Politician, Social Reformer. He was a 18th century Portuguese politician, who was better known by his title, the Marquis of Pombal. He effectively ruled the Portuguese Empire from 1750 to 1777 as chief minister to King José I. A liberal reformer influenced by the Age of Enlightenment, Pombal led Portugal's recovery from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and modernized the kingdom's administrative, economic, and ecclesiastical institutions. During his lengthy ministerial career, Pombal accumulated and exercised autocratic power. The son of a country squire and nephew of a prominent cleric, Pombal studied at the University of Coimbra before enlisting in the Portuguese Army, where he reached the rank of corporal. Pombal subsequently returned to academic life in Lisbon, but retired to his family's estates in 1733 after eloping with a nobleman's niece. In 1738, with his uncle's assistance, he secured an appointment as King João V's ambassador to Great Britain. In 1745, he was named ambassador to Austria and served until 1749. When José I acceded to the throne in 1750, Pombal was appointed as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Despite entrenched opposition from the hereditary Portuguese nobility, Pombal gained the king's confidence and, by 1755, was the king's de facto chief minister. Pombal secured his preeminence through his decisive management of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. He maintained public order, organized relief efforts, and supervised the capital's reconstruction in the Pombaline architectural style. Pombal was appointed as Secretary of State for Internal Affairs in 1757 and consolidated his authority during the Távora Affair of 1759, which resulted in the execution of leading members of the aristocratic party and allowed Pombal to suppress the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). He then created the basis for secular public primary and secondary schools, introduced vocational training, created hundreds of new teaching posts, added departments of mathematics and natural sciences to the University of Coimbra, and introduced new taxes to pay for these reforms. In 1759, José I granted Pombal the title of Count of Oeiras and, in 1769, that of Marquis of Pombal. A leading "estrangeirado" strongly influenced by his observations of British commercial and domestic policy, Pombal implemented sweeping commercial reforms, establishing a system of companies and guilds governing each industry. These efforts included the demarcation of the Douro wine region, created to regulate the production and trade of port wine. In foreign policy, although Pombal desired to decrease Portuguese reliance on Great Britain, he maintained the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, which successfully defended Portugal from Spanish invasion during the Seven Years' War. Pombal enacted liberal domestic policies, including the prohibition of the import of black slaves within Portugal and Portuguese India, greatly weakened the Portuguese Inquisition, and granting civil rights to the New Christians. Despite these reforms, Pombal governed autocratically, curtailing individual liberties, suppressing political opposition, and fostered the slave trade to Brazil. In 1777, following the accession to the throne of Queen Maria I, who loathed Pombal, he was stripped of his offices and ultimately exiled to his estates. She also issued one of history's first restraining orders, commanding that Pombal not be closer than 20 miles to her presence. If she were to travel near his estates, he was compelled to remove himself from his house to fulfill the royal decree. He died in exile in 1782. He was a controversial figure in his own era; today one of Lisbon's busiest squares and the busiest underground station is named Marquês de Pombal in his honor. There is an impressive statue of the Marquis depicting a lion next to him in the square as well, overseen Lisbon's downtown. Originally interred in Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Cardal, in Pombal, his remains were later moved to an underground vault in Igreja de Nossa Senhora das Mercês, in Lisbon, in 1856, being ultimately moved to Igreja da Memória, also in Lisbon, in 1923.