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unusual facts about Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal



Francisco de Saldanha da Gama

On April 1, 1758, a brief was obtained from the aged Pope Benedict XIV, appointing Saldanha, recommended by the Marquis of Pombal, to investigate allegations against the Jesuits that had been raised in the name of the Joseph I of Portugal.

Pombal

:* Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquess of Pombal, an 18th-century Portuguese statesman, Master of the Kingdom (1750–1777)

Reinald Oudinot

Together with his son in law, Oudinot was asked by the Marquês do Pombal to resolve the problem of flooding in the city of Aveiro where a storm in 1575 had blocked the original exit of the Vouga River to the sea, causing the city to be semi-flooded much of the year.

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal

Even exports from Portugal went mostly through expatriate merchants like the English port wine shippers and French businessmen like Jácome Ratton, whose memoirs are scathing about the efficiency of his Portuguese counterparts.

He abolished slavery in Portugal and the Portuguese colonies in India, reorganized the army and the navy, abolished the Autos-de-fé and ended the Limpeza de Sangue (cleanliness of blood) civil statutes and their discrimination against New Christians, the Jews that had converted to Christianity, and their descendents regardless of genealogical distance, in order to escape the Portuguese Inquisition.

William, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe

In 1762, at the request of the Marquis of Pombal (the Portuguese Secretary of State) he led the allied troops in Portugal against the Spanish invasion.


see also