Maria II. Da Gloria, queen of Portugal, born in Rio Janeiro, April 4, 1819, died in Lisbon, Nov. 15,1853. Her mother, a daughter of the emperor Francis I. of Austria, and her grandfather, John VI. of Portugal, both died in 1826, when her father succeeded as Pedro IV; hut having been made emperor of Brazil in 1822 as Pedro I., he ceded the Portuguese throne to his infant daughter (May 2, 1826), whom he wished to marry his brother Dom Miguel. But the latter, having succeeded (Feb. 26, 1828) his sister the princess Maria as regent during his "niece's minority, usurped the crown four months afterward, before the queen's arrival in Portugal. Her rights were not established until after his final overthrow through a protracted civil war, and she was formally recognized as queen in September, 1S34. In January. 1835, she married Duke Augustus of Leuchten-berg,' who died two months afterward. In the following year she became the wife of Print Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, to whom she bore three sons (the late king Pedro V., the present king Louis I., and Prince Augustus) and two daughters.

At the instigation of her dictatorial prime minister Costa-Cabral, she substituted in 1842 the reactionary charter of 1826 for the liberal constitution of 1820, which she had formally adopted in 1838; but Costa-Cabral and his brother were driven from power by an insurrection in 1846, and the deposition of Maria was prevented only by foreign intervention. She discarded Saldanha in 1849 to reappoint Costa-Cabral; and she insisted upon retaining his services despite his resignation in consequence of the adverse vote in the cortes in February, 1851, and consented to dispense with them only after Saldanha had set on foot a revolution for his rival's overthrow. Saldanha remained prime minister until after the queen's death.