Dom Miguel was an ambitious prince, who believed that he ought to be king of Portugal; he was extremely popular with the old nobility, the clergy, and the army, with all who disliked liberal ideas, and with the beggars and the poor who were under the influence of the mendicant orders. He was declared Regent in July, 1827, and in May, 1828, he summoned a Cortes of the ancient type, such as had not met since 1697, which under the presidency of the Bishop of Viseu offered him the throne of Portugal. He accepted, and immediately exiled all the leaders of the parliamentary, or, as it is usually called, the Chartist, party, headed by Palmella, Saldanha, Villa Flor, and Sampaio. They naturally fled to England, where the young queen was stopping on her way to be educated at the court of Vienna, and found popular opinion strongly in their favour. But the Duke of Wellington and his Tory Cabinet refused to countenance or assist them. The duke urged on the marriage of the queen with her uncle, and persisted in confusing the moderate and the radical parties, and in believing that Palmella was a democrat. The little queen was herself kindly received by George IV., but the behaviour of the Duke of Wellington was so obnoxious to her guardians, Amelia of Bavaria, Empress of Brazil and second wife of Dom Pedro, and Felisberto Caldeira Brant Pontes, Marquis of Barbacena, that they took her to France in 1829. She was there granted the Château of Meudon for a residence, and was educated by her stepmother, and two accomplished ladies, Eugenia Telles da Gama, Countess of Palmella, and Leonor da Camara, Marchioness of Ponte Delgada, while civil war was raging in Portugal in her name.