Pina Manique

Dom Diogo Pina Manique, right-wing police chief of Portugal in the 18th century

Dom Diogo Inácio de Pina Manique (born October 3, 1733 in Lisbon , Portugal ; † June 30, 1805 there ) was a Portuguese lawyer, police chief and Chancellor of Portugal. The Prefect, who acted with absolute severity against dissenters, was, alongside the Marques de Pombal, the most powerful man of the 18th century in Portugal.

Life

The man, who is considered to be very introverted, finished his law studies in Coimbra in 1758. He was first a criminal judge from 1758 to 1765, then from 1765 to 1774 as a tax judge for the provinces of Paraíba and Pernambuco and later also as an appeal judge. He was considered a potential successor to the Marques de Pombal.

The Office of Police Chief of Portugal

In 1781 he became Reich customs officer for sugar. In the previous year he had been appointed Imperial Police Chief of the Reich and for Overseas (Intendente-Geral de Portugal) under Queen Dona Maria da Gloria I with the status of Minister and member of the Royal Council of Portugal.

In 1780 he was the founder and since 1781 also the first boss of the first young orphanage in Portugal, which still exists today, Casa Pia . This is where the few social approaches that he later applied in relation to the support of poor farmers in the spirit of Rousseau emerged : the boys were to be taken off the streets, educated and trained in order to nip a criminal career in the bud in advance. Its task consisted in the fight against crime, moral and moral police, maintenance of public order and control of the urban population.

Smuggling, corruption and tax evasion were fought sustainably by him.

In 1791 he was given a village in his honor that he wanted to expand into the new capital of Portugal. Today the small community of Manique do Intendente with approx. 2500 inhabitants stands here .

During his tenure as police chief, he also acted mercilessly and cruelly against those who thought differently. The country and its colonies were covered with a sophisticated system of informers, betrayal and denunciation were the order of the day. He had books confiscated and artists, poets, intellectuals, free thinkers, even some Freemasons , were persecuted, arrested, tortured and not infrequently also murdered, the victims numbered in the hundreds, some went into exile. Pina Manique showed himself above all as a loyal protector of the crown, nobility and clergy, protected absolutism and stifled any suspicion of enlightenment and liberalism in the course of the French Revolution . One of the poets persecuted was the poet Alcipe , who came into the focus of Pina Manique's police through the establishment of the secret society "Sociedade de Rosa" and had to leave the country and went into exile. Through him, the ideas of the Enlightenment in Portugal could not spread and prevail. Some of these effects can still be felt in Portugal to a lesser extent.

In 1801 he was given the official title of "Intendente-Geral do Rei" (royal police chief); In 1803 he became the newly created office holder of the Imperial Chancellor of Portugal and Overseas, in fact head of government and the second most powerful man in the empire after Queen Maria. In the same year he lost all offices at the instigation of Napoleon Bonaparte .

In 1805 he died in Lisbon of complications from cancer.

Honors

The Lisbon district of Intendente is named after him, and there is also a football stadium and a subway station in Lisbon that bear his name. In Azambuja and Oeiras streets are named after him, in Lisbon a square. The place Manique do Intendente bears his name.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Manique, Pina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Manique, Dom Diogo Inácio de Pina (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Portuguese lawyer, police prefect (police president) and chancellor of Portugal
DATE OF BIRTH	October 3, 1733
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lisbon , Portugal
DATE OF DEATH	June 30, 1805
Place of death	Lisbon , Portugal