Rebirth of the Empire (Part 1 of 2) (cont.)
Pombal’s Government (1750-1762) (cont.)
At the final stages of the 1750s, the majority of the Portuguese court, including the King, still lived in the tent complex raised to house the major dispossessed figures of Lisbon during the Earthquake’s destruction. Although the setting was far from spectacular, the tent complex housed a court and intrigue worthy of Versailles. Even the King’ administrative cabinet lived close by and most of the decisions that brought so much change during the first phase of the new Prime Minister’s tenure had their origin in the luxurious encampment.
It is only to be expected then that, despite the destruction of their homes, the nobles of Portugal still played their part in the usual feudal theater of power weaving and conspiracy. King Joseph I was not particularly unpopular; he was viewed as a devout person who loved his wife Mariana Bourbon, a princess of Spain, and his four daughters. Unfortunately, Joseph I’s lack of a direct male heir and constant tolerance of his much more unpopular Prime Minister attracted resentment from some of the most powerful families in Portugal, who only wished for stability and comfort after the terror of the Earthquake.
The Setting
To further complicate the situation, the King, despite the happy marriage, had a mistress; none other than ‘Teresa Leonor’, wife of ‘Luís de Távora’, the male heir of what was one of the most powerful aristocratic households in the kingdom, the ‘Távoras’, for he was the son of the then-famous ‘Francisco de Assis de Távora’.
Francis of Távora
1703-1759
Marquis of Távora, Count of Alvor and Viceroy of India
Born to the Counts of Alvor, Francis was elevated into Marquis statute following a marriage with his own cousin, which belonged to a politically stronger branch of the family. After serving as governor in the city of Chaves, he was appointed by the late King John V as Viceroy of India, where he would reach the apex of his career. He entered the office in Goa in 1750 and proceeded to take a remarkable military action in the area, seizing several Indian forts and commercial placements so as to strengthen the Portuguese subcontinental possession. Among his accomplishments was the scuffle with the pirate ‘Canunja’ and warring with the king of Sunda, both of which he defeated in battle and took both fortress and treasure from. Coupled with his movements into the Karwan river, Francis obtained quite the reputation which went a long way in solidifying the ‘Távoras’ as worthy members of Portuguese nobility.
He returned to Lisbon in glory, carrying with him a background of administrative and military success, during the beginning of the new King’s realm and just in time to witness the first few moments of Pombal’s takeover of the government.
It was between 1754 and 1758 that Francis and his family would grow as enemies of Prime Minister Melo. Francis’ wife, Leonor, for one, distrusted the new aide of the King, considering him little more than an upstart nouveau-riche with inadequate business thoughts. King Joseph’s growing adultery with Francis’ daughter-in-law would further cast an abyss of distrust between the Távora’s and the King’s closest Minister, who did much to cover for the monarch’s escapees.
To add further fuel to the fire, the Távoras were in friendly terms with the Duke of Aveiro, another adversary of Pombal. Formerly disgraced by an adulterous affair that had even dispossessed him, the Duke of Aveiro had in the late stages of John V’s realm accumulated a number of careful political maneuvers and marriages that not only earned him back a strong place in Portuguese aristocracy, but also shrewd his manners and directly allied him to the Távoras. Wary of the growing power in the new Prime Minister’s hands, the Duke was not shy about opposing his every move.
Other families like the Alorna’s and the Atouguia’s were also thought to be in joined hands with the Távoras. As a result, as public turmoil heated up along the unfolding of the post-earthquake 1750s, the stage was set for a truly dangerous environment for the King and his Prime Minister in the Portuguese court.
While Pombal’s commercial, financial and social measures had been controversial and risky; it was not until his less than secretive steps against the Jesuit Order that the Prime Minister’s enemies truly felt riled. Up until then only bothered by the minister’s architectural and friendship choices, the Portuguese court and clergy felt truly under attack when holy men like Father Malagrina and his followers came under public attack and exile, some directly sent to far off Brazil. Called a true scandal, the attack on the Jesuits by the future Marquis of Pombal was unforgiveable, even considering the critical role the Prime Minister was at the time having in Lisbon’s reconstruction.
