Joseph I of Portugal

Early life

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. 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, 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, and almost immediately placed effective power in the hands of Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo, better known today as the Marquess of Pombal. 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. Jose 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, 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'.

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 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 Tavora 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.

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:

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 Antonia Gertrudes Rita Joanna Efigenia de Braganca (21 September 1739 – 14 January 1771), potential bride for Philippe Egalite 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 and styles

Honours