Portugal e Áustria - ligações históricas entre os dois países, especialmente do ponto de vista maçónico

Como referi no texto publicado na semana passada, hoje procedo à publicação da prancha apresentada pelo Irmão E. C., da Loja Hippokrates, na reunião daquela Loja em que uma delegação da Loja Mestre Affonso Domingues efetuou uma visita àquela Loja.

Sabemos que alguns dos leitores deste blogue não dominam o inglês e preferem sempre que publiquemos aqui apenas textos em português. Mas, por vezes, justificam-se exceções - e este é um desses casos. Trata-se de um trabalho feito por um Irmão estrangeiro propositadamente para ser apresentado para o dia em que estava programada a visita à sua Loja de Irmãos portugueses da Loja Mestre Affonso Domingues. Ficámos, é óbvio, muito sensibilizados. E uma forma de manifestar o nosso agrado é publicar aqui o trabalho apresentado.

Portugal and Austria – historical links between the two countries especially in regard of Freemasonry

Portugal and Austria can be regarded as two countries in Europe which obviously differ in many aspects and in this way of course contribute to the rich diversity within the European Union. Drawing our attention to what we do have in common we can say that – nowadays – both countries are of rather similar dimensions concerning size and population: whereas within more than 92000km² of the parliamentary republic on the Iberian Peninsula more than ten million people are living, the federal republic in Central Europe is somewhat smaller, being inhabited by more than eight million inhabitants at nearly 84000km² of surface size.
Nevertheless our subject is of historical interest – which means we have to look backwards in history to examine commonness.

Alliances between Portugal and Austria

In spite of the fact that – as to the geographic distance – our two countries are far apart from each other, several situations occurred in the past at which Portugal and Austria had to deal with each other in some ways; at first it seems worthwhile to consider matrimonial alliances between the ruling houses of the Kingdom Portugal and the Austrian Empire. Such marriages were very common in Europe with its multitude of monarchies because they offered political advantages, even though the territories of the participating countries were at remote distance of each other. The Habsburg Family whose empire was in the centre of the continent was eager to build alliances with many European monarchies through marriages; in this way a dense network of familiar and political relationships developed in the whole of Europe – which means the confusion was perfect …
The probably first union of such characteristics between Portugal and Austria was concluded in the 15th century: it was the wedding of the Austrian Emperor Friedrich V (III) (1415 – 1493) with Infanta Leonor of Portugal (1436 – 1467); she then became the mother of one of the most important Austrian Emperors, Maximilian I, called “The last Knight”.
During the 16th century at least five alliances were concluded between the House of Habsburg and Portuguese Nobility; therefore it is not so easy to see through the complexities which were created in this way: these marriages mainly concern the so called “Spanish Line” of the Habsburg Family whose establisher Emperor Karl V (I) (1500 – 1558) married his first cousin, Infanta Isabella of Portugal (1503 – 1539) and who were a very happy married couple; their son Phillip II (1527 – 1598) became husband of Princess Infanta Maria Manuela of Portugal (1527 – 1545) and named as Phillip I was later the King of Portugal. Karl’s sister Infanta Eleonore of Castile (1498 – 1558) became the third wife of the Portuguese King Dom Manuel I (1469 – 1521); he was the father of Eleonore’s sister in law, the mentioned Isabella, while Eleonore at the same time was the niece of Dom Manuel’s first and second wives. Another child of Karl, Archduchess Johanna of Austria (1535 – 1573), was married to a Portuguese member of high nobility as well: Prince João Manuel of Portugal (1537 – 1554), her first cousin. A second sister of Karl, Archduchess Katharina of Austria (1507 – 1578), became the wife of King Dom João III of Portugal (1502 – 1557). At this point the confusion for the listener is too big to imagine all the relations; only an illustration could help.
The next important matrimony between Portugal and Austria was during the 18th century, when Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (1683 – 1754) married her cousin King Dom João V of Portugal (1689 – 1750).
In the early 19th century, Archduchess Maria Leopoldine (1797 – 1826) became the wife of Dom Pedro I (1798 – 1834) who was the Emperor of Brazil and also King of Portugal for a bit more than two months. The Portuguese royal family had been living in Brazil in exile for ten years, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars. And a few generations later, the third wife of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria (1833 – 1896) was Portuguese as well, the Infanta Maria Theresa of Portugal (1855 – 1944) who died here in Vienna during the Second World War.

