D. Leonor de Almeida Portugal

Franz Joseph Pitschmann, portrait by Dona Leonor de Almeida Portugal, Marquesa de Alorna, Vienna, 1780.

Dona Leonor de Almeida Portugal de Lorena e Lencastre, Marquesa de Alorna , (born  October 31, 1750 in São Jorge de Arroios , Lisbon , †  October 11, 1839 in Lisbon) was a Portuguese nobleman and poet.

She was known as a prominent figure in the intellectual and literary circles of the Portuguese neoclassical under her pseudonym, Alcipe .

D. Leonor de Almeida Portugal, Marquesa de Alorna, came from the noble house of Távora on his mother's side. This was one of the most famous and influential noble families in Portugal in the 18th century.

The Távoras were held responsible for the attempted regicide of King Joseph I on September 3, 1758.

Life

Early life and captivity

Dona Leonor was the eldest of the three children of Don João de Almeida Portugal, 2nd Marquis of Alorna and 4th Count of Assumar and Dona Leonor de Lorena e Távora. She was the granddaughter of the Marquises of Távora, who were publicly executed in 1759 on suspicion of participating in the assassination attempt on King Joseph I. Dona Leonor survived the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 .

As a result of the assassination, her father, Don João de Almeida Portugal, was thrown in a jail in Junqueira on December 13, 1758 , although he was never officially charged with a crime. Dona Leonor, as well as her mother and sister, Dona Maria Rita, were imprisoned on September 14, 1758 in the monastery of São Félix de Chelas.

Correspondence in captivity

Around 1763 there was a forbidden and secret correspondence between D. João and his wife D. Leonor de Lorena e Távora, which was then spread to the daughters. These letters document how D. Leonor, guided by her father's advice, developed her personality and devoted herself to literature and the learning of languages ​​such as French, Italian, English, Latin and Arabic as well as the art of painting and music. D. Leonor wrote oden, idylls and other lyrical works in the monastery. The many correspondence also records how the forbidden books circulated in 18th century Portugal.

During her time in the monastery, D. Leonor was visited by prominent authors such as D. Teresa de Mello Breyner, Countess of Vimeiro or Franscisco Manuel do Nascimento, also known as Filinto Elísio, who gave her the pseudonym Alcipe. These spread their texts in the literary circles of the time, and so D. Leonor's talent for poetry became known during her captivity.

In 1777, following the death of Joseph I, D. Leonor's entire family was freed from captivity, following the pardon Queen D. Maria I granted political prisoners. The Marquises of Alorna were declared innocent and their noble privileges restored.

marriage

In 1778 Dona Leonor decides to marry the German, Lutheran Count von Oeynhausen , against the wishes of her father . He gives up his Lutheran faith at a baptism ceremony on February 15, 1778, in which Queen D. Maria I and King D. Pedro III were godparents.

The couple married in February 1779 and moved to Porto , where the Count of Oeynhausen held a military position until 1780. Their eldest daughter, D. Leonor Benedita, who later married the 6th Marquis of Fronteira, was born here. Thanks to D. Leonor's relationship with the Queen, her husband was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of Vienna , where they moved in 1780.

Life in Vienna

In Vienna, the Countess von Oeynhausen was a highly respected person in aristocratic circles. The Pope Pius VI , the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and the Portuguese musician Abade Costa are some of the people with whom she had relationships. D. Leoor was awarded the Star Cross by Emperor Joseph II .

Her correspondence with the Countess von Vimeiro during her time in Vienna describes frequent visits to Viennese salons and a friendship with the Countess von Thun-Hohenstein . Their integration in the high aristocratic circles of the city is confirmed by the fact that the name of Count von Oeynhausen is on the list of subscribers to the concerts of Wolfgang A. Mozart in 1784.

Between 1780 and 1784 three more children were born to D. Leonor and the Count of Oeynhausen: Maria Regina, Frederica and Juliana, who died shortly after her first birthday.

