Joseph I of Portugal

Joseph I

Portrait of King D. José I;
Miguel António do Amaral, 1773.
King of Portugal and the Algarves
Reign 31 July 1750 – 24 February 1777
Acclamation 8 September 1750, Lisbon
Predecessor John V
Successors Maria I and Peter III
Born 6 June 1714
Ribeira Palace, Lisbon, Portugal
Died 24 February 1777(1777-02-24) (aged 62)
Sintra Palace, Sintra, Portugal
Burial Pantheon of the Braganzas
Spouse Mariana Victoria of Spain
Issue
Detail		 Maria I, Queen of Portugal
Infanta Mariana Francisca
Infanta Doroteia
Benedita, Princess of Brazil
House House of Braganza
Father John V of Portugal
Mother Maria Anna of Austria
Religion Roman Catholicism
"José I" redirects here. For José I of Spain, see Joseph Bonaparte.

Joseph I (Portuguese: José I, Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ], 6 June 1714 – 24 February 1777), "the Reformer" (Portuguese: "o Reformador"), was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 31 July 1750 until his death.

Early life

Portrait of Joseph, Prince of Brazil; Domenico Duprà, 1725.

He was the third child of King John V of Portugal and his wife Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. Joseph had an older brother, Peter (but he died at the age of two), an older sister and three younger brothers. At the death of his elder brother, Joseph became Prince of Brazil as the heir apparent of the king, and Duke of Braganza.

Joseph was devoted to hunting and the opera.[1] Indeed, he assembled one of the greatest collections of operatic scores in Europe.

Marriage

On 19 January 1729, Joseph married a Spanish Infanta, Mariana Victoria of Spain, daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese, and his elder sister Barbara of Portugal married the future Ferdinand VI of Spain. Mariana Victoria loved music and hunting,[2] but she was also a serious woman who disliked the King's affairs and did not hesitate to expose them to acquaintances.

Reign

He succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1750, when he was 36 years old,[3] and almost immediately placed effective power in the hands of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, better known today as the Marquess of Pombal.[4] Indeed, the history of Joseph's reign is really that of Pombal himself. King Joseph also declared his eldest daughter Maria Francisca as the official heiress of the throne, and proclaimed her Princess of Brazil. By this time, the king did not believe he would have a son.

Victory over Spain and France (1762)

One of the most difficult situations faced by the king was the Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal, in the end of the Seven Years' War (5 May-24 November 1762). France and Spain sent an ultimatum in order to force Portugal to abandon its aliance with Great Britain and close her ports to British ships. D. José I refused to submit and asked for British help since both the country and the army were in a very poor condition, mainly because of the great 1755 Lisbon earthquake. England sent a force of 7, 104 men led by Loudon and Burgoyne, and also an exceptional military leader, the count of Lippe, which reformed the Portuguese army and led the allied army of 14-15, 000 men in a victorious war. The Bourbon invaders first led by Sarria and then by Aranda were thrice defeated by a combination of popular uprising,[5][6] scorched earth strategy/famine and encircling movements by the regular Anglo-Portuguese troops, which like the militia, skilfully used the mountainous terrain at their advantage. The Spanish and French troops suffered staggering losses when they were driven out from Portugal and chased into Spain. As synthesized by historian Walter Dorn:

… Effort of the Bourbon powers to set up the beginnings of a 'continental system' by sending a summons to Portugal to close her ports to British ships and exclude Englishmen from Brazil trade. But the Portuguese minister, the Marquis of Pombal, refused, and with the assistance of Count Lippe and the English General Burgoyne broke the offensive of the Spanish invading army. D'Aranda, the Spanish General, was forced to retreat in disgrace. With the utter failure of the Spanish war machine everywhere, all the hopes which Choiseul [French Foreign Minister] had placed on the Spanish alliance vanished. 'Had I know', he wrote, 'what I now know, I should have been very careful to cause to enter the war a power which by its feebleness can only ruin and destroy Fance'.[7]
— In Competition for Empire, 1740-1763

In South America, the war ended in a draw since the Portuguese took territory from Spain (most of the Rio Negro Valley) and defeated a Spanish invasion of Mato Grosso, while Spain conquered Colonia do Sacramento and the vast territory of Rio Grande do Sul (1763). The Treaty of Paris (1763) restored the pre-war status-quo.

Marquess of Pombal

The Marriage between Joseph I and Mariana Victoria of Spain; Pieter Schank, 1727.

