mar 10, 1826 - King João the 6th dies

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On 4 March 1826, João returned from the Hieronymites Monastery where he had lunched and retired to Bemposta Palace feeling poorly. He was racked for several days by symptoms including vomiting and convulsions. He appeared to be getting better, but by way of prudence designated his granddaughter Infanta Isabel Maria as regent until "the legitimate heir returned to the kingdom" — but he had failed to specify which of his sons was the legitimate heir.
His son, Pedro, was recognized as the legitimate heir as King Dom Pedro the 4th. Doctors could not definitively determine a cause of death, but it was suspected that John had been poisoned.
In the 1990s, a team of investigators exhumed the Chinese ceramic pot that contained his bowels. Fragments of his heart were rehydrated and submitted to an analysis that detected enough arsenic to kill two people, confirming longstanding suspicions of assassination by poison.
Pedro already reigned in Brazil and was committed to continuing as Emperor, so he abdicated it to his pre-teen daughter, D. Maria. D. João's other son, Miguel, was in exile in Austria after leading a number of rebellions against his father and brother.

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