John V of Portugal
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Died | 31 July 1750 (aged 60) Ribeira Palace, Lisbon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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King of Portugal from 9 December 1706 until his death in 1750. His reign saw the rise of Portugal and its monarchy to new levels of prosperity, wealth, and prestige among European courts.[1]
John V's reign saw an enormous influx of gold into the coffers of the royal treasury, supplied largely by the Mafra Palace , and on commissions and additions for his sizable art and literary collections. Owing to his craving for international diplomatic recognition, John also spent large sums on the embassies he sent to the courts of Europe, the most famous being those he sent to Paris in 1715 and Rome in 1716.
Disregarding traditional Portuguese institutions of governance, John V ruled as an expansionist policy, with significant territorial gains in Portuguese India and Portuguese America .
John V was a very pious man who devoted large parts of his day to prayer and religious study. He rewarded his long-awaited recognition as a lawful monarch by papacy varied at different periods in his reign; there were both close relations and conflicts at different times during the reigns of five different popes.[2]
Early lifeJohn was born on 22 October 1689 at Ribeira Palace[3] in Lisbon as the second son of King Peter II and Maria Sophia of Neuburg. He was baptized on 19 November at the Royal Palace Chapel and given the full name John Francis Anthony Joseph Benedict Bernard (João Francisco António José Bento Bernardo).[4] The King and Queen had had a son the previous year, another John, but the prince had died a few weeks after his birth. The court was thus overjoyed to have a new male heir to the kingdom. Upon his baptism, John was not given the traditional titles of the heir apparent to the Portuguese throne, Prince of Brazil and Duke of Braganza, but merely the default title Infante of Portugal. This was intended as a sign of respect for his elder brother's death. EducationJohn had a stimulating upbringing surrounded by some of the most brilliant minds of Europe at the time. It was agreed by the court that John's care as a child was to be strictly run by women only, a custom of the Portuguese court and the Portuguese nobility as a whole.[5] John's governess was Maria de Lencastre, Marchioness of Unhão. She was given the position more for her beauty and status than for her suitability as a carer. The Marchioness was later governess for John's younger brothers Francisco, António, and Manuel.[5] The policies that John's father had pursued made the Portuguese court wealthy, the national economy stable, and the imperial military strong. This made a richly varied and interesting childhood possible for John. As a child, he was under the tutelage and heavy influence of the Jesuit Fathers Francisco da Cruz, João Seco, and Luís Gonzaga.[6] Father Luís Gonzaga was in charge of the education of all of King Peter's children; he taught them military education, politics, astronomy, nautical studies, mathematics, and history.[7] As John grew up, he was mentored in political affairs by Luís da Cunha, a prominent Portuguese diplomat.[7]
MaturityWhen John reached the age of seven, his father determined that his eldest sons were sufficiently educated in basic subjects and decided to take over supervision of their instruction himself, though his interest in mentoring them quickly faded. Just over a month before John's tenth birthday in 1699, his mother Queen Maria Sofia died at the age of 33. In April 1700, John fell terribly ill; it was assumed that he was on his death bed.[7] Fearing his imminent demise, he asked for his last rites and confessed his sins.[7] To everyone's surprise, he rallied and soon returned to his normal activities,[7] his complete recovery being considered a miracle by the court.[7] John was greatly saddened by the death of his sister Teresa Maria in February 1704. Her death caused John to avoid appearing at court for some months and to estrange himself from his father, who favoured John's younger brother Manuel.[8] During this time, much gossip was spread and worries arose about whether John would ever recover from his depression. In May of that year, he eventually returned to the court and reconciled with the King, saying that his saudade for his sister would not get in the way of his performing his duty to the King.[8] SuccessionIn early December 1706, King Peter II moved himself to the Royal Quinta in Alcântara, as he was growing ill and needed space from the court.[10] On the fifth of that month, the King caught a high fever, and the court doctors met to examine him fully.[10] They determined his health was greatly deteriorating.[10] The next day, Peter called all of his children to his bedside and told them of his coming demise. He appointed John as prince regent of the kingdom and asked that all of his children follow John's wishes.[11] The King still favoured his youngest son, Manuel, and he gave Manuel a special gift that none of his other children received.[10] AcclamationPeter II died in his sleep on 9 December 1706. On the day of John's acclamation, 1 January 1707, his new throne was placed on the balcony of the Torre do Rei (Tower of the King) of Ribeira Palace. John was now king of an empire that stretched four continents. He was also the head of state of a kingdom that was at António Luís de Sousa, Marquis of Minas, to capture Madrid on 28 June 1706. While Portugal put vast resources into the war, contrary to John's predecessors, who avoided conflicts in Europe, activity in the war soon lost the interest of the King, who had more pressing affairs to attend to.[12]
