Portuguese Royalty House of Braganza John IV Children include    Teodósio, Prince of Brazil    Joana, Princess of Beira    Catarina, Queen of England    future Afonso VI    Peter II Afonso VI Peter II Children include    Isabel Luísa, Princess of Beira    John V    Francisco, Duke of Beja    António    Manuel, Count of Ourém    Infanta Francisca    Luísa, Duchess of Cadaval (natural daughter)    José, Archbishop of Braga (natural son) John V Children include    Bárbara, Queen of Spain    Joseph I    Peter III Joseph I Children include    Maria I    Mariana Francisca    Doroteia     Benedita, Princess of Brazil Maria I and Peter III Children include    José, Prince of Brazil    John VI    Mariana Vitória John VI Children include    Maria Teresa, Princess of Beira    Maria Isabel, Queen of Spain    Pedro IV of Portugal, I of Brazil    Maria Francisca    Isabel Maria    Miguel I    Maria da Assunção    Ana de Jesus Maria, Marchioness of Loulé Pedro IV (I of Brazil) Children include    Maria II    Januária, Princess Imperial of Brazil    Princess Francisca, princess de Joinville    Pedro II of Brazil Michael I Children include    Maria, Duchess of San Jaime    Miguel II, Duke of Braganza    Maria Teresa, Archduchess of Austria    Maria José, Duchess in Bavaria    Adelgundes, Duchess of Guimarães, Countess di Bardi    Maria Ana, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg    Maria Antónia, Duchess of Parma Grandchildren include    Miguel, Duke of Viseu    Francis Jospeh    Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza Great-Grandchildren include    Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza    Miguel, Duke of Viseu    Henrique, Duke of Coimbra Great-Great-Grandchildren include    Afonso, Prince of Beira    Maria Francisca    Dinis, Duke of Porto Maria II and Ferdinand II Children include    Pedro V    Luís I    João, Duke of Beja    Maria Ana, Princess of Saxony    Antónia, Princess of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen    Augusto, Duke of Coimbra Grandchildren include    Carlos I Great-grandchildren include    Luís Filipe, Duke of Braganza    Manuel II

Joseph I (Portuguese José, pronounced [ʒuˈzɛ]), the Reformer (Port. o Reformador), 25th (or 26th according to some historians) King of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, was born in Lisbon, on June 6, 1714. He was the third child of King John V of Portugal and his wife Mary Anne Josepha of Austria. Joseph had an older brother, Peter, but he died at the age of two.

At the death of his elder brother, José became Prince of Brazil as the heir-apparent of the king, and 15th Duke of Braganza.

In 1729, Joseph married a Spanish princess, Marianne Victoria of Borbón, daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elizabeth Farnese, and his elder sister Barbara married the future Ferdinand VI of Spain. Marianne loved music and hunting, but she was also a serious woman, who disliked the King's affairs and had no problems about talking about them to everybody. Joseph and Marianne had four daughters:

• Maria Francisca (Mary Frances) (1734-1816) - The future Queen Mary I
• Maria Ana Francisca Josefa (Marianne) (1736-1813)
• Maria Francisca Doroteia (Mary Frances Dorothea) (1739-1771)
• Maria Francisca Benedita (Mary Frances Benedicta) (1746-1829) - She would marry her nephew Prince Joseph.

Statue of Joseph in Terreiro do Paço square, Lisbon.

Joseph was devoted to the Church and the opera. He succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1750, when he was 35 years old, and almost immediately placed effective power in the hands of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, better known today as the Marquis of Pombal. Indeed the history of Joseph's reign is really that of Pombal himself. King José also declared his eldest daughter Maria Francisca as the official heiress of the throne, and proclaimed her Princess of Brazil. The king did not believe that any longer a son would be born to him.

The powerful marquis sought to overhaul all aspects of economic, social and colonial policy to make Portugal a more efficient contender with the other great powers of Europe, and thus secure her own power status as a result. A conspiracy of nobles aimed at murdering King Joseph and the Marquis gave Pombal the opportunity (some say, the pretext) to get rid of the Távora family, and to expel the Jesuits in September 1759, thus gaining control of public education and a wealth of church lands and ushering Portugal, which had been a backwater dominated by the High Aristocracy and a very conservative brand of Catholicism, into the Enlightenment age.

The reign of Joseph was also famous for the great Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755, in which around 100,000 people lost their lives. The earthquake caused Joseph to develop a severe case of claustrophobia and he was never again comfortable living within a walled building. Consequently, he moved the royal court to an extensive complex of tents in the hills of Ajuda. The capital was eventually rebuilt at great cost, and an equestrian statue of King Joseph still dominates Lisbon's main plaza.

With Joseph's death on 24 February 1777 the throne passed to his daughter Mary I and Pombal's iron rule was sharply brought to an end.

Ancestors

Marriages and descendants

Joseph married Marianne Victoria of Borbón, daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese of Parma. He had four daughters, all named Maria.