Description

In the early 1750s, the new King of Portugal, José I (reigned, 1750-77), found that there were serious limitations upon his authority.  The country’s great noble families enjoyed many privileges and prerogatives that would normally be under royal auspices in other European countries.  Additionally, the Jesuit Order had also amassed immense wealth and power, in both Brazil and Metropolitan Portugal, and showed little respect for the king.  José I was known to be frustrated by this state of affairs, yet the nobility and Jesuits were so deeply entrenched in the country’s culture and institutions that that is seemed impossible to turn the tide.

A catalyst for radical change come in an unexpected form.  The Great Lisbon Earthquake (November 1, 1755) levelled the Portuguese capital, killing 60,000 people.  The destruction was so sudden and so extreme that many felt it to be a sign from God.  Rebuilding Lisbon promised to be a monumental task, one that could only be achieved by a strong central government.  Portugal was in such shock and disarray that many vested powers were too distracted to pay attention to what was about the transpire.

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (1699 – 1782; from 1759, known as the 1^st Count of Oeiras; from 1769, the 1^st Marquis of Pombal), José I’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and War (who would be elevated to Prime Minister in 1756), was an exceedingly clever, ambitious and competent man, who believed that Portugal should have a absolutist monarchy (with him as the prime mover).  He confidently took charge of a Portugal in crisis, and even his harshest critics agreed that he did a masterly job at rebuilding Lisbon, before embarking upon radical economic reforms to restore prosperity to the Portuguese Empire.  In the process, De Melo gained tremendous power – but it was not yet absolute.

De Melo despised the high nobility, not only because they were his natural political rivals, but also due the fact that they had always looked down upon him, as he hailed from relatively modest circumstances (his father was an inconsequential country squire).  He also harboured a deep dislike of the Jesuits, who were an impediment to his reform agenda.  De Melo, while loyal to the king, was hellbent of gaining absolute power and was determined to employ any means necessary to achieve this objective.

Once again, an unexpected event gave De Melo the opportunity he needed.

King José I was carrying on a barely concealed affair with Marquise Teresa Leonor de de Távora, the wife of Luis Bernardo, heir of the Távora family, one of the preeminent noble houses of Portugal.  The head of the Távoras was Francisco de Assis de Távora (1703-1759), Marquis of Távora, Count of Alvor, who had served as the Viceroy of Portuguese India (in office, 1750-4).  Awkwardly, Leonor de Távora, Francisco’s wife, and the matriarch the family, was Sebastião de Melo’s arch-nemesis, leading a brutal whispering campaign against the ’uneducated upstart’.

On the night of September 3, 1758, José I was riding in his carriage outside of Lisbon on the way back from a rendezvous with the Marquise Teresa Leonor, heading towards the bizarre tent city in Ajuda that housed the royal court (since the earthquake, the king had a pathological fear of sleeping inside buildings).  Suddenly, two or three assailants fell upon the slow-moving carriage, firing shots that wounded the king in the right arm, while severely injuring his driver.  The king made is back to Ajuda, while the assailants remained in the wind.

José I was incandescent with rage and ordered De Melo to employ all the state’s resources to hunt down the perpetrators.  The Prime Minster was only too happy to oblige.  He kept the assassination attempt out of the media and moved like lightening to arrest over a thousand people, torturing many to ‘gain the truth’.

Notably, De Melo was apparently informed of two men who, under torture, admitted that they had attempted to kill the king on the orders of the Távoras (they were then promptly hanged).  This allowed De Melo to ‘solve’ the case, as he formally accused the Távora family of planning the attempted regicide.  He pointed out that only the Távoras could possibly have known about the king’s whereabouts on that night (via the Marquise Teresa Leonor), and that they had motive.  José I did not have a son (he had four daughters), and should he have been assassinated, the crown would go to a male relative, although the line of succession was somewhat ambiguous.  As it happened, the prime candidate to take the throne would have been José de Mascarenhas da Silva e Lancastre, 8^th Duke of Aveiro (1708-1759), who was closely linked by blood and friendship to the Távoras.

