Lisbon Regicide
The Lisbon Regicide as depicted in the French Press, incorrectly showing four assassins rather than two (February 1908)
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| Date | 1 February 1908 |
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| Location | Terreiro do Paço, Lisbon, Portugal |
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| Outcome | Monarchical succession |
The Lisbon Regicide (Portuguese: O Regicídio de 1908) was the name given for the assassinations of King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir-apparent, Prince Royal Luís Filipe (Duke of Braganza), by assassins sympathetic to republican interests and aided by elements within the Portuguese Carbonária, disenchanted politicians and anti-monarchists. The events occurred on 1 February 1908 in the Praça do Comércio along the banks of the Tagus River in Lisbon, commonly referred to by its antiquated name: the Terreiro do Paço (or Palace Courtyard).
The action was well thought out and carefully planned. Early on it was portrayed as committed by two anarchists acting alone. Many factors influenced the assassins.
Some idealistic students, politicians and dissidents were inspired by the founding of the French Third Republic in 1870 and hoped that a similar regime could be installed in Portugal. The intellectual style was heavily middle-class and urban, and hardly concealed its cultural mimicry of the French Republic. Most of the Republican leadership were from the same generation; many were the best-educated in the country and were heavily influenced by the French positivist Comte and the socialist Proudhon The ideology after 1891 was peppered with concepts such as municipal autonomy, political and economic democracy, universal male suffrage, direct elections for legislative assemblies, a national militia instead of a professional army, the secularization of education and separation of church and state (all copied from French revolutionaries).
The writings of Léon Gambetta (a proponent of opportunistic republicanism) and socialist leader Jean Jaurès were read and admired by students at the University of Coimbra.
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