Voltaire and an episode of the Portugal's history

Abstract

In his Précis du siècle de Louis XV Voltaire devotes two passages to events that took place in that century in Portugal: the devastation of Lisbon by the 1755 earthquake and the consequences of the Jesuits' alleged involvement, three years later, in the assassination attempt against King D. José I. Voltaire shows two tips of a story, but keeps hidden -or maybe even ignores -the continuous line that unites them and makes them, as I propose in the title, parts of a single episode.The missing link, of course, is the controversial Minister Sebastião José de Carvalho Melo, Count of Oeiras and Marquis of Pombal. Being a brilliant historian and, above all, a deep analyst of princes and rulers, it is a pity that Voltaire did not show much interest in a more detailed investigation of those political developments. By filling the gaps and correcting some faults of his report, I point to several elements that should have been taken more seriously by Voltaire and could have provided him some good clues as to the fate that awaited the French monarchy some 30 years later.