Dom Joseph I ( pt, José Francisco António Inácio Norberto Agostinho, ; 6 June 1714 – 24 February 1777), known as the Reformer (Portuguese: ''o Reformador''), was King of Portugal from 31 July 1750 until his death in 1777. Among other activities, Joseph was devoted to hunting and the opera. Indeed, he assembled one of the greatest collections of operatic scores in Europe. His government was controlled by Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal. The third child and second son of King Dom John V, Joseph became his father's heir as an infant when his older brother, Dom Pedro, Prince of Brazil, died. In 1729 he married Infanta Mariana Victoria, the eldest daughter of King Don

Philip V of Spain Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mon ...

, and Joseph's sister Infanta Barbara married Mariana Victoria's half-brother Prince Don Ferdinand (the future King Don Ferdinand VI of Spain). These marriages were known as the Exchange of the Princesses. Joseph and Mariana Victoria had four daughters. With the death of his father in 1750, Joseph became king of Portugal. His reign witnessed, among other things, a deadly earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 and a Spanish-French invasion of Portugal in 1762. The Lisbon earthquake allowed the Marquis of Pombal to consolidate power and also caused King Joseph to develop claustrophobia, refusing to live in a walled building ever again. Afterwards, Joseph moved his court into a series of tents. A new palace was built for him in Lisbon in the aftermath of the earthquake, but this was left uncompleted. Joseph died in 1777 and was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Queen Dona Maria I.

Early life

Joseph was the third child of King Dom John V of Portugal and his wife Maria Anna of Austria. He had an older brother Dom Pedro, Prince of Brazil, an older sister Barbara and three younger brothers. When his brother Pedro died in 1714 at the age of two, Joseph became heir apparent with the titles of Prince of Brazil and

Duke of Braganza The title Duke of Braganza ( pt, Duque de Bragança) in the House of Braganza is one of the most important titles in the peerage of Portugal. Starting in 1640, when the House of Braganza acceded to the throne of Portugal, the male heir of the P ...

Marriage

On 19 January 1729, Joseph married Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, daughter of King Don

and

Elisabeth Farnese Elisabeth Farnese ( Italian: ''Elisabetta Farnese'', Spanish: ''Isabel Farnesio''; 25 October 169211 July 1766) was Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip V. She exerted great influence over Spain's foreign policy and was the ''de facto'' r ...

, and his elder sister Barbara married King Philip's son and heir, Don Ferdinand,

Prince of Asturias Prince or Princess of Asturias ( es, link=no, Príncipe/Princesa de Asturias; ast, Príncipe d'Asturies) is the main substantive title used by the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne of Spain. According to the Spanish Constitution ...

(later King Don Ferdinand VI of Spain). The ceremony became known as the Exchange of the Princesses. Mariana Victoria loved music and hunting, just like her husband, but she was also a serious woman who disapproved of Joseph's love affairs and did not hesitate to expose them to acquaintances. They had four daughters, all born before Joseph ascended the throne.

Reign

Joseph succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1750, when he was 36 years old, and almost immediately placed effective power in the hands of

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo Sebastião is Portuguese for ''Sebastian''. This name may refer to: People * Sebastião (given name) Sebastião is a Portuguese male given name, descending from the Latin Sebastianus and equivalent to the English name Sebastian. Notable peop ...

(in 1770, the king made him

Marquis of Pombal Count of Oeiras () was a Portuguese title of nobility created by a royal decree, dated July 15, 1759, by King Joseph I of Portugal, and granted to Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, head of the Portuguese government. Later, through another roy ...

). Indeed, the history of Joseph's reign is really that of the Marquis of Pombal himself. The king's eldest daughter, Maria Francisca, became heir presumptive with the title of

Princess of Brazil This is a list of Princesses of Brazil, from 1645 to 1815, both by marriage and birth. The title was preceded by the titles Princess of Portugal and succeeded by Princess Royal of Portugal. The title was created by King John IV of Portugal on ...

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 The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

(5 May-24 November 1762). France and Spain sent an ultimatum in order to force Portugal to abandon its alliance with Great Britain and close her ports to British ships. King Joseph refused to submit and asked for British help since both Portugal and its 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

John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun General John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun (5 May 1705 – 27 April 1782) was a Scottish nobleman and British army officer. Early career Born in Scotland two years before the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain, in which his father Hug ...

, and

John Burgoyne General John Burgoyne (24 February 1722 – 4 August 1792) was a British general, dramatist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1792. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several bat ...

, and also the exceptional military leader

William, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe Wilhelm, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg (9 January 1724 – 10 September 1777), born Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Graf zu Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg, was a German ruler of the County of Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg, an important military comma ...

