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Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela

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His ExcellencyThe Duke of PalmelaKGC FC
Portrait by Thomas Lawrence
Prime Minister of Portugal
In office
20 May 1846 – 6 October 1846
MonarchsMaria II and Fernando II
Preceded byDuke of Terceira
Succeeded byDuke of Saldanha
In office
7 February 1842 – 9 February 1842
MonarchsMaria II and Fernando II
Preceded byJoaquim António de Aguiar
Succeeded byDuke of Terceira
In office
24 September 1834 – 4 May 1835
MonarchMaria II
Preceded byBento Pereira do Carmo (de facto)
Succeeded byCount of Linhares
President of the Chamber of Peers
In office
10 July 1842 – 12 October 1850
MonarchsMaria II and Fernando II
Preceded byHimself (President of the Chamber of Senators)
Succeeded byGuilherme Henriques de Carvalho
In office
14 August 1834 – 4 June 1836
MonarchMaria II
Preceded byDuke of Cadaval
Succeeded byManuel Duarte Leitão (President of the Chamber of Senators)
President of the Chamber of Senators
In office
17 February 1840 – 1 January 1842
MonarchsMaria II and Fernando II
Preceded byManuel Duarte Leitão
Succeeded byHimself (President of the Chamber of Peers)
In office
2 May 1839 – 11 January 1840
MonarchsMaria II and Fernando II
Preceded byManuel Duarte Leitão
Succeeded byManuel Duarte Leitão
Ministerial portfolios
1820–1821War Affairs
1823–1825Foreign Affairs
1832–1832Interior Affairs
1835–1835Foreign Affairs
Feb 1842Foreign Affairs
1846–1846Finance Affairs
May 1846Justice Affairs (acting)
May 1846Interior Affairs
1846–1846Interior Affairs
Ambassadorial posts
1809–1812Spain
1816–1820United Kingdom
1825–1827United Kingdom
Personal details
Born8 May 1781
Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia
Died12 October 1850 (aged 69)
Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal
Spouse Eugénia Francisca Xavier Teles da Gama ​ ​(m. 1810; died 1848)​
Children15
Signature

D. Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Faial and Palmela (8 May 1781–12 October 1850) was one of the most important Portuguese diplomats and statesmen in the first half of the 19th century. He also served as the country's first modern Prime Minister (with the title of "President of the Council of Ministers").

Early life and career

Portrait of Pedro de Sousa Holstein, by Domingos Sequeira (National Museum of Ancient Art)

He was born in Turin, a scion of the Portuguese de Sousa family, Lords of Calhariz.

The 'Holstein' element of his family name came from his paternal grandmother Princess Maria Anna Leopoldine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, daughter of Frederick William I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck.

His uncle Frederico Guilherme de Sousa Holstein [pt] had been governor of Portuguese India.

He earned notoriety at an early age by telling Napoleon to his face at the conference in Bayonne in 1808 that the Portuguese would not ‘consent to become Spaniards’ as the French Emperor wanted.

He was Portuguese plenipotentiary to the Congress of Vienna in 1814, where he attempted to press Portugal's claims to Olivenza, and to the Treaty of Paris in 1815.

After this he was briefly ambassador to London, but then was appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs in Brazil. After the Liberal Revolution of 1820 he was commissioned by the revolutionary junta to inform the king, João VI, of what had taken place and to request his return to Portugal from Brazil.

In 1823 he was made a Marquis and became foreign minister as well as head of the committee which D. João appointed to devise a new constitutional charter. The resulting document, to which the King was unable to agree, was so liberal that it drew down on Palmela the hatred of the reactionary forces in the country, especially the Queen and the Infant Dom Miguel, who in 1824 had him arrested.

After he obtained his liberty he was made a minister of state and returned to London as ambassador.

Liberal Wars

When Dom Miguel seized the throne of Portugal in 1828 Palmela sided with the opposition in Oporto and was forced with many others to flee to England. An attempt to return to Oporto in June 1828, called the Belfastada, failed. Greville noted in his diary for 16 August 1828:

”Esterhazy told me to-night that Palmella entertains from twenty to thirty of his countrymen at dinner every day, of whom there are several hundred in London, of the best families, totally destitute.”