The Prime Minister, however, was not naïve, but excessively paranoid, even. Realizing the radical nature of many of his measures, the rebuilder of Lisbon was fully aware his actions attracted dangerous eyes and he was most distrustful, and spiteful, of the powerful ‘Távoras’, whose patriarch’s feats in India had gained them so much admiration and whose wrath had been spiced by King Joseph I’s debauchery.
Hurdled by their criticisms, opposed by their conservatism, angered by what they represented and worried by the danger they posed, the future Marquis of Pombal came to realized that, in some ways, the ‘Távoras’ embodied everything he sought to destroy and build over in Portugal; the oligarchic tree of antiquated ideals which still justified themselves with their small triumphs in what was, at least for Portugal, a quickly crumbling imperial world. It was clear to the Prime Minister the ‘Távoras’ were meant to be defeated if his vision was to be unbridled, lest something tragic happen and all his efforts be undone.
His opportunity to do so would come in 1758, when the political tensions spiked following a private confirmation of the King’s affair and Joseph I saw his life put at risk while returning to Lisbon.
The Attack on the King
On the night of September 3, 1758, as King Joseph I returned on his carriage from an encounter with his mistress, Teresa Leonor, the daughter-in-law of the Marquis, a group of three men on horseback intercepted the royal vehicle as it travelled through a secondary, ill-frequented route in the capital to the tent complex the monarch was housed at. The three men, upon stopping the carriage, pulled out muskets and hand guns and proceeded to open fire on both the driver and the vehicle with the intention of killing its occupants.
King Joseph I was shot in the arm and the driver was badly wounded, but both survived the initial onslaught. Noise from the shots attracted the populace out of their homes and scared off the assailants, who failed to take out their targets and feared capture from the police or the outraged peasants. While still bleeding from their wounds, the king and the driver managed to make their way back to the Ajuda tent complex with their lives and sought immediate help from the Guard and the Prime Minister.
The attempt on Dom Joseph I life in 1758 became known as the Távora Affair
The attempt on Dom Joseph I life in 1758 became known as the Távora Affair
Upon discovering what happened, however, Prime Minister Melo took control of the situation, assured the King he would obtain retribution and ordered the alerted Guard to stand by. Despite the number of street witnesses who heard the shots and saw the fleeing attackers, the Prime Minister was able to conceal both the wounds of the King and the attack itself before proceeding to a swift inquiry. The Prime Minister did not have much to go by other than the testimony of the victims and street folk, but based on the little information he gathered he still conducted a merciless hounding for the would-be killers.
Not but a few days had passed and a number of suspects had been arrested by the Prime Minister. The arrests were made on rather suspicious circumstances; details of the search were never made public and most outside the King’s inner circle did not even know what the men were being charged with. It is known, though, that the Guard was ordered to torture the two captured men, who after a night of interrogations ended up confessing not only their involvement, but also the patronage of the Távora family in their actions and a plot to put the Duke of Aveiro on the Portuguese Throne.
Both men were hanged the following day upon the regicide being made public.
It was in the midst of the execution that the Prime Minister made his move against the Távoras; predicting that the family, whether or not they were truly involved, were already aware of what was going on through their informants or the failure of the regicide itself and were preparing to either flee the capital or take refuge with local allies, issued a public declaration that exposed the signed confession of the assassins as men hired or allied to the Marquis of Távora. This announcement incriminated the family in a rather vulgar and unproved fashion, but was enough to set the mood for the shift of public opinion the Prime Minister needed.[1]
By 1758, it was no secret for the public that the King and the Marquis had enemies. Many amongst the townsfolk were included in them. The economic restoration and optimization obtained by the Prime Minister thanks to some of his more innovative and less vicious measures, however, had turned him into a figure of controversy rather than full-blown tyranny. This had created a percentage of indecision and uncertainty amongst the lower classes over whether or not their rulers were truly monstrous. Moreover, this all happened while most members of the upper classes were regarded as passive or outright obstructive to the state. The reconstruction of Lisbon was the most powerful catalyst of the public shift that occurred, with the inhabitants of the capital thanking the Prime Minister for his efforts while disregarding the remaining authorities as uncaring or incompetent.
