Tragic prince with shortest reign ever was assassinated within minutes of becoming King
A tragic prince earned an unfortunate world record when he died just minutes after ascending to the throne.
Crown Prince Luís Filipe of Portugal was 20 years old when his father King Carlos I of Portugal was assassinated on 1 February 1908.
Luís Filipe was the heir-apparent so became King at that moment, but sadly, he too had been fatally wounded in the attack.
He succumbed to his injuries just 20 minutes later, earning the record for shortest reign of a monarch.
The incident became known as the Lisbon Regicide or the Regicide of 1908, and the assassinations were carried out by republican revolutionaries.
Luís Filipe was the Prince Royal of Portugal from 1887-1908. On February 1, 1908, he was fatally shot alongside his father, King Carlos I, in Lisbon’s Terreiro do Paço during the Regicide. He briefly survived but succumbed to his wounds. Luís was heir to the Portuguese throne. pic.twitter.com/WE58PkzEj2
— Will Luem (@WLuem) March 25, 2025
There was political instability, bankruptcy across the nation and public resentment towards a perceived corruption amongst the monarchy.
King Carlos and Prince Luís were shot by their attackers while riding in an open carriage in Lisbon.
The assassins, Alfredo da Costa and Manuel Buíça, had hoped to spark a revolution, and ultimately the monarchy did fall two years later.
Prince Luís shares the record title with another royal who was also on the throne for just 20 minutes.
Years earlier, in July 1830, Louis-Antoine of France, aka the last “Dauphin”, became King Louis XIX when his father Charles X was forced to abdicate during the July Revolution, a popular uprising against his policies.
However, just 20 minutes in, Louis-Antoine followed his father and gave up his rights to the crown.
At the other end of the scale is the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II, who was the longest-reigning queen ever after spending 70 years 214 days on the throne until her death in 2022.
But even longer than that was the longest reigning pharaoh. According to the Turin Canon, aka the Turin King List, a papyrus ledger of Ancient Egyptian rulers, the Sixth Dynasty pharaoh Phiops II, aka Pepi II or Neferkare, took power circa 2281 BCE at six years old and reigned for around 94 years.
Header image: Crown Prince Luís Filipe of Portugal by Augusto Bobone/ Wikimedia Commons