Move to France

In 1784 D. Leonor moves with her family to Avignon , France. Between 1784 and 1786 D. Leonor gave birth to two more children: Mário Calors Augusto, who died at the age of 4, and Henriqueta. The Oeynhausen family spent 6 years in the south of France and returned to Portugal in 1790.

Return to Portugal

After returning to Portugal in 1790, two more children were born: Ulrico and Luísa. The Count of Oeynhausen was appointed military governor of the Algarve , a position he never held since he died on March 3, 1793.

Widowhood and exile

After the death of her husband, Dona Leonor withdrew to the family residences and devoted herself to raising her children.

Between 1793 and 1802 she maintained literary exchanges with some poets of the Academia de Belas Letras, also known as Nova Arcádia , such as Francisco Joaquim Bingre. She also had a friendship with Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage , who dedicated Volume III to her in 1804.

In 1801 D. Leonor was the maid of honor to the Queen D. Carlota Joaquina appointed. The following year she was officially invited to propose the subjects that should regulate the decoration of the Ajuda Palace.

On October 6, 1802, D. Leonor was intimidated by police chief Pina Manique into leaving the country. The reasons for this are still unclear, but it is believed that this is related to D. Leonor's founding of the secret association Sociedade da Rosa .

D. Leonor spent the period from 1803 to 1814 in exile. She lived in Spain until 1804, and then in England, where she was active in political circles.

On July 1, 1814, some time after the death of her brother on January 2, 1813, she returned to Portugal. Dona Leonor's brother was the supreme commander of the Portuguese Legion , which was integrated into the Napoleonic army. He had been convicted of infidelity.

Dona Leonor succeeded in reversing the sentence and regaining the nobility titles of Marquis of Alorna and Count of Assumar, which she could claim as her brother's only heir.

Prominence

After returning from England, D. Leonor took a central position in prominent circles of intellectuals in Lisbon.

She had financial difficulties until the end of her life and therefore spent time in her residences in Almada and with her grandson, Marquis of Fronteira, in the palace of São Domingos de Benfica , where she was visited by prominent literary figures.

D. Leonor became the central figure in the capital's literary gatherings and served as a mediator between poets of different generations who saw D. Leonor's advice as a sign of prestige and legitimacy.

plant

In her lifetime the Marquesa de Alorna only published translations:

• Poética de Horácio e Ensaio sobre a Crítica de Alexandre Pope por uma portugueza, Londres, T. Harper, 1812.
• De Bonaparte e dos Bourbons, Lisboa, Imprensa Régia, 1814
• Paraphrase a vários psalmos , Lisboa, Imprensa Régia, 1817
• Ensaio sobre a indifferença em matéria de religiousão, Lisboa, Imprensa Régia, 1820
• Paraphrase dos Psalmos , tomo I, Lisboa, Imprensa Régia, 1833

In 1844, five years after the death of D. Leonor, their daughters Henriqueta and Frederica published their poetry in a publication:

• [ALORNA, Marquesa de], Obras Poeticas de D. Leonor d'Almeida Portugal Lorena e Lencastre, Marqueza d'Alorna, Condessa d'Assumar e d'Oeynhausen, conhecida entre os poetas portuguezes pello nome de Alcipe, 6 vols., Lisboa , Na Imprensa Nacional, 1844.

D. Leonor's work serves as a source of information on the aesthetic parameters that guided Portuguese poetry in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.

On a stylistic level, practices that were influenced by the reform vision of the poets of Arcádia Lusitana converge with other older formal options that would be taken up in later years by the poets of the Academia de Belas Letras (1789), such as improvisation in "redondilha "Stanzas and the" acbc " cross rhyme scheme .

The Marquesa de Alorna was influenced by the Enlightenment and understands poetic practice as an activity of moral and educational benefit. In her work she makes numerous references to the scientific innovations, such as B. in statements about the compatibility of Catholic faith and natural laws.

She is described as a pre-romantic lyric poet , as her lyric self is portrayed as being haunted by misfortune and her descriptions of nature are melancholy and eerie. Death, night, illness, pain and tears are common motifs in her poetry.

