HOUSE OF LAVRADIO

BY HISTORIEN VALDEMIR MOTA DE MENEZES

The government policy of the Portuguese colonies included benefits and privileges for certain lines of nobles. In this scenario there is the figure of the Marquis of Pombal, who will vigorously eliminating the privileges of elites groups like the Catholic Church and the nobles. It drew the example of the House of Lavradio who successfully overcame those days. Don Luis de Almeida Soares Portugal Alarcão and Melo Mascarenhas and Silva was born on June 26, 1729, studied in Spain and France.

In the system of nobility was a combination of assumptions necessary for a gentleman who was elevated to the royal house, it was necessary to provide an extensive list of services rendered by their ancestors, and to demonstrate loyalty to the Crown. The public office of great prestige were awarded on the recommendation of the king between 1750 and 1777.

The Marquis of Pombal was the Secretary of State that the nobility put restrictions (such as the ban is the extravagance of weddings, fighting puritanism that distinguished between Old Christians and New Christians) and expelled the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Brazil. In this historical period the patronage and the prestige that the cronies exerted in society opened many doors, infinitely more than today. Today only remnants left over from those times.

Lavradio nobody knew for dealing with the Marquis of Pombal, made ​​an alliance through marriage of their children in the home of the Marques de Pombal, served as viceroy in Brazil for eleven years, arrived in Brazil in 1768 to govern in Bahia and then governor of Rio de Janeiro, left behind many letters to the Portuguese Crown that are still subjects of research to better understand the colonial history of Brazil.