Oh, and speaking of which: there's another problem with Maria I.
Do you know what was the Portuguese state officially back then?
Reino Unido de Portugal, Brasil e Algarves - The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
Brazil was, technically, while Maria I was still alive, an autonomous state in the Portuguese Empire. For some time (what with Rio de Janeiro becoming the capital of Portugal) Brazil was the de facto sovereign power of the United Kingdom of the Portuguese peoples (Brazilians + Portuguese).
In fact Brazil engaged in a war for independence after the Liberals got into in Lisbon and Porto and wanted to revoke Brazil's status as an independent kingdom inside the United Kingdom of Portugal and Brazil. Dom Pedro I (the father of Brazil's Pedro II in CiV, and grandson of Maria I, the first Portuguese dynasty monarch to have lived most of his life in Brazil) declared independence, pressured by the Brazilians, because that meant moving the capital from Rio back to Lisbon, and Brazil would become, again, a mere colony of the Portuguese Empire - with its laws dictated by Lisbon, subject to countless trade limitations when dealing with foreign powers, etc. Oddly enough, he ended up giving up his now independent Brazil throne to his son (CiV's Pedro II), after realising how messed up European Portugal had become, and how Miguel, his brother, was razing Portugal with a civil war against the Liberals - who he accused of separating Brazil from Portugal for the reasons I pointed above.
Feeling guilty and responsible for the chaos razing Portugal, a nation who was cut from its most important region (Brazil), Pedro I of Brazil (IV of Portugal) revoked his title as the Emperor of Brazil, went back to Portugal (more precisely the Liberals' bastion of the Azores) and fought for her daughter's (Maria II - WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN PORTUGAL'S WOMAN LEADER IN CIV, FIRAXIS!! She was behind Portugal's reconstruction era and the rise of Portugal, again, as a major power, because of the Scramble for Africa! It doesn't matter if she was born in Rio de Janeiro while Maria I was born in Lisbon, ultimately she was much more Portuguese than Maria I) right to be the Queen and ruler of Portugal, against Pedro's brother, that Miguel fellow.
The Portuguese Civil War was partly because of the Liberalism vs Absolutism, but had, as a background, Brazil's role in the Portuguese Empire: one side (the winning Liberals) defended Brazil's independence, if the price for keeping Brazil in the Portuguese Empire was to move Portugal's heart and capital to Rio de Janeiro; the other side (the losing Absolutists, led by Pedro's brother Miguel) fought for the inclusion of Brazil in Portugal - even if that meant losing Lisbon as a capital for Rio.
You can see where the Brazilian/Portuguese dramatic TV series come from.
So, Maria I was, in fact, the ruler of "independent" Brazil until her death.
P.S - We could be living in a crazy alternative universe, where Portugal and Brazil would continue to be an United Kingdom until, who knows, today, had the Portuguese backed down on the ultimatum presented to Rio de Janeiro on the revoking of their autonomy rights.
The Brazilian/Portuguese independence crisis is one of the most interesting, underrated 19th century historical events. The world could have taken a very different shape had just a few things been different.