Francisco de Assis de Távora, the Marchioness Leonor, and their two sons, daughters, and grandchildren were incarcerated.  The Duke of Aveiro and the Távoras’ sons-in-law, the Marquis of Alorna and the Count of Atouguia, were also apprehended and jailed, along with their families.  As would prove consequential later, Marchioness Leonor’s Jesuit confessor, Gabriel Malagrida, was also detained.

De Melo set up a sham trial for the Távoras, on the charges of high treason and attempted regicide, that violated all judicial norms and precedents.  The prime minister claimed that the Távoras orchestrated a vast conspiracy to kill José I and replace him with the Duke of Aveiro.  In addition to the supposed motive and the fact that the Távoras had special knowledge of the king’s whereabouts on the night in question, a murder weapon, of dubious provenance, was produced.

José I, still furious beyond words, wanted almost every single member of the Távora, Aveiro Alorna and Atouguia families, including women and children, to be executed, but the intervention of the queen and his daughter Maria caused him to limit the death penalty to only the ‘ringleaders’.  Ten of the accused, being the four Távoras, the Duke of Aveiro, the Marquis of Alorna and the Count of Atouguia and three servants were thus convicted and sentenced to death (an additional culprit had fled the country and would be executed in effigy).

The estates of the convicted nobles were confiscated, while their palaces in Lisbon were levelled to the ground and the earth salted.

For revenge and to send a message, José I wanted the condemned to be publicly tortured and killed in the most brutal medieval fashion possible.  As the was no longer permitted by law, a special court, the Junta da Inconfidência, was created to authorize such punishments.

The execution took place in Belém (the port to the west of Lisbon), on January 13, 1759, and the scene was one of the most horrific spectacles of the Enlightenment age (as will be vividly described below).  Notably, José I insisted that every member of the royal court and the (remaining) heads of all the leading noble families were present to witness the killings, in addition to large crown of the common public.

Following the execution, the Távora house was declared Damnatio memoriae, such that every sign of it ever having existed was destroyed and the mere mention of the name was outlawed.

The massacre at Belém horrified all the noble families of Portugal, as well as close members of the king’s court and even his own family.  José I’s daughter, Maria, was so traumatized by the event that it permanently ruined her relationship with her father, while giving her a deep hatred of De Melo.

The executions were a huge political success for De Melo, as they allowed him to assume almost absolute power over Portugal and its empire.  The event decapitated (in some cases literally!) four of the country’s leading noble houses, while terrifying all the remaining lords into meekly giving way to the prime minister.

De Melo next turned towards getting rid of his other bête noire – the Jesuits.  He claimed that the Jesuits (with Father Gabriel Malagrida, Marchioness Leonor’s confessor as its agent; he would be executed in 1761) were behind the Távora plot, hoping to replace José I with a ruler who was more comfortable with allowing the Jesuits to maintain their awesome wealth and power, especially in Brazil.  This accusation was absurd, as while certain isolated Jesuits may possibly have been involved in the plot, it is highly unlikely that the Pope’s own monastic order would go so far as to endorse the murder of the King of Portugal.

In any event, later in 1759, De Melo, backed by the Jesuits’ many enemies in the country’s firmament, managed to abolish the Order throughout the Portuguese Empire, forcing its members into exile.  This freed up vast resources for the state, so increasing De Mello’s authority even further.

The Jesuits were also deeply unpopular at the courts of other European nations, and Portugal’s example was used to progressively abolish the order in most parts of the world, a process known as the ‘Suppression of the Society of Jesus’.  France banned the Jesuits in 1764, followed by Spain in 1767, while the Holy See folded the Order in 1773 (the Jesuits would survive in a few places, and would make a comeback after the Napoleonic Wars).