Her work is shaped by a worldview based on the civilizational parameters of the Enlightenment , which regards reason and virtue as units, which sees affection and poetry as an activity in the service of the educational ideal of education for citizenship.

reception

Appearance in historical novels:

• Maria João Lopo de Carvalho, Marquesa de Alorna. Oficina do Livro: Lisbon 2011.
• Maria Teresa Horta, As Luzes de Leonor. Dom Quixote: Lisbon 2011.

In addition, the Palácio of São Domingos de Benfica , where she partly lived in her later years, is still the residence of her descendants today and can be visited.

swell

1. ALVIM , Maria Helena Villas Boas e, "The Marquise de Alorna 1750–1839: from the Enlightener sur Agent of the Counter-Revolution" Review of the Iberian Peninsula , nº 15 June 1989, pp. 32–35.
2. ANASTÁCIO , Vanda "Leonor de Almeida's report on the death of Maria Theresa. A Portuguese perspective on female rule" in .: Thomas Wallnig (ed.) Maria Theresa? New perspectives for research. The Eighteenth Century and Austria. Yearbook of the Austrian Society for Research in the Eighteenth Century, Bochum, Dr. Dieter Winkler Verlag, vol. 32, 2017, pp. 135-147
3. ANASTÁCIO , Vanda, Sonetos da Marquesa de Alorna , Rio de Janeiro, Editora 7Letras, 2008.
4. ANASTÁCIO , Vanda (coord.), Cartas de Lília e Tirse (1771-1777), Lisboa, Fundação das Casas de Fronteira e Alorna - Colibri, 2007.
5. CIDADE , Hernâni, Inéditos, Cartas e outros Escritos , Lisboa, Sá da Costa, 1941.
6. CIDADE , Hernâni, Poesias , Lisboa, Sá da Costa, 1960.
7. COSTA , Palmira Fontes da, “Women and the Popularization of Botany in Early Nineteenth-Century Portugal: The Marquesa de Alorna's Botanical Recreations”, in Faidra Papanelopoulou, Agustí Nieto-Galan and Enrique Perdiguero (eds.), Popularization of Science and Technology in the European Periphery ( Ashgate, 2009), pp. 43-63.
8. DELILLE , Manuela, “To the beginnings of the Stael reception in Portuguese literature” in .: Udo Schöning & Frank Seemann (eds.) Madame de Staël and the internationality of European romanticism. Case studies on intercultural networking , Göttingen, Wallstein Verlag, 2003, 51–73.
9. ERHARDT, Marion "The Marquesa de Alorna and German literature" Essays on Portuguese cultural history , 10 volume 1970, edited by Hans Bottle (Portuguese research of the Görres Society, first row) Münster, Aschendorff, pp. 89-97.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Vanda Anastácio: Marquesa de Alorna, Obras Poéticas. Antologia. Ed .: Vanda Anastácio. Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, Lisbon 2015, ISBN 978-972-27-2362-6 , p. 3 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Vanda Anastácio: D. Leonor de Almeida Portugal Lorena e Lencastre . In: Zília Osório de Castro, António Ferreira de Sousa (ed.): Dicionário no Feminino (séculos XIX-XX) . Livros Horizonte, Lisbon 2005, ISBN 972-24-1368-6 , pp. 506 .
3. ^ Vanda Anastácio: Marquesa de Alorna, Obras Poéticas. Antologia . Ed .: Vanda Anastácio. Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, Lisbon 2015, p. 4 .
4. ^ ^{A b} Vanda Anastácio: D. Leonor de Almeida Portugal Lorena e Lencastre . In: Zília Osório de Castro, António Ferreira de Sousa (ed.): Dicionário no Feminino (séculos XIX-XX) . Livros Horizonte, Lisbon 2005, ISBN 972-24-1368-6 , pp. 504 .
5. ^ ^{A b} Vanda Anastácio: Marquesa de Alorna, Obras Poéticas. Antologia . Ed .: Vanda Anastácio. Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, Lisbon 2015, ISBN 978-972-27-2362-6 , p. 4 .