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Conde de Oeiras and Marquês de Pombal – the name under which he is known – was born on the 13th of May 1699 in Lisbon as son of Manuel de Carvalho e Ataíde and Teresa Luísa de Mendonça e Melo. After his studies at the famous University of Coimbra which – having been founded 1290 – is one of the oldest universities in the world, he was sent to London in 1738 as Portuguese Ambassador and after seven years went to Vienna having been entrusted by King Dom João V with the same function. It was here that Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo got married to Leonore Ernestina Gräfin von Daun, the daughter of the Austrian Field Marshall Leopold Josef Graf von Daun in December 1745; the wedding had been made possible after the intervention of the Portuguese Queen, Maria Ana de Áustria. King Dom João V called him back to Lisbon; his son and successor Dom José I appreciated him so much that he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affaires and later even Prime Minister.
The 1st of November 1755 for sure was the most tremendous day ever for Lisbon and probably one of the most significant days in the life of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo: having survived luckily he immediately organized help for the people who had survived as well as the burying of the victims. Thanks to his efforts there were no epidemics in the city which in the course of the earthquake had suffered fires and a tsunami. To rebuild of a main part of the city new technologies for construction of earthquake-proof buildings were invented and tried for the first time. Dom José I – not being interested in political matters – gave him plenty of freedom for his official functions so that under this aspect Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo can be regarded as the actual ruler of Portugal in the middle of the 18th century; the so-called Pombaline Reforms represent the enlightenment in Portugal and affected not only Lisbon’s renewal and modernization, but also the position of the Church in Portugal, especially the problems which had been caused by the Jesuits who continued to preach that the earthquake had been God’s punishment for the previous reforms. Furthermore he abolished slavery in Portugal and India, though not in Brazil, where the position of the native population was defined; he reorganized the Portuguese Army and Navy, and even regulated production and trade of Port Wine by law.
For his merits Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo received the title of Conde de Oeiras in 1759 and was made Marquês de Pombal in 1770 though the high Portuguese Nobility refused to accept the noble titles of Marquês de Pombal; shortly after the King’s death in 1777 the succeeding sovereign withdrew all power from the Marquis who died on the 8th of May 1782 peacefully in Pombal.

Gomes Freire de Andrade

Gomes Freire de Andrade was born in Vienna on the 27th of January 1757 as son of António Ambrósio Freire de Andrade e Castro, Ambassador of Portugal to the Austrian Court and Elisabeth Countess von Schaffgotsch who was descendant from an old and distinguished family of Bohemia.
His father – who had been a great supplier of Marquês de Pombal in the arduous campaign against the Jesuits in Portugal – sent Gomes Freire de Andrade at the age of with 24 years to his actual home country, to Portugal; it is said that Gomes Freire de Andrade already by then had achieved the rank of commander in the Order of Knights of Christ – which means that he had joined the Order in Vienna. His military career began in 1782 and developed very well, taking him around quite a lot. As he received permission to serve in the army of Tsarina Catherine II in the war against Turkey he left for Russia where he gained greatest sympathy at court, especially with the Empress herself. Having been very successful in battles he was awarded in 1790 by Catherine and was promoted to the rank of a colonel which was confirmed in the Portuguese army – even though he was absent in Portugal. By the time rumours of sympathy and enthusiasm of the Tsarina towards Gomes Freire de Andrade came up, apparently confirmed by the dissensions between him and Prince Potemkin who had been her favourite. Back to Portugal his life in battle continued when in 1793 he fought with his regiment in Catalonia with the Spanish armed forces against the French Army which constantly received reinforcements and finally won in the following year. The so-called “Légion Portugaise” was integrated to the French Army under its General Junot in 1808, had garrison in Grenoble and even participated in the Russian campaign. But the task Gomes Freire de Andrade was given by Napoleon in 1813 was just to be the Governor of Dresden in this period.
After the defeat of Napoleon, Freire de Andrade again returned to Portugal in 1815, where he was made a Lieutenant-General and – became the Grand Master of Freemasonry in Portugal a year later.
As there were suspicions that Gomes Freire de Andrade had been a leader in a conspiracy against the King Dom João VI he was betrayed – according to the facts by three Portuguese masons – and arrested. It was Gomes Freire’s position as grand master of the Portuguese Freemasonry and his correspondence with masons in other countries which gave him the appearance of being an arch-conspirator. Many of the conspirators had been masons and their secret meetings seem to have been partly disguised by carrying out Masonic rituals. A day before his execution a British officer who was a freemason offered to him the opportunity to escape which he refused and so his execution took place on the 18th of October 1817 in the fortress Julião da Barra in Oeiras for the crime of treason along with eleven other people. His body was burned and the ashes were thrown into the Tejo River. This brutal act, for which the commander of the British Army in Portugal, Lord Beresford, was responsible, led to loud protests and intensified anti-British tendencies in Portugal, having the Porto Revolution and the fall of Beresford in 1820 as a consequence. Under this aspect Gomes Freire de Andrade could be regarded as the first great martyr of Portugal.

Prancha do Irmão E.·. C.·. da Loja Hippokrates, aqui publicada por

Rui Bandeira