Maria, José I’s eldest daughter, became queen in 1777.  Personally close to the high nobility and still traumatized by the execution of the Távoras & Co, she immediately banished the Marquis de Pombal (De Melo) from court and fired anyone who ever had anything to do with what she saw as a great miscarriage of justice.  After launching an investigation, she formally rehabilitated the Távora family in 1781.

The circumstances surrounding the attempted assassination of José I remain a deeply controversial topic even to the present day.  Many feel that the Távoras & Co. were completely innocent and were set up by De Melo.  The fact that they seemed to have been genuinely surprised upon being accused supports this.  However, others claim that perhaps some of the suspected nobles were in some way involved, although few believe that the attempted regicide was part of the sprawling conspiracy of many nobles and the Jesuits, as De Melo claimed.  The full truth will likely never be known.

In any event, the Távora Affair was extremely consequential, not only to Portugal but to the world.  It enabled De Melo to centralize power and to implement his Enlightenment reforms which reinvigorated the Portuguese Empire, allowing it to survive into the 19^th century.  It also set in motion the circumstances that led to the Suppression of the Jesuits internationally, which had a profound impact upon the history of many nations, particularly in Latin America.

The Manuscript in Focus

 

The present manuscript is a valuable and historically significant artifact of the Távora Affair, being an illustrated and highly detailed contemporary account of the spectacle.  The title, which roughly translates as “Report of the Punishment carried out in Lisbon on January 13, 1759 against the Perpetrators of the Horrific Attack committed against the Sacred Person of King Dn. Joseph the 1st. on the night of September 3, 1758, two blunderbuss shots were fired at him… he obtained special protection from God, but they wounded his arm dangerously”.

 

Written by an anonymous writer and dated “Lisbon, 16 January 1759” (only three days after the executions), due to its meticulousness and style, it has the feel of being an original eyewitness account of the executions, and of some of the events that followed (ex. church services attended by the king).  Indeed, it does not seem to closely match any account of the affair of which we are aware, and the manuscript is certainly worthy of serious academic research.

 

The manuscript is written in the Spanish language, which is not surprising, as there were many Spanish people, including several VIPS, who attended the execution of the Távoras, etc.  Lisbon was home to a large Spanish community that included diplomats, merchants and Spanish nobles who had married into top Portuguese families; José I’s wife was Mariana Victoria of Spain, Infanta of Spain.

 

The document features a fine illustration of the execution scaffold in Belém, noting where each of the condemned was executed, amongst a host of torture equipment.  There are then vivid descriptions of how each person was tortured and executed, including Marquis Francisco de Assis de Távora and Marchioness Leonor; their sons, José Maria de Távora and Luís Bernardo de Távora; José de Mascarenhas, the Duke of Aveiro; Jerónimo de Ataíde, Count of Atouguia; Manuel Alvares Ferreira (the Guard of the Duke of Aveiro); Brás José Romeiro (the Corporal of the Squadron of the Company of the Marquis de Távora); João Miguel (a boy servant of the Duke of Aveiro); while José Policarpo de Azevedo (who was not present, as he was a fugitive) was burned in effigy.  The work concludes with a description of the events that occurred in the immediate wake of the executions.

 

Turning to the image of the executions, it shows the large scaffold where the spectacle occurred, near the shore of the Tagus River in Belém, surrounded by positions designated for security, officials and onlookers.  It has a diffident perspective and detailing than the other contemporary images of the event we have consulted.  Below the view is a key that identifies 20 aspects of the event, including where and how each of the condemned was executed.  It roughly translates as follows:

 

1. Stock where Francisco de Assis de Távora, the ‘Old Marquis’ of Távora was slaughtered.

 

2. Wheel where the broken body of José Maria de Távora was exposed.

 

3. Wheel of Jerónimo de Ataíde, Count of Atoguia.

 

4. Wheel of Luís Bernardo de Távora, Marquis of Távora.

 

5. Wheel of the Servant of the Marquis of Távora.

 

6. Wheel of the Servant of the Duke of Aveiro.

 

7. Wheel of the Chief of Távora’s Henchmen.

 