The powerful Marquess sought to overhaul all aspects of economic, social and colonial policy to make Portugal a more efficient contender with the other great powers of Europe, and thus secure his own power status as a result. A conspiracy of nobles aimed at murdering King Joseph and the Marquess gave Pombal the opportunity (some say, the pretext) to get rid of the Távora family, and to expel the Jesuits in September 1759, thus gaining control of public education and a wealth of church lands and ushering Portugal into the Enlightenment age.

Legacy and death

The reign of Joseph was also famous for the great Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755, in which around 100,000 people died.

The earthquake caused Joseph to develop a severe case of claustrophobia and he was never again comfortable living within a walled building. Consequently, he moved the royal court to an extensive complex of tents in the hills of Ajuda.

The capital was eventually rebuilt at great cost, and an equestrian statue of King Joseph still dominates Lisbon's main plaza.

Joseph I monument in Lisbon

With Joseph's death on 24 February 1777 the throne passed to his daughter Maria I and brother/son-in-law Peter III. Pombal's iron rule was sharply brought to an end, because she hated him very much for his arrogance and violent behaviour.

Issue

Joseph I fathered eight children by the Queen, but only four daughters survived:[8][9]

  1. Maria Francisca Isabel Rita Gertrudes Joanna (17 December 1734 – 20 March 1816), married her uncle Infante Peter of Portugal and had issue. Later Queen regnant of Portugal.
  2. Maria Ana Francisca Dorotea Josefa Antonia Gertrudes Rita Joanna Efigenia (7 October 1736 – 6 May 1813), potential bride for Louis, Dauphin of France, but her mother refused to consent to the marriage, died unmarried.
  3. Stillborn daughter (February 1739).
  4. Maria Francisca Doroteia Josefa Antónia Gertrudes Rita Joanna Efigénia de Braganca (21 September 1739 – 14 January 1771), potential bride for Philippe Égalité but she refused to marry him, died unmarried.
  5. Stillborn son (7 March 1742).
  6. Stillborn son (15 October 1742).
  7. Stillborn son (May 1744).
  8. Maria Francisca Benedita Ana Isabel Joanna Antonia Laurencia Inacia Teresa Gertrudes Rita Rosa (25 July 1746 – 18 August 1829) married her nephew Infante Joseph, Prince of Beira, no issue.

Titles, honours, and styles

Titles and styles

Honours

Ancestors

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph I of Portugal.
Joseph I of Portugal
Cadet branch of the House of Aviz
Born: June 16 1714 Died: February 24 1777
Regnal titles
Preceded by
John V		 King of Portugal and the Algarves
1750–1777 		Succeeded by
Maria I and Peter III
Portuguese royalty
Preceded by
John		 Prince of Brazil
Duke of Braganza
1714-1750 		Succeeded by
Maria

References

  1. ↑ History of Portugal: Pamphlet Collection. CUP Archive, 1937. Accessed September 2012.
  2. ↑ History of Portugal: Pamphlet Collection. CUP Archive, 1937. Accessed September 2012.
  3. ↑ History of Portugal: Pamphlet Collection. CUP Archive, 1937. Accessed September 2012.
  4. ↑ History of Portugal: Pamphlet Collection. CUP Archive, 1937. Accessed September 2012.
  5. ↑ "Even after their decadence, the Portuguese had their moments: in the war of 1762, threatened by the forces of Spain and France, they resisted with glory and expelled the Spaniards out of their territory owing to well disciplined peasants." In Société d` Histoire Générale et d`Histoire Diplomatique – Revue d`Histoire Diplomatique, vol. 37, Éditions A. Pedone, Paris, 1969, p. 195.
  6. ↑ "Both sides relied extensively on foreign troops and officers, though Portuguese popular opposition to the Spaniards proved decisive in places, especially in the North." In Maxwell, Kenneth – Pombal, Paradox of the Enlightenment, University Press, Cambridge, 1995, p. 113.
  7. ↑ In Dorn, Walter – Competition for Empire, 1740-1763, p.375.
  8. ↑ Dom Joseph Rei de Portugal, Algarves e seus dominios Principe do Brasil in: Genealogy Database by Herbert Stoyan [retrieved 7 February 2015].
  9. ↑ The gender of the stillborn children are different. Braganza line in: Royaltyguide.nl [retrieved 30 October 2014].
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