it is likely my death or disappearance, should that be. My children will remain poor; I have nothing to leave them, except my name and my respect and compassion for those who suffer. I plead that they be educated in the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity...and for whom they remain, through providence, in short, orphans. Lisbon, 28 January 1908. Manuel dos Reis da Silva Buiça. Remember my signature, Rua do Crucifixo, Lisbon.
Notes
- ^ Baptism Record - Page 0003.tiff
- Lisboa.
- ^ Jorge Morais, 2007, pp. 123–126
- ^ From the version recounted by Fabricio de Lemos, one of the assassins, to António de Albuquerque in A execução do Rei Carlos, although most of the plan was decided, the meeting was used to finalize and adjust their details. This was particularly important since many of the higher-ranking members of the conspiracy had been arrested during the post-Elevator Coup round-up.
- ISBN 9789728799786.
O aparelho de pontaria dos primeiros exemplares tinha uma alça móvel, graduada, característica da Winchester. ... A munição desenvolvida especificamente para esta arma, calibre .351, era composta por um invólucro em latão, direito, com meio-rebordo (ha(f ... A carabina empregue no regicidio por Manuel Buíça e que esteve em exposição no efémero Museu da Revolução, possuía o número 2137
- ^ Miguel Sánches de Baêna; Manuel II (King of Portugal) (1990). Diário de D. Manuel: e estudo sobre o regicídio. Alfa. p. 237.
Então já o Sr. Heitor Ferreira confessa 'ter importado a carabina do regicida Buíça', dourando essa confissão, com a atenuante de a ter 'vendido
- ^ Castro Henriques, et.al., p. 231
- ^ Castro Henriques, et.al., pp. 240–241
- ^ Marquis de Rio Maior, 1930
- ^ Carlos Esperança, 2007
References
- Sources
- Sanches de Baêna, Miguel (1990). Diário de D. Manuel e estudo sobre o regicídio (in Portuguese). Publicações Alfa S.A.
- Revista História Ano XVIII (nova série) No 26 (in Portuguese). November 1996.
- Alves, Francisco Manuel (2002). Memórias Arqueológico-Históricas do Distrito de Bragança Tomo VI – Os Fidalgos (in Portuguese). Camara Municipal de Bragança. p. 123. ISBN 972-95125-7-4.
- Vale, Virgílio do (2003). Vinhais – Póvoa Rica de Homens Bons (in Portuguese). Do Autor. ISBN 972-9025-36-3.
- Morais, Jorge (2007). Regicídio: A Contagem Decrescente [Regicide: The Untold Story] (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal: Zéfiro. ISBN 978-972-8958-40-4.
- Pinto, José Manuel de Castro (2007). D. Carlos (1863–1908) A Vida e o Assassinato de um Rei [D. Carlos (1863–1908): The Assassination of a King] (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal: Plátano Editora. ISBN 978-972-770-563-4.
- Henriques, Mendo Castro (2008). Dossier Regicídio o - Processo Desaparecido [The Regicide Dossier: The Missing Process] (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal: Tribuna da História – Edição de Livros e Revistas, Lda. ISBN 978-972-8799-78-6.
- Fetherling, George (2001). The Book of Assassins. John Wiley and Sons. p. 79. ISBN 0-471-15891-7.
- Esperança, Carlos (December 2007). "Manuel Buíça e Alfredo Costa: mártires injustiçados" [Manuel Buíça e Alfredo Costa: unjustified martyers] (in Portuguese). Coimbra, Portugal: República Laicaide associação cívica. Retrieved 19 August 2010.