José I of Portugal
José I ruled Portugal from 1750 to 1777, but the reign belongs to his minister, the Marquis of Pombal. Born in 1714, the son of João V, he was more interested in opera and hunting than in administration, and delegated government almost entirely. He appointed Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, later Marquis of Pombal, as secretary of state on his accession. On 1 November 1755 an earthquake estimated at magnitude 8.5 or above struck Lisbon during All Saints' Day mass, followed by a tsunami and fires that burned for days. Tens of thousands died and most of the city was destroyed. The king, who was away at Belém, developed a lifelong terror of enclosed buildings and lived thereafter in a complex of tents and wooden pavilions. Pombal's response — bury the dead, feed the living — became famous, and he rebuilt the lower city on a grid with wide streets and the first buildings anywhere designed with an anti-seismic timber cage, the gaiola. He also commissioned a questionnaire sent to every parish about the shock's duration and behaviour, which is regarded as a founding document of seismology. Pombal then used the disaster and the Távora affair — an assassination attempt on the king in 1758 — to break his opponents. The Távora family was tortured and executed publicly in 1759, and the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal and its empire that year, the first Catholic state to do so. He abolished slavery in mainland Portugal, ended the legal distinction between Old and New Christians, and reformed the universities and the treasury. José died in 1777.
- Lived: 1714 CE – 1777 CE
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Roles: king, head_of_state