Miguel condemned him to death in absentia and seized his estates, but Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, appointed Palmela guardian to his daughter, the rightful Queen Maria II, and he acted as her ambassador at the British court.

In 1830 he set up the young queen’s regency on Terceira in the Azores; it was at this time that he became acquainted with Captain Charles Napier whom he considered the best person to command the Liberals' navy.

When Dom Pedro took charge of the regency in person in 1832 he named Palmela as his foreign minister, in which capacity he acted against Miguel from London.

In 1833 he sailed with Charles Napier bringing mercenary reinforcements to Oporto, where Pedro was being besieged, and took part in the subsequent expedition to the Algarve of Napier and the Duke of Terceira.

After Napier’s naval victory off Cape St Vincent enabled Pedro to occupy Lisbon, Palmela retired from his offices.

Constitutional Monarchy

Portrait of the Duke of Palmela, c. 1840s, attributed to John Simpson

He served as the first Prime Minister of the newly formed constitutional monarchy in Portugal from 24 September 1834 to 4 May 1835.

He served briefly Prime Minister again in February 1842 (for two days, in the so-called Shrovetide Cabinet), and from March to October 1846 (during the height of the Revolution of Maria da Fonte).

Dom Pedro was successively made Count of Palmela (by Queen Maria I, on 11 April 1812), Marquis of Palmela (by King John VI on 3 July 1823) and Duke of Faial (by Queen Maria II on 4 April 1836).

Finally, on 18 October 1850, Queen Maria II substituted its Dukedom of Faial by the new title of Duke of Palmela.

Marriage and issue

On 4 June 1810 Pedro de Sousa Holstein married Eugénia Francisca Xavier Teles da Gama (1798–1848). Their issue was:

  • Alexandre de Sousa Holstein (1812–1832), 1st Count of Calhariz;
  • Eugénia de Sousa Holstein (1813–1884), Marquise of Minas by marriage;
  • Isabel de Sousa Holstein (1816–1819);
  • Domingos de Sousa Holstein (1818–1864), succeeded his father as 2nd Duke of Palmela;
  • Manuel de Sousa Holstein (1819–1837);
  • Maria Ana de Sousa Holstein (1821–1844);
  • Maria José de Sousa Holstein (1822–1834);
  • Teresa de Sousa Holstein (1823–1885), Countess of Alcáçovas by marriage;
  • Rodrigo de Sousa Holstein (1824–1840), Marquis of Palmela;
  • Catarina de Sousa Holstein (1826–1885), Countess of Galveias by marriage;
  • Ana Rosa de Sousa Holstein (1828–1864);
  • Pedro de Sousa Holstein (1830–1830);
  • Francisco de Borja de Sousa Holstein, 1.º Marquês de Sousa Holstein [pt] (1838–1878), 1st Marquis of Sousa Holstein;
  • Tomás de Sousa Holstein [pt] (1839–1887), 1st Marquis of Sesimbra;
  • Filipe de Sousa Holstein [pt] (1841–1884), 1st Marquis of Monfalim;

See also

References

  1. Charles C. F. Greville, A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, volume I (Longmans Green & Co, London, 1874), at page 138

External links

Political offices
Preceded byDuke of Terceira Prime Minister of Portugal
1846 		Succeeded byDuke of Saldanha
Preceded byJoaquim António de Aguiar Prime Minister of Portugal
1842 		Succeeded byDuke of Terceira
Preceded byBento Pereira do Carmoas Minister and Secretary of State for Kingdom Affairs Prime Minister of Portugal
1834–1835 		Succeeded byCount of Linhares
Preceded byTomás de Vila Nova Portugal Minister of War
1820–1821 		Succeeded bySilvestre Pinheiro Ferreira
Portuguese nobility
New title Duke of Faial
1836–1850 		Title abolished
Duke of Palmela
1850–1850 		Succeeded byDomingos Sousa Holstein
Marquis of Palmela
1823–1850
Prime Ministers of the Portuguese Constitutional Monarchy
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