José Lúcio Travassos Valdez

José Lúcio Travassos Valdez , since 1835 first baron, since 1838 first Count of Bonfim ( Conde do Bonfim ) (born February 23, 1787 in Elvas , † July 10, 1862 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese statesman and politician from the time of the monarchy. He was Portuguese Prime Minister from 1839 to 1841 , and he was also Minister for Foreign Affairs , War and the Navy. Politically he was close to the Setembrists .

The Count of Bonfim

Life

In his youth, the future Count von Bonfim studied law at the University of Coimbra and from 1808 took part in the Portuguese uprising against the Napoleonic occupation of his country. He served as a volunteer under Gomes Freire de Andrade and took part in the battles of Roliça (August 17, 1808) and Vimeiro (August 21, 1808) against the French. Even after the expulsion of the French and the Liberal Revolution in Portugal , Bonfim remained in the Portuguese army. As a loyal supporter of the liberals and constitutionalists, he had to act as Prince Michael in 1824 against his father Johann VI. the absolutism wanted to introduce, briefly after Spain dodge and was governor from 1827 Madeira appointed. There he was surprised by Michael’s putsch against his niece Maria II in 1828 and the absolutists coming to power in Portugal. Bonfim refused to recognize Michael as the new ruler of Portugal and was initially able to prevent a new governor appointed by Michael from taking office in Madeira. After that, however, he had to bow to the superior force when the Miguelists sent warships to Madeira, and on August 16, 1828 he went into exile in London .

In 1832, after the outbreak of the Miguelist War, he went to the Azores island of Terceira and submitted to the troops of the future Duke of Terceira . As a close collaborator of Terceira and Saldanha, he took part in the battles of the Miguelist War and was seriously injured on September 5, 1833 while defending Lisbon.

Due to his political fondness for the Setembrists and also because of his injury, he retired from the army after the end of the Miguelist War (Portugal had been ruled by the Cartists since the end of the war in 1834 ). In 1836, the Setembrists had taken power after the September Revolution, he returned to active service, was appointed a member of the Constituent Cortes for Leiria in 1837 , helped the Marquis of Sá da Bandeira to put down cartist uprisings and appeared as a naval and Minister of War into the government. Between 1839 and 1840 he was a simple member of parliament, in 1840 he was appointed head of government by Queen Maria II. At the same time he took over the war, naval and foreign ministries. The government of the Count of Bonfim is known as the last Setembrist government in the country, but he has already had to accept that the Queen named António Bernardo da Costa Cabral, a leading Cartist, as Minister of the Interior, who practically acted as a Cartist “watchdog” at his cabinet table. In 1841 the Bonfim government failed and Joaquim António de Aguiar was his successor.

After Costa Cabral took power through a coup d'état in 1842, suspended the Setembrist constitution and reinstated the constitutional charter , Bonfim used his seat in the upper house, to which he was entitled because of his nobility, to oppose Costa Cabral and the Cartists . In 1844 he led an uprising against Costa Cabral (uprising of Torres Novas), which failed, however, and Bonfim had to go into exile in Spain. In 1846, after the uprising of Maria da Fonte , which temporarily put an end to Costa Cabral's rule, he returned to Portugal.In the civil war that followed, he submitted to the Setembrist counter-government in Porto , but was captured by the Cartists and exiled to Angola . After the civil war ended, Bonfim was allowed to return to Portugal, where he stayed until his death and stayed away from politics.

The Count von Bonfim was married once and had two children.

See also

• History of Portugal , chronological table of the history of Portugal

Web links

• Genealogical entry at www.geneall.net (German)
• Entry in the Infopédia , the online encyclopedia of the Porto Editora (port.)

predecessor	Office	successor
Rodrigo Pinto Pizarro Pimentel de Almeida Carvalhais	Prime Minister of Portugal 1839 - 1841	Joaquim Antonio de Aguiar