The Division of Royal Volunteers ( pt, Divisão de Voluntários Reais or ''Voluntários Reais do Príncipe'', later ''Divisão de Voluntários Reais do Rei'' following the prince's ascent to kingship) was a detachment of the

Portuguese military The Portuguese Armed Forces ( pt, Forças Armadas) are the military of Portugal. They include the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the other unified bodies and the three service branches: Portuguese Navy, Portuguese Army and Portuguese Air ...

, formed in 1815 and deployed to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

on 30 March 1816. The unit was commanded by

Carlos Frederico Lecor, Viscount of Laguna Carlos Frederico Lecor (October 6, 1764 – August 2, 1836) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian general and politician. He was the first Baron of Laguna, in Portugal, and later ascended to Viscount of Laguna, in Brazil. He was most notably the o ...

. The unit was formed on order of then-Prince

Dom João VI , house = Braganza , father = Peter III of Portugal , mother = Maria I of Portugal , birth_date = , birth_place = Queluz Palace, Queluz, Portugal , death_date = , death_place = Bemposta Palace, Lisbon, Portugal ...

, to consist of 5,000 men, and invaded the

Banda Oriental Banda Oriental, or more fully Banda Oriental del Uruguay (Eastern Bank), was the name of the South American territories east of the Uruguay River and north of Río de la Plata that comprise the modern nation of Uruguay; the modern state of Rio Gra ...

(in modern Uruguay), as part of the

Portuguese conquest of the Banda Oriental The Portuguese conquest of the Banda Oriental was the armed-conflict that took place between 1816 and 1820 in the Banda Oriental, for control of what today comprises the whole of the Republic of Uruguay, the northern part of the Argentine Meso ...

. The unit occupied the city of Montevideo on 20 January 1817.

References

Military units and formations of Brazil Military units and formations of Portugal Military units and formations established in 1815 History of Montevideo 1817 in Uruguay 1815 establishments in Portugal {{Brazil-hist-stub