, 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 Nicolás de Carvajal, Marquis of Sarriá, and then by Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Count of Aranda, were thrice defeated by a combination of popular uprising,"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
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: In South America, the war ended in a draw; the Portuguese took territory from Spain (most of the Rio Negro Valley) and defeated a Spanish invasion of Mato Grosso, while Spain conquered Colónia do Sacramento and the vast territory of Rio Grande do Sul (1763). The

Treaty of Paris (1763) The Treaty of Paris, also known as the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763 by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Great Britain and Prussia's victory over France and Spain during the S ...

restored the '' status quo ante bellum''. The rich and huge territory of Rio Grande do Sul would be retaken from the Spanish army during the undeclared war of 1763-1777.Marley, David
''Wars of the Americas: a chronology of armed conflict in the New World, 1492 to the present''
vol. II, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2008
p. 449
an
p. 450
/ref>Bento, Cláudio Moreira

(electronic version), Academia de História Militar Terrestre do Brasil, chapter 5: As guerras no Sul 1763–77.Ricardo Lesser
''Las Orígenes de la Argentina''
Editorial Biblos, 2003, see chapte
''El desastre”
se
pp. 63–72
Bento, Cláudio Moreira- ''Rafael Pinto Bandeira'' i
''O Tuiuti''
nr. 95, Academia de Historia Militar Terrestre do Brasil, 2013, pp. 3–18.

Marquis of Pombal

The powerful Marquis of Pombal 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 enhance his own political stature. A supposed conspiracy of nobles aimed at murdering King Joseph and Pombal gave him the opportunity (some say the pretext) to neutralize the Távora family in the

Távora affair The Távoras affair was a political scandal of the 18th century Portuguese court. The events triggered by the attempted assassination of King Joseph I of Portugal in 1758 ended with the public execution of the entire Távora family and their cl ...

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 Age of the Enlightenment.

Legacy and death

Joseph's reign is also noteworthy for the Lisbon earthquake, firestorm and

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

of 1 November 1755, in which between 30,000 and 40,000 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 Project for the Royal Palace in Campo de Ourique was an ambitious palatial complex planned for the Campo de Ourique neighborhood of Lisbon, but later abandoned due to a lack of impetus from the Portuguese royal family and a prioritization of other reconstruction efforts. The capital was eventually rebuilt at great cost, and an equestrian statue of King Joseph still dominates the

Praça do Comércio The Praça do Comércio (; ) is a large, harbour-facing plaza in Portugal's capital, Lisbon, and is one of the largest in Portugal, with an area of 175 by 175 m (574 by 574 ft), that is, 30,600 m2 (329,000 ft2). Facing the Tagus () to the South, ...

, Lisbon's main plaza. Lisbon Portugal 485 (5108158443)

With Joseph's death on 24 February 1777, the throne passed to his daughter, Queen Dona Maria I, and his brother and son-in-law, King Dom Peter III. Pombal's iron rule was sharply brought to an end, because Maria disliked him since she had been heavily influenced by the Portuguese old nobility that strongly opposed Pombal.

Issue

Joseph I fathered four daughters by his wife Mariana Victoria, and there were also four stillbirths. Of their four daughters, only the eldest had issue:The gender of the stillborn children are different
''Braganza line'' in: Royaltyguide.nl
etrieved 30 October 2014 # Maria Francisca Isabel Rita Gertrudes Joanna (17 December 1734 – 20 March 1816), married her uncle Infante Peter of Portugal, with issue. After her father's death, she became the first

queen regnant A queen regnant (plural: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank and title to a king, who reigns '' suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known as a "kingdom"; as opposed to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigni ...

of Portugal as Dona Maria I. # Maria Ana Francisca Dorotea Josefa Antonia Gertrudes Rita Joanna Efigenia (7 October 1736 – 6 May 1813), potential bride for Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir of

King Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

. However, Maria Ana's mother refused to consent to the marriage, and the infanta died unmarried. #Stillborn son (February 1739). # Maria Francisca Doroteia Josefa Antónia Gertrudes Rita Joanna Efigénia de Braganca (21 September 1739 – 14 January 1771), potential bride for the French nobleman and revolutionary Philippe Égalité, but she refused to marry him and died unmarried. #Stillborn daughter (7 March 1742). #Stillborn daughter (15 October 1742). #Stillborn daughter (May 1744). # Maria Francisca Benedita Ana Isabel Joanna Antonia Laurencia Inacia Teresa Gertrudes Rita Rosa (25 July 1746 – 18 August 1829) married her nephew Dom Joseph, Prince of Brazil, no issue.

Ancestors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph 01 Of Portugal 1714 births 1777 deaths 18th-century Portuguese monarchs Burials at the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora House of Braganza Dukes of Braganza Portuguese infantes Princes of Brazil People from Lisbon