MarriageDuring his life, Peter II had worked a long time to secure John a marriage with an Austrian Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I that made official a match between John and the emperor's sister, the Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria.[13] The contract also set the archduchess's dowry at 100,000 crowns, a vast sum for the day.[13]
The armada that Portugal sent to escort Maria Anna from the Tagus river estuary on 26 October 1708.[13] The flagship, in which Maria Anna travelled, berthed at the docks of the private garden of Ribeira Palace, where John and a party of the kingdom's richest and most powerful nobles met the new queen for the first time.[13] The marriage celebrations lasted until 27 December;[14] they were sumptuous and very costly.[13]
By late 1710, John and Maria Anna had not produced an heir to the throne. It had been two years since the couple had been married, and the court was starting to question the future of the Franciscan Cardinal Nuno da Cunha e Ataíde, High Inquisitor of the Portuguese Inquisition, who told him that if he promised God to build a Franciscan convent in Mafra, God would deliver his long desired heir. Accordingly, John promised such a convent if Maria Anna became pregnant before the end of 1711.[15] John's wish would come true later that year when Maria Anna gave birth to a daughter, Maria Barbara, on 4 December 1711.[16]
John and Maria Anna had a successful marriage, but lived largely separate lives. Maria Anna devoted herself to preserving the decorum of the royal court and her own religious interests, while John concerned himself with whatever pleased him at the moment.[17] John kept many mistresses throughout his royal career, including Filipa de Noronha, Paula de Odivelas, Luísa Inês Antónia Machado Monteiro, Madalena Máxima de Miranda, Inácia Rosa de Távora, and Luísa Clara de Portugal. OffspringMaria Barbara's birth was followed by the birth of Only two of their three youngest sons would survive to adulthood, Infante Carlos and Infante Pedro; only Pedro continued the Braganza line.John's children were trained rigorously growing up. His plan was to have an intelligent son who could take his place as king, a strategically married daughter, and well-prepared statesmen sons, but he would achieve only part of his goal. From her birth, Infanta Maria Barbara's marriage had been closely arranged and monitored by John. When the engagement of Caia River on 19 January 1729.[19] Prince José married Mariana Victoria on 19 January 1729 in Elvas, and Infanta Maria Barbara married Prince Ferdinand on 20 January 1729 in Badajoz.[20]
None of John's three other sons would marry in his lifetime. Infante Alexandre died at the age of five, and Infante Carlos died at the age of twenty without any marriage proposals or children.[21] Only Infante Pedro would live long enough to marry, but John did not live long enough to see it. Pedro married his niece Maria Francisca, Princess of Brazil, on 6 June 1760; she was the daughter of his elder brother, King Dom Joseph I.[22] When Joseph died in 1777, Maria Francisca became Queen Dona Maria I and Pedro became jure uxoris king as Dom Pedro III.[22] John fathered at least four children from various extramarital affairs. Luís Carlos Inácio Xavier de Meneses, 1st Marquis of Louriçal, where they lived at John's expense.[22] The Children of Palhavã received educations worthy of nobility and went on to become noteworthy members of the clergy.[23] Maria Rita was never officially recognized as John's daughter, but he informally arranged for her life at the Convent of Santos and managed her expenses.[24] Maria Rita's stepfather, Jorge de Meneses, attempted to stop John's actions for Maria Rita, but the King had de Meneses exiled to Spain and then to England.[25]
Regnal politicsJohn reigned as an three estates in Portugal, and actively ignored meetings of the Council of State.[26] However, John did not act by himself when making decisions; rather, he frequently consulted a close circle of well-informed advisers and held weekly intimate audiences with members of all three estates, which he preferred to larger institutions, such as the Cortes and the Council of State, which he viewed as incompetent and bloated.[26] The Count of Povolide remarked on John's governance style, stating that "he established a predominance of personal consultation over institutional consultation."[citation needed ]
