Joseph I.
His successor, Joseph I (1750-77) might perhaps have reigned in Portugal as a Philip IV of Spain, and been known chiefly for his love of the theatre had he not possessed a minister far wiser and abler than Olivares. This minister, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello, Marquez de Pombal, born in 1699, had been Ambassador in London (1739-45), and then at Vienna before becoming Joseph I’s Secretary of State. A terrible event on the 1st of November, 1755, proved his decision, calmness, and energy. At 9 a.m. on the morning of that day an earthquake of unparalleled severity set Lisbon in ruins in the space of a quarter of an hour. Slighter shocks continued to terrify the inhabitants—the survivors (between 25,000 and 30,000 had perished) during the next two months. That the consequences were not even more disastrous and that the population did not get wholly out of hand was due to one man—Pombal. His plan for rebuilding the city was not carried to completion, but the regular streets and squares of the lower part of Lisbon, the Baixa, still attest his energy and foresight. The other event with which his name is chiefly associated is the expulsion of the Jesuits whose power had been steadily growing in Portugal and her colonies for the last two centuries.
Pombal.
To this end Pombal’s great energies were for years directed, although he found time in some measure to give attention to the more important objects of agriculture, education, etc. An attempt on the King’s life on the 3rd of September, 1758, in which the King was wounded in the arm, gave Pombal his opportunity against the Jesuits, who were accused of being the promoters (impulsores) of the plot. First the Duke of Aveiro, as the chief conspirator, was executed with horrible cruelty, worthy of the twentieth century, at Belem. The Count of Atouguia and the family of Tavora, the Marquez de Tavora, who had recently returned from ruling Portuguese India as Viceroy, his noble and witty wife and their two sons, were executed with him. They were probably all innocent. Their ashes were thrown into the Tagus, their arms crossed out from among the noble families of Portugal. Then, exactly a year after the attempt, the Jesuits were banished from Portugal and her colonies (3rd September, 1759), and their goods confiscated (25th February, 1761). Relations between Portugal and the Vatican were broken off and were not resumed until 1770 after prolonged negotiations and the death of Pope Clement XIII. His successor, Clement XIV, extinguished the Society of Jesus (August, 1773). Soon after King José’s death the Marquez de Pombal retired to the village of Pombal, and died there five years later in 1782, in his 83rd year. Ambitious to obtain power and merciless in its use, he was, undoubtedly, a man of strong will and enlightened views (he condemned slavery and protected the Jews), but he was unattractive and often unjust in his methods. He is sometimes spoken of as if he were the only enlightened ruler of the eighteenth century in Portugal, whereas both the preceding and succeeding reigns were marked by a steady progress and culture. King João V gave a strong impulsion to literature and science: and in the reign of King José’s daughter, Queen Maria I, the first roads worthy of the name were built. In Pombal’s methods we may perhaps see the germ of that embitterment in Portugal which has manifested itself in open or latent civil war almost ever since.
THE CONVENT, MAFRA
Maria I.
At the end of the century Portugal’s prosperity stood high. In 1792, owing to the Queen’s failing reason, her son João took over the reins of government. The Queen lived till 1816, and the Regent then became King João VI till his death ten years later. The greater part of his rule, as Regent and King, was fraught with a series of disasters which from prosperity dashed Portugal into distress and despair, and threatened her very existence as a nation. The two causes which contributed most to her ruin were the invasion of Portugal by the French armies of Napoleon, and the declaration of the independence of Brazil, with which Portugal had hitherto had a monopoly of trade. Portugal, as England’s ally, and the possessor of excellent seaports, could not hope to escape Napoleon’s attention. In vain she attempted to maintain her neutrality, even to the extent of wishing to close her harbours against and yet remain the ally of Great Britain. But the treaty of Fontainebleau in October, 1807, between Napoleon and Godoy, made it clear that whatever hope there was for Portugal consisted in her old alliance. By this treaty Portugal was to be divided into three parts, and to cease to be an independent country. Junot advanced rapidly upon Lisbon, and the Regent and Royal Family set sail for Brazil, accompanied by many of the noble and wealthy families of Portugal. The land of Portugal itself remained for years the scene of warfare, for, although the convention of Cintra in 1808 freed it from its immediate invaders, other armies followed and were only slowly forced northwards by the genius and persistency of Wellington.
João VI.