Carta Constitucional

The Condeixa attack on March 18th 1828 may have been a trap intended in favor of D. Miguel's interests in the Portuguese crown.
Between 10 to 13 men, hooded, armed and wearing the uniform of the Academic Volunteers Battalion (liberals), ordered to stop the official entourage of the Coimbra University and Diocese (absolutists), with a total of 23 people distributed by 4 carriages.  They were going to Lisbon to welcome the recent arrival of D. Miguel as regent of the kingdom.
The absolutist D. Miguel aspired more than regency, but to be acclaimed king of Portugal. He considered having this legitimate right since his elder brother, the liberal D. Pedro, had proclaimed himself Emperor of Brazil.
During the attack two professors were murdered and two canons were injured.
The fact that some liberal students of the Coimbra University attacked a group of absolutist during that period of political turmoil could even be possible.
However, it seems strange that they were hooded and with faces painted black and yet wore the uniform of the former liberal battalion.
Also strange was the coincidence that in the immediate vicinity of the assault were two generals appointed by D. Miguel and their personal military escorts.
Nine liberal students were arrested not in the moment of the action but later in that day in different locations and hanged in June after a short judicial process where nothing was proven.
The two leaders of the attack managed to escape easily, having been supported by discrete hands.
D. Miguel revealed a strong punitive ability and that sense of leadership led him to be acclaimed king in July 1828.

O topico da “crise de valores” nao consegue apreender a essencia do que se esta passando contemporaneamente. O que, sobretudo, enfrentamos e uma transicao de valores em alguns dominios. Evidentemente, ate o projecto de uma Constituicao Europeia se nao revelaria muito rigoroso no plano axiologico. O Direito Constitucional tem que ter conceitos claros sobre as categorias fundamentais: valores, principios, normas… Algumas Constituicoes sao ja suficientemente claras sobre os seus valores politicos: liberdade, igualdade, justica, etc. Uma etica constitucional so podera ser construida na confluencia dos valores e das virtudes: virtudes republicanas, a comecar na Prudencia.