GovernmentThe highest position in the King's government was that of Secretary of State of Portugal, the equivalent of a modern-day prime minister. This position was always filled by a favourite of John, the most notable one Diogo de Mendonça Corte-Real, whom the King consulted with on every matter, to such a degree that it often appeared that he was the King's only minister.[27] When John became king, he inherited a powerful and large Council of State made up of numerous bishops, nobles, and bureaucrats, which was charged with being the utmost consultory body to the King, as it was during the reign of John's father.[28] However, John's dislike of institutions and consultative bodies led him to cease convening the council formally, leading the prominent politician and diplomat Luís da Cunha to refer to the king as a despot and his government as absolutist.[29] The historian A.R. Disney writes of John that he "was an absolutist by conviction and believed secular power and authority emanated by right solely from the king, to whom all other persons and jurisdictions were completely subordinate."[30] Although the Council of State was never convened, several of its members were nonetheless close advisers to the King.[27] Alongside Diogo de Mendonça Corte-Real, Cardinal João da Mota e Silva and High-Inquisitor Nuno da Cunha e Ataíde were close advisers to the king, the former eventually substituting Mendonça Corte-Real as Secretary of State when he died in 1736.[27][31] Though he disbanded most institutions, John notably maintained the Junta of the Three Estates, a governing junta created by John IV (John V's grandfather) which managed the finances and maintenance of military installations, troop raising, and taxation related to defense.[32] Having engaged in multiple conflicts throughout his reign, both in Europe and his empire, John V understood the necessity of the junta and carefully picked its members, only selecting those deemed the most knowledgeable and competent.[32] Similarly, he maintained the Council of the Treasury, which managed the finances of Portugal and its empire, including tax collection and budget accounting for the majority of Portugal's organizations (except the military), and exerted authority over the Casa da Índia, the Royal Mint, and the custom houses across Portuguese territory.[33] European relationsJohn pursued a generally dovish foreign policy which sought to maintain Portugal's neutrality.[34] The main exception to this was Portuguese intervention in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–13); Portugal intervened reluctantly and due to British pressure.[34] When John ascended the throne, he found himself entangled in the Treaty of Utrecht, whereby Portugal regained possession of territories conquered by the Bourbon coalition and acquired new territories in South America.[40]
With the War of the Spanish Succession ended, John could re-establish relations with the courts of Europe. His first grand act of diplomacy was the dispatch of François, Prince of Soubise, and cousin of Hercule Mériadec, Prince of Guéméné, the Count of Ribeira Grande was personally chosen by John to foster amicable relations with the French court.[41] No expense was spared on the Count's triumphal entry into Paris, which cost 100 Louis d'or and received such great applause from the people of Paris that Alexandre de Gusmão, the Count's secretary, stated that "the Count of Ribeira Grande has eternalized the grandness of our generous king."[41] Although King Louis would die only weeks after the Portuguese embassy's arrival to France, the richness and extravagance of its entry to Paris was noted at the French court and across Europe and gained a new level of prestige for John and his kingdom.[41]
As John concerned himself with the presentation of Portugal at the court of Europe from home through the planning and organization of important embassies, the King's brother Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém, was similarly raising the name of Portugal throughout Europe. Having left the country in 1715 without the King's permission (as was required for royalty and high nobility), Manuel traveled throughout Europe, staying with Portuguese ambassadors and nobles across the continent, causing quite a fanfare. Catholic ChurchJohn's reign was characterized by a stressed importance of relations with Rome and the Ottoman-Venetian War.[51]
Clement XI's successor, Portuguese royalty (descending from King Denis), relations were no warmer with Portugal than under his predecessor.[55] Discontent with the Vatican's dismissal of his requests, John retaliated against Benedict XIII in 1728, closing the Papal Nunciature in Lisbon, recalling all Portuguese cardinals from Rome, and prohibiting official relations between Portuguese subjects and the Holy See.[52] Benedict sought to resolve the issues through an amicable intermediary, King Don Philip V of Spain, though John refused.[52]
