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José I of Portugal

Joseph I
Portrait of Joseph Emanuel, King of Portugal (1773) - Miguel António do Amaral.png
Portrait of King D. José I;
Miguel António do Amaral, 1773.
King of Portugal and the Algarves
Reign 31 July 1750 – 24 February 1777
Acclamation 8 September 1750, Lisbon
Predecessor John V
Successors Maria I and Peter III
Born 6 June 1714
Ribeira Palace, Lisbon, Portugal
Died 24 February 1777(1777-02-24) (aged 62)
Sintra Palace, Sintra, Portugal
Burial Pantheon of the Braganzas
Spouse Mariana Victoria of Spain
Issue Maria I, Queen of Portugal
Infanta Mariana Francisca
Infanta Doroteia
Benedita, Princess of Brazil
Dynasty Braganza
Father John V of Portugal
Mother Maria Anna of Austria
Religion Roman Catholicism
Signature Joseph I's signature

Joseph I (Portuguese: José I, Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ], 6 June 1714 – 24 February 1777), "The Reformer" (Portuguese: "o Reformador"), was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 31 July 1750 until his death. Among other activities, Joseph was devoted to hunting and the opera. Indeed, he assembled one of the greatest collections of operatic scores in Europe.

Joseph was the third child of King John V of Portugal and his wife Maria Anna of Austria. Joseph had an older brother Pedro, an older sister Barbara and three younger brothers. At the death of his elder brother, who died at the age of two in 1714, Joseph became Prince of Brazil as the heir apparent of the king, and Duke of Braganza.

On 19 January 1729, Joseph married the Spanish Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese, and his elder sister Barbara of Portugal married the future Ferdinand VI of Spain. Mariana Victoria loved music and hunting, just like her husband, but she was also a serious woman who disapproved of the king's love affairs and did not hesitate to expose them to acquaintances.

Joseph succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1750, when he was 36 years old, and almost immediately placed effective power in the hands of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, better known today as the Marquess of Pombal. Indeed, the history of Joseph's reign is really that of Pombal himself. King Joseph also declared his eldest daughter Maria Francisca as the official heiress of the throne and proclaimed her Princess of Brazil. By this time, the king did not believe he would ever father a son by his queen.


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