8. Wheel of the Marquis of Távora.

 

9. Wheel of José de Mascarenhas (1708-59), Duke of Aveiro.

 

10. Site of where the Duke of Aveiro’s hunt master who shot the King was executed.

 

11. Site of the Statue that also burned, being the effigy of the fugitive José Policarpo de Azevedo.

 

12. Bench where the Garrotte was given to the Count of Atoguia.

 

13. Place where the Criminals were beaten, and where their bones were broken.

 

14. The King’s Stand from where Leonora was led to the scaffold.

 

15. Path where they went to the Scaffold.

 

16. Site occupied by the judicial officers mounted on horseback.

 

17. Place occupied by the Infantry.

 

18. Place occupied by the Cavalry.

 

19. Pier, and the banks of the Tagus River.

 

20. The Belém Beach occupied by the people witnessing the torture.

 

Turning to the text (which begins on p. 2), it roughly translates (with some modest abridgement) as follows:

 

“On the 13th of the current month of January [1759], a scaffold of an unusual size, its height being 5 Varas, and its scale very capacious, appeared between the Palace of Belém and the Tajo riverbank in the place called the Belém Dock, before the Palace, to create a very capacious square on the front, and on the side [for] the troops of Infantry, and Cavalry…

 

1st. When the morning clock struck, the first Person who went up to the Theatre to represent the greatest tragedy that has visited Portugal, was called the Mother of Távora… she was taken… up to the scaffolding ladder in a hand chair accompanied by two Missionary Clerics… from the congregation of San Vicente de Paulo who went to her to hear her confession… before they gave Holy Communion… This lady appeared on the scaffolding dressed in a Blue dress… with her hair cut, her hands tied and a gag in her mouth, so that she would not speak to the people, but she manifested in her countenance and in her actions her courageousness,  and although she chose to express some of her grimaces, seeming more out of spite than her life depended on feeling… so that [the executioner] would do his job well, [she gave him] The coins that she had in her pocket… kneeling in front of a crucifix… the missionaries… made several acts of Christian piety, while from the stage the following proclamation was made: This is the Justice that the King our Lord ordered to be done to this woman who was the Marchioness of Távora for the Crime of Treason… this formality was practiced with each of the Condemned… Once the proclamation was concluded, the 3 Blessings were said for those who assisted in carrying out the punishments… [they] laid the Marchioness on a stock where one of them with a single blow took of her head… [he then] covered the body with a black cloth to avoid the pain of this sight to those who followed… (p. 3).

 

2. The second one who appeared on the Scaffold was Joseph Maria de Távora, second son, Snr. Captain of Horses, and the greatest Admirer of his Father, a very Gentle Young Man, and in the prime of his youth, at the age of 30 years who, after he ascended, was tied to the Aspa which was in this form of an ‘X’.

 

3. The first Count of Atioguia, and the most ancient count of the Kingdom, followed; he died while applied to the Garrotte, but not on an Aspa but rather entangled, embroiled, and after death he was spread out on the floor of the Scaffold where with the Mace of Terror his bones were broken…

 

4. The young Marquis of Távora followed, who exclaimed in a loud voice, that an Innocent was going to die, he was given the same death as the previous person and therefore he received the blows of the Mace on his legs, arms and head.

 

5. Manuel Alvarez, Chamber Assistant to the Duke of Aveiro [went next].

 

6. A Corporal from the Squad of Knights, who assisted the Old Távora [died next].

 

7. Another Servant… went up to the stage, [and was subjected to the] Garrotte [and the] Aspa was given to him, breaking [his] legs, arms, and chest, like the others, and… for being doubly a traitor to the King… they passed over his body a pear-shaped wheel in a [Key shape], crushing all his bones.

 

8. The Old Marquis of Távora’s… Head of Guard… was beaten on the Wheel of Terror; his legs, arms, knees, and chest were broken, so he died.