An issue of significance to John concerned the rank and appointment of the Apostolic Nuncio in Portugal, which the King wished to be raised to the dignity of a Benedict XIV, had a markedly better relation with the King, granting the King his desired recognition as a lawful Christian monarch.[56] In 1748, the Pope awarded the title of "Most Faithful Majesty" to John and his successors.[57]
Imperial administrationJohn's reign saw the rise of the Americas as the bastion of Portuguese imperial power,[30] as fortunes became less lucrative in Asia and Africa. Under John, the Portuguese Empire saw territorial gains in modern-day Brazil, India, Kenya, Uruguay, East Timor, Angola, and Mozambique, among others. John sought to exert strict control over the government, trade and communications of his overseas imperial possessions.[30]
Treaty of Utrecht, in 1714, and successfully defended it against an attempted Spanish reconquest in the Spanish–Portuguese War of 1735–37.[59]
In the 1690s, during the final years of King Peter II's reign, precious resources were discovered in Brazil, namely vast gold and diamond deposits. However, exploitation of the resources primarily began in John's reign, with the establishment of mining companies, taxation systems, and a mercantilist supply chain, which ushered in a period known as the Brazilian Gold Rush.[60] The royal fifth was instituted as a form of taxation on mining activities, requiring a fifth of all gold to go directly to the King's treasury. In an effort to consolidate royal authority while promoting efficient governance, John took control of the Captaincy of São Vicente (in 1709) and the Captaincy of Pernambuco (in 1716), establishing direct royal governance in the two most valuable provinces of Brazil.[61][58] In 1721, John ordered the separation of the region of intense mining from the rest of the Captaincy of São Vicente, into the autonomous captaincy of Minas Gerais (General Mines), allowing for the colonial administration to collect taxation more effectively.[51]
Asia had been the traditional base of the Portuguese Empire's wealth and power, but its declining returns became especially noticeable during John's reign as gold and diamonds from the Americas flowed to Lisbon.
The Portuguese colonization of Africa was less important to John's colonial priorities compared to the Americas and Asia. Minor contentions with Dutch corsairs blocking shipments to and from the Portuguese Gold Coast in the 1720s resulted in successful Portuguese victory over the Dutch in minor naval battles.[65] Notable, tensions were also raised with Britain in 1722 when British forces established a fortification in Cabinda (in modern-day Angola), which had been claimed and evangelized by the Portuguese since the 15th century. A notable rare exception to the long-standing Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, John ordered galleons from the Armada do Brasil to dispatch to Cabinda to either take possession of the fort or destroy it and its men, resulting in a Portuguese victory in 1723.[66] Portugal briefly reconquered Mombasa (modern-day Kenya) in 1728, only to lose control over it again in 1729, ending the last period of Portuguese rule in Mombasa.[51]
Joanine cultureMafraJohn is often remembered as one of the greatest patrons of the arts in Portuguese history, having commissioned numerous construction projects and artistic studies. The King's most famous and important work was the magnum opus of John's reign, accommodating three hundred friars and adjusted to become a hybrid convent-palace, including a royal library, a basilica, and a vast set of apartments for the royal family. Noting the vast size and scope of the project, Charles de Merveilleux, a Swiss nobleman living in Portugal in 1726, remarked that "King John has decided to build a second Escorial."[68]
With the new plans for a palatial complex, the project at Mafra, entrusted to royal architect João Frederico Ludovice, became much more than a fulfillment of a religious promise, but rather a demonstration of monarchical power and wealth.[68] By 1729, 15,470 workers from throughout Portugal and its colonies were contributing to the construction of the palace, alongside a total of 6,124 infantrymen and cavalrymen, making a total of 21,594 persons involved in the building process and site that year.[69] While the majority of the palace was completed by 1730, John was so consumed in completing the project that he decreed it mandatory for all inhabitants of the villages of Mafra and Ericeira to work at the palace, requiring an excused permission not to participate, and only under extraordinary circumstances.[68] In regard to the exuberant cost of the palatial complex, Merveilleux remarked that "three quarters of the royal treasury and nearly all of the gold brought on the fleets from Brazil were here, at Mafra, turned into stone."[70] Mafra stood as a monument to regal power, even though it would become only a pleasure palace and never a seat of authority. Patron of the artsIllness and deathJohn was afflicted with dropsy which caused his death in 1750 at age 60.[73]
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