Manuel Fernandes Vila Real
Manuel Fernandes Vila Real · Philosophy & Social Sciences
Consul du Portugal à Paris et publiciste de la maison de Bragance : ses écrits firent reconnaître en Europe l'indépendance portugaise de 1640 ; garrotté par l'Inquisition comme judaïsant
1608, Lisbonne — 1er décembre 1652, Lisbonne
Portugal, France
Manuel Fernandes Vila Real is recognized among Jewish contributors to Philosophy & Social Sciences — Consul du Portugal à Paris et publiciste de la maison de Bragance : ses écrits firent reconnaître en Europe l'indépendance portugaise de 1640 ; garrotté par l'Inquisition comme judaïsant
Origins and early life
Manuel Fernandes Vila Real was born in Lisbon in 1608 into a family of New Christians — Portuguese Jews forcibly baptized in 1497 — and the Encyclopaedia Judaica states his New Christian origin explicitly.
Work and career
He made his career in France, at Rouen and then Paris, among the Portuguese merchant colony, and became the most effective advocate abroad of the revolution of 1 December 1640, which put the Duke of Braganza on the throne as John IV and ended sixty years of Spanish rule over Portugal. He wrote for that cause: the Anticaramuel of 1643 answering the Spanish polemicists point by point, El político cristianísimo of 1642, a defence of Cardinal Richelieu and the French alliance, and a life of the Count-Duke of Olivares; his pamphlets were read across Europe and did much to obtain diplomatic recognition of the new dynasty.
John IV appointed him consul general of Portugal in Paris. In France he associated openly with returning Jews of the Portuguese nation and defended them in print, and the Inquisition, informed of this, had him arrested when he returned to Lisbon in 1649. This fiche states plainly what followed: he was tried as a secret Judaizer, confessed under the process, and was garrotted and his body burned in the auto-da-fé of Lisbon on 1 December 1652, exactly twelve years to the day after the restoration he had defended.
Several of his relatives afterwards returned openly to Judaism at Livorno. His works were among the founding texts of Portuguese political thought, written by a man whom the country he served put to death for his ancestry.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica, « Fernandes Villareal, Manuel » ; Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, procès de l'Inquisition ; revue e-Spania (OpenEdition)
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Consul du Portugal à Paris et publiