Afonso Augusto da Costa, GCTE, GCL (; born in

Seia Seia () is a municipality in Guarda District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 21,755, in an area of . Its urban population is about 7,000. Seia was elevated to city status on July 3, 1986. The municipality is situated on the northwestern slo ...

, 6 March 1871; died in Paris, 11 May 1937) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

lawyer, professor and

republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

politician.

Political career

Costa was the leader of the

Portuguese Republican Party The Portuguese Republican Party (, ) was a Portuguese political party formed during the late years of the constitutional monarchy that proposed and conducted the substitution of the monarchy with the Portuguese First Republic.Portuguese First Republic The First Portuguese Republic ( pt, Primeira República Portuguesa; officially: ''República Portuguesa'', Portuguese Republic) spans a complex 16-year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy ...

. He was a republican deputy in the Chamber of Deputies during the last years of the monarchy. After the proclamation of the republic, he was Minister for Justice during

Teófilo Braga Joaquim Teófilo Fernandes Braga (; 24 February 1843 – 28 January 1924) was a Portuguese writer, playwright, politician and the leader of the Republican Provisional Government after the overthrow of King Manuel II, as well as the second elect ...

's short-lived provisional government, which lasted from 5 October 1910 to 3 September 1911. During this period, Costa signed the controversial laws which expelled the Jesuits from Portugal, abolished all the religious orders and established the separation of church and state. These things made him a symbol of the

anticlericalism Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

of the First Republic. Also, he was instrumental in the passage of many progressive laws, such as those concerning divorce, family relations, civil registry of marriage, leases of property, judicial reorganization, industrial accidents and censorship of the press. Bernardino Machado e Afonso Costa em Londres (1917)

Bernardino Machado e Afonso Costa em Londres (1917)

He served as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

three times. The first time, he was called by President

Manuel de Arriaga Manuel José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira e Peyrelongue (; 8 July 1840 – 5 March 1917) was a Portuguese lawyer, the first attorney-general and the first elected president of the First Portuguese Republic, following the deposition of King Ma ...

to form a government, as the leader of the Republican Democratic Party. This term of office (which he combined with the role of Finance Minister) lasted from 9 January 1913 to 9 February 1914.".
The Portuguese Parliamentary Republic, 1910–1926
by Stanley G. Payne, Chapter 23 of A History of Spain and Portugal, Volume 2 He returned to power, as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, from 29 November 1915 to 16 March 1916. Following more political instability Costa was yet again Prime Minister, from 25 April 1917 to 8 December 1917, in a national-unity government nicknamed the ''

Sacred Union The Sacred Union (french: Union Sacrée, ) was a political truce in France in which the left-wing agreed, during World War I, not to oppose the government or call any strikes. Made in the name of patriotism, it stood in opposition to the pledge mad ...

'', to support Portugal's entrance into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After

Sidónio Pais Sidónio Bernardino Cardoso da Silva Pais (; 1 May 1872 – 14 December 1918) was a Portuguese politician, military officer, and diplomat, who served as the fourth president of the First Portuguese Republic in 1918. One of the most di ...

's military ''coup d'état'' in December 1917, Costa went into exile in Paris and though he did sometimes return briefly to Portugal, he never again lived there, even after Pais's assassination in 1918. After the end of the war, Costa led the Portuguese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference from 12 March 1919 and he signed the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

of 28 June 1919 on behalf of Portugal. He was the Portuguese representative at the first assembly of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. On 10 July 1919 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit. On a number of other occasions during the First Republic, Costa received invitations to head the government again but he always refused. After the 28 May coup d'état, he strongly opposed the military dictatorship; he equally opposed the right-wing civilian Catholic ''Estado Novo'' (New State) administration led from 1932 by Dr. Salazar. He died in Paris on 11 May 1937.

Family circumstances

A foundling

Costa was given up at birth as a

foundling Foundling may refer to: * An abandoned child, see child abandonment * Foundling hospital, an institution where abandoned children were cared for ** Foundling Hospital, Dublin, founded 1704 ** Foundling Hospital, Cork, founded 1737 ** Foundling H ...

at the

baby hatch A baby hatch or baby box is a place where people (typically mothers) can bring babies, usually newborn, and abandon them anonymously in a safe place to be found and cared for. This kind of arrangement was common in the Middle Ages and in the 18t ...

of the

Santa Casa da Misericórdia Santa Casa da Misericórdia is a lay Portuguese charity founded in 1498, whose mission is to treat and support the sick, the disabled, as well as abandoned newborns. History The institution traces its official foundation to 1498, when Queen ...

(Holy House of Mercy) of the town of

in north-central

. By way of explanation:

''"The Santa Casa da Misericórdia was founded n Lisbonin 1582, by Jose de Anchieta, a Jesuit. It is opened to the poor of every nation and religion, and affords a refuge to foundlings and orphans. The foundlings are deposited in a revolving wheel, which is placed perpendicularly in the wall. The wheel is divided into four apartments, one of which opens without. The heartless mother who wishes to part with her infant child, has only to deposit it in the box, and a revolution of the wheel passes it within the walls, never more to be reclaimed."The National Magazine, by Abel Stevens and James Floy, Carlton & Phillips, 1854, v. 4, p. 292. (Original from Harvard University, digitized March 1, 2007.''

Together with his older brother and sister, he was registered as a son of unknown parents with the name Afonso Maria de Ligório. Ten years later, his parents, Sebastião Fernandes da Costa and Ana Augusta Pereira, recognized him and his brother and sister. They married and readopted the children. Costa re-assumed his birth name in order to conceal the circumstances of his birth.

Marriage

He was married in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

on 15 September 1892 to Alzira Coelho de Campos de Barros de Abreu (born at

Oliveira do Hospital Oliveira do Hospital () is a municipality in the district of Coimbra, in the central part of continental Portugal. The population in 2011 was 20,855, in an area of 234.52 km². History Inhabited by ancient civilizations, Oliveira do Hospita ...

, 20 April 1876; died at Lisbon, 1970), the daughter of Albano Mendes de Abreu, a medical doctor, and his wife, Emília de Barros Coelho de Campos. She was the sister of the writer, José de Barros Mendes de Abreu, who was born at Oleiros, Vilar Barroco, 20 July 1878. Costa's wife is an ancestor of the modern-day actresses, Sofia Sá da Bandeira and

Catarina Wallenstein Catarina de Lemos Wallenstein (born 23 August 1986) is a Portuguese actress. She has appeared in more than twenty films since 2004. Biography Wallenstein was born in London, daughter of Pedro Franco Wallenstein Teixeira, double bass player of t ...

Political career

Family circumstances

A foundling

Marriage

See also

References

Further reading