The Marquis of Pombal, or Marquês de Pombal, (13 May 1699 - 15 May 1782) was a Portuguese politician and statesman, prime minister of king Joseph I of Portugal throughout his reign. Pombal is remembered for his competent leadership in the aftermath of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and his highly beneficial economic reforms.

He was born in Lisbon, as Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, the son of Manuel de Carvalho e Ataíde, a country squire, with properties in the Leiria region. In his early life, he studied at the University of Coimbra and served briefly in the army. When he moved to the capital, Lisbon, Sebastião de Melo faced a turbulent life. His first wife was Teresa de Mendonça e Almada (1689-1737) the niece of the Count of Arcos, with whom he eloped and married against her family's wishes. The in-laws made life unbearable for the young couple, and they retired to his properties near Pombal.

In 1738, Sebastião de Melo received his first public appointment, as ambassador in London, and then, from 1745 in Vienna. The consort queen of Portugal, archduchess Maria Anna of Austria was fond of the widowed ambassador and arranged his remarriage with the daughter of the Austrian Field Marshal Leopold Josef, Count von Daun. King John V of Portugal, however, was not pleased with Sebastião de Melo's actions and recalled him to Portugal in 1749. The king died in the following year and, due to a recommendation of the queen mother, the new king Joseph I of Portugal appointed Sebastião de Melo as minister of foreign affairs. Unlike his father, Joseph I was very fond of him and gradually trusted him with the control of the state.

In 1755, Sebastião de Melo was made prime minister of the kingdom. He ruled with a strong hand, imposing strict law upon all classes, from the poorest to the high nobility. Impressed by English economic success he had witnessed, he tried with success to implement similar measures in the Portuguese economy. The demarcated region for production of Port, the first in the world designed to insure the wine's quality, dates from his ruling. He also abolished slavery in the Portuguese colonies in India, reorganized the army and the navy, restructured the University of Coimbra, and ended discrimination between old and new Christians. But Sebastião de Melo's greatest reforms were economic and financial, with the creation of several companies and guilds to regulate every commercial activity, and a review of the country's tax system. Naturally, all these reforms gained him enemies in the upper classes, especially in the high nobility, who despised him as a social upstart.

Disaster fell upon Portugal in the morning of November 1, 1755, when Lisbon was struck by a violent earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 9 on the Richter scale (see 1755 Lisbon earthquake). The city was razed to the ground by the earthquake and the huge tsunami and fires that followed. Sebastião de Melo survived by a stroke of luck, but he was not impressed. Immediately he started to work to rebuild the city, following his famous quote: What now? we bury the dead and feed the living. Despite the calamity, Lisbon suffered no epidemics and less than a year later was already being rebuilt. The downtown of the city was designed by a group of architects to resist any subsequent earthquake. Models were built for tests where the earthquake was simulated by marching troops around. The buildings and big squares of the Pombaline Downtown of Lisbon are still standing as one of Lisbon's tourist attractions: they are the world's first quake-proof buildings. Sebastião de Melo also made an important contribution to seismology: he designed an inquiry that was sent to every parish in the country. Examples of questions included are: did dogs or other animals behave strangely before the event?; did the water level rise or fall in the wells?; how many buildings were destroyed?; what kind of destruction occurred? With these answers modern Portuguese scientists have been able to reconstruct the event.

Following the earthquake, Joseph I gave his Prime Minister even more power, turning Sebastião de Melo into a kind of progressive dictator. As his power grew, his enemies increased in number, and bitter disputes with the high nobility became frequent. In 1758 Joseph I was wounded in an attempted assassination. The Tavora family and the Duke of Aveiro were implicated in the attempt and executed after a quick trial. The Jesuits were expelled from the country and their assets confiscated by the crown. Sebastião de Melo showed no mercy and prosecuted every person involved, even women and children. This was the final stroke that broke the power of the aristocracy and ensured the victory of the minister against his enemies. For his swift action in this matter, Joseph I made his loyal minister Count of Oeiras in 1759.

Following the Tavora affair, the new Count of Oeiras knew no opposition. Made Marquis of Pombal in 1770, he effectively ruled Portugal until Joseph I's death in 1779. His successor, queen Maria I of Portugal, disliked the Marquis immensely. Maria I never forgave him the ruthlessness showed against the Tavora family and redrew all his political offices from him. The queen also issued one of the world's first restraining orders and ordered that the Marquis should not be closer than 20 miles from her presence. If she would travel near his estates, he was compelled to remove himself from his house to fulfil the royal decree. Maria I is reported to have had tantrums at the slightest reference to her father's former prime minister.

The Marquis of Pombal, who had built a palatial villa at Oeiras, with formal gardens in the French taste enlivened by glazed tile walls in the Portuguese tradition, with waterfalls and waterworks, set within vineyards, died peacefully on his simple estate at Pombal. Nowadays, he is remembered with a huge statue placed in the most important square in Lisbon, named after him. Marquês de Pombal is also the busiest underground station in Lisbon.

Chronology

• 1699 – born in Pombal
• 1738 – ambassador in London
• 1745 – ambassador in Vienna, second marriage
• 1749 – returns to Portugal
• 1750 – minister of Foreign Affairs
• 1755 November 1 – Lisbon earthquake
• 1758 – attempted regicide
• 1759 – Tavora family executed; made Count of Oeiras
• 1770 – made Marquis of Pombal
• 1779 – exile
• 1782 – dies in Pombal