The Emboscada was a palace coup of 6 October 1846, by which queen Maria II deposed the government presided over by Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela, that had been installed on 20 May that year as a result of the Revolution of Maria da Fonte

Revolution of Maria da Fonte

The Revolution of Maria da Fonte, or Revolution of the Minho, is the name given to a popular revolt in the spring of 1846 against the Cartista government of Portugal...

. By thus dismissing the government of Palmela, that had only come to power 5 months earlier, and replacing it with a Cartista

Cartista

In the history of Portugal, a Cartista was a member of the party that led Portugal over to a more conservative form of the liberalism that had arisen after the revolution of 1820, centered around the Constitutional Charter of 1826, granted by Pedro IV in an attempt to reduce the conflicts opened up...

 government (described as government of the Cabrais without Cabral

António Bernardo da Costa Cabral, 1st Marquess of Tomar

António Bernardo da Costa Cabral, 1st Count and 1st Marquess of Tomar was a Portuguese 19th century statesman.Born in Fornos de Algodres he trained as a lawyer in Coimbra and was later appointed as a judge...

) presided over by João Francisco de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha, the monarch rekindled the revolt and precipitated the civil war known as the Patuleia

Patuleia

The Patuleia, Guerra da Patuleia, or Little Civil War was a civil war in Portugal, so called to distinguish it from the 'great' civil war between Dom Pedro IV and Dom Miguel that ended in 1834. The Patuleia occurred after the Revolution of Maria da Fonte, and was closely associated with her...

.