Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém,

KGF KGF or kgf may refer to: *Keratinocyte growth factor * King George's Fields, UK, recreation grounds * Kolar Gold Fields, region of gold mines in Karnatka, India ** Kolar Gold Field (Vidhan Sabha constituency), state assembly constituency ** KGF S ...

(; ''Manuel José Francisco António Caetano Estêvão Bartolomeu''; (3 August 1697 - 3 August 1766) was a Portuguese ''

infante Infante (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as "infant" or translated as "prince", is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to the ...

'' (prince), seventh child of Peter II,

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, and his wife

Maria Sophia of Neuburg Maria Sophia Elisabeth of Neuburg (6 August 1666 – 4 August 1699) was List of Portuguese royal consorts, Queen of Portugal as the wife of Peter II of Portugal, King Peter II from 1687 until her death in 1699. A popular queen, she was note ...

. He was the brother of King

John V of Portugal ''Dom (title), Dom'' John V (; 22 October 1689 – 31 July 1750), known as the Magnanimous (''o Magnânimo'') and the Portuguese Sun King (''o Rei-Sol Português''), was King of Portugal from 9 December 1706 until his death in 1750. His reig ...

. He was a candidate for the Polish throne.

Life

He was born on 3 August 1697 in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

and died unmarried and without legitimate issue at the Quinta de Belas in the same city on the same day in 1766. He is buried at the Royal Pantheon of the Braganza Dynasty in Lisbon. Manuel led an adventurous life. At the age of 18, he embarked in secret on an English ship to the Netherlands. Ordered by his brother King

to return home, he disobeyed and went to Paris and then to Germany. On 1 August 1716 he offered his services to Prince

Eugene of Savoy Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Carignano (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736), better known as Prince Eugene, was a distinguished Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty durin ...

, to fight the Turks in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. There he fought 4 days later in the

Battle of Petrovaradin The Battle of Petrovaradin also known as the Battle of Peterwardein, took place on 5 August 1716 during the Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718), Austro-Turkish War when the Ottoman army besieged the Habsburg-controlled fortress of Petrovaradin on ...

where he was slightly wounded. He also participated in the pursuit of the fleeing Turks and the siege and capture of

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

. In 1717, now officially in the Austrian army, he again fought under Prince Eugene and participated in the conquest of Belgrade. After the

Treaty of Passarowitz The Treaty of Passarowitz, or Treaty of Požarevac, was the peace treaty signed in Požarevac ( sr-cyr, Пожаревац, , ), a town that was in the Ottoman Empire but is now in Serbia, on 21 July 1718 between the Ottoman Empire and its ad ...

, he obtained the title of ''Maréchal de camp''. After the war he traveled from court to court, living a life of pleasure, inspiring several contemporary writers. In 1721 he received the

Order of the Golden Fleece The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece (, ) is a Catholic order of chivalry founded in 1430 in Brugge by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy, Isabella of Portugal. T ...

. In 1728 he became one of the candidates for the hand of the wealthy Maria Zofia Sieniawska supported by the

Habsburgs The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

in attempt to gain a strong position in Poland before the Royal Election of

1733 Events January–March * January 13 – Borommarachathirat V becomes King of Siam (now Thailand) upon the death of King Sanphet IX. * January 27 – George Frideric Handel's classic opera, ''Orlando'' is performed for the ...

. Well known at the Austrian and Russian court, he was even proposed as the next King of Poland for a short time in 1733, in the onset of the

War of the Polish Succession The War of the Polish Succession (; 1733–35) was a major European conflict sparked by a civil war in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth over the succession to Augustus II the Strong, which the other European powers widened in pursuit of ...

. The next year he returned to Portugal, where he spent the last years of his life in the Quinta de Belas, leading a socially active life, surrounded by writers and artists. He died on his 69th birthday more than three decades later.

Life

Ancestry

See also

References

Further reading