The Marquis of Távora was a heroic figure in India, but this did not save him from the effect the attempted assassination had on the mob. Outrage filled the main plazas as the inflammatory words of the Prime Minister passed from ear to ear and, all of a sudden, the lack of evidence did not seem like much of a problem. The people called for justice to the King who rebuilt their homes and city and only the fame of the Marquis of Távora seemed to stop them from a full blown quest for blood.
Capture & Execution
Upon being informed of the Prime Minister’s accusations, the Marquis’ family, fearing for their lives, packed their belongings and prepared to depart to seek help from the Duke of Aveiro. Unfortunately, this all fell in the Prime Minister’s plans, who preemptively ordered the guard to capture them even before the assassins were executed. The whole spectacle of the fleeing aristocrats being seized by the guard and brought into custody was purposely witnessed by half the capital, which now followed the procedure with curiosity, scandal and intent.
Several other platoons were dispatched to capture all the other members of the family as well as anyone else even remotely involved in the affair. Asides from every witness to the assault itself, the following suspects were arrested: the Duke of Aveiro, the Count of Atougia, the Marquis of Alorna and the Counts of Vila Nova, Óbidos and Ribeira Grande. Many other nobles as well as people from all classes were also held in containment. Father Gabriel Malagrida, the confessor of the Távora family, was also arrested.
At the time of the trial over one thousand people were in custody and all were accused of high treason and attempted regicide. The evidence presented in their common trial was composed of four parts:
the confessions of the executed assassins;
- the murder weapon belonging to the Duke of Aveiro;
- the assumption that only the Távoras would have known the whereabouts of the king on that evening, since he was returning from a liaison with Teresa of Távora (who was also arrested).
- the assumption of motive for murder, which included the King’s ‘friendship’ with the Marquis’ daughter-in-law, the family’s continued opposition to the government’s measures and the sponsor of and alliance with Father Malagrida, whom the King had ordered exiled to Setúbal.[2]
The Távora family denied all accusations but they were found guilty along with other accomplices and sentenced to death. Their estates were confiscated to the state, their name erased from the peerage and their coat-of-arms outlawed.
Left: Stone Memorial of Aveiro’s shaming
Center: Execution of the Távoras
Right: Father Malagrida led to the pyre
To accentuate the sharpness of the scandal there was the violence of the execution itself. Most of the families trialed were condemned to rather gruesome deaths, including dismemberment and burning, all in plain view of the people. Father Malagrida would become the last person ever brought to the pyre in Portugal, signifying a coming decline of the power of religious inquisition. It was only through the intervention of Queen Mariana and Maria Francisca, the heiress to the throne, that most of women and children of those executed were saved from joining their loved ones, instead taken to the prisons in Angola and Mazagan.
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[1] iOTL the Prime Minister never issued any proclamation prior to the Tavora’s arrest. Here a more astute Prime Minister attempted to cast suspicion on his adversaries even before the trial.
[2] iOTL this point was omitted by Prime Minister, where he attempted to maintain the trials as a matter of fact affair without grandstanding. But here his previous proclamation had driven the public into a raging mob and the public trial was as much of a trial against those plotting to stop the Prime Minister’s reforms. It also signaled a direct threat against many other nobles that they too would suffer similar fate if they continued their opposition to his reforms.
Note:
Due to scheduling conflict tomorrow (wont be able to take time to post this) I decided to post this one day earlier. Hope you all enjoy.
This is the 7th chapter in the 3rd part of Rebirth of Empire (part 1 of 2) Pombal Government (1750 - 1762). Comments / questions???.
Please return Wednesday March 7 for last chapter overview of Pombal 1st government.