 

9. They then brought the Duke of Aveiro of whom it is said that at the time of him being arrested… [exclaimed] I am going to die innocent!… As soon as he arrived at the foot of the scaffold ladder… no matter how much the priests admonished him, and gave him advice, there was no way to calm him; The Blesseds had grabbed him by his arms, and made him look Alive, from where he looked at all parts of himself, as if asking for help, in a gesture as if he wanted to speak, which the gag did not allow. He was briefly stretched out on the Aspa, and his body was drained the same way as with the old Marquis of Távora… (p. 4).

 

10. The last Actor in this tragic scene was a guard of the Duke of Aveiro… [who had] shot the King in a horrible action that he confessed during torture… [he was] tied to a post and burned alive…

 

11. …the supposed Effigy of the other servant of the Duke of Aveiro (who was the other one who shot the King) who had disappeared… [to] England…was burned.

 

Once the executions were over, the Scaffold was… [poured over with] barrels of Tar… rum was poured on all the Corpses… [and they were] burned… a quarter of them died without having asked God for mercy, and with the ligatures on their hands burned… [eventually] the Scaffold was burning everywhere… [and then] In a short space [of time] everything was reduced to mourning… and everything was left empty late into the night.

 

The Delinquents who had gotten up from speaking on the stage or Scaffold desired consolation, being well prepared to die, very resigned in the will of God, confessing that they deserved that Punishment, and crying out for forgiveness from God, the king and the People… (p. 5).

 

It was noted in the innumerable crowd that… this horrific spectacle was shown in such a great silence that no one missed the exhortations of the missionaries… and the sound of the blows that spilled over the [condemned]…

 

All the Senior Fidalgos… attended court at the Palace… the King and his entire Family [received them] from 8 in the morning until 8 at night without eating… as many masses as could be said were made for the Souls of the Executed, and at the same time day, and two following days the order was applied in all the Churches of Lisbon…

 

Many ministers of justice, and the Inspectors of the Neighborhoods of Lisbon walked around all that day with their officers, and troops prowling the streets, to suppress any minor desires that could stir up anger among the people… [but the city] remained completely calm.

 

The Houses of the Pigs must be raised…  they will be replaced by stone pedestals with inscriptions, which will perpetuate in the memory for posterity of their enormous betrayal, and the punishment that they suffered, having the King ordered by his special Decree, which is to completely extinguish in the Kingdom the surname of Távora.

 

Many people remain prisoners, with several others accused of the Crime of Treason, it is assured that there will be yet another execution of a greater number of accomplices: in the end, there has never been a tragedy this sad in Portugal.

 

In Lisbon, Te Deums were sung for the preservation of the Monarchy every day, with the religious communities competing: The Courts, the Brotherhoods, and officials… with more pomp and magnificence, and in all the towns of the Kingdom… accompanied by solemn processions, fires, lights, and other profane ceremonies.

 

On Sunday, January 14, following the execution, the King publicly came out for the first time, and attended a thanksgiving party in the Church of Our Lady… and at San Amaro and in the streets… [he received the] repeated cheers and acclamation of his People in demonstration of Jubilation… in San Amaro… the movement of his right arm was noticed several times, it was placed most of the time on his breast, causing the Left hand to become weak, which indicates that the injured arm was not completely healthy.

 

…His Majesty and his family left for the Sabla Tierra Palace, 12 Leagues from Lisbon, for the air, and to get away from the sad scene for a few months.

 

The Schools of the [Jesuit] Company have maintained their Guards since the day the conspirators were arrested… [several Jesuit fathers] were driven at night in buggies, surrounded by troops of Knights, and the motive for [holding] these prisoners is still unknown…

 

…the brother of the Old Marquis, the Colonel of Cavalry, has also been imprisoned… [as well as] eight sons of Don Manuel de Távora, Prosecutor of the Treasury, who was also arrested before.

 

Finally, many prisoners are still expected [to be punished], being all those who were dependent on the executed, and Portugal will have the entire world talking about it for the rest of this year.”

 

References: N/A – Unique manuscript seemingly unrecorded.