Famous Portuguese People:
Marquis of Pombal
Marquis of Pombal
The
Marquis of Pombal
(1699-1792) is known as one of Portugal's greatest ever statesmen and politicians.
Born in Lisbon in 1699 to a well-to-do family, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo studied at Coimbra University and served briefly in the Portuguese army. In 1738 Pombal was appointed Portuguese ambassador to Great Britain and later served as his country's ambassador to Austria. A favorite of King Joseph I of Portugal, Pombal was first appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and later Prime Minister. Pombal brought in a number of free-market reforms on the English model and abolished slavery in Portugal and its Indian colonies.
A rigorous and hard-working reformer, Pombal's reforms affected every strata of Portuguese society and economy. He passed laws to define wine quality and production, expelled the Catholic Jesuit order in 1759, attempted to improve the administration of Portugal's Brazilian colonies, improved education, rationalized the taxation system and tried to set up a manufacturing base in the country.
Pombal's finest hour was after the devastating earthquake of 1755 - the strongest earthquake to strike western Europe in the modern period. Pombal immediately set about rebuilding Lisbon and his legacy survives to this day in the world's first earthquake-proof buildings on Lisbon's riverfront and the grid-pattern of streets in the Baixa and the elegance of the Praça do Comércio.
Pombal's power and influence increased to that of a quasi-dictator after the Lisbon earthquake. As a result of his new wide-sweeping authority Pombal made many enemies among Portugal's land-owning and reactionary aristocracy, who considered him a social upstart. After an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate his patron King Joseph, Pombal ruthlessly suppressed any opposition to his position as the de facto supremo and dictator of the country. Appointed Marquis of Pombal in 1770, he ruled with an iron fist until Joseph's death in 1777.
The mentally-ill Queen Maria I assumed the throne of Portugal on the death of her father and immediately moved to destroy the powers of Pombal, a man she intensely disliked. After the achievements of Pombal's autocratic but reforming rule, Portugal was soon to be plunged into the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars during Maria's reign.
Pombal retired to his estates at Oeiras, dying in 1782. Pombal's legacy and importance in Portuguese history can be seen in the fact a central public square and busy metro station are both named after him. There is an impressive statue of the great statesman and politician in Marques de Pombal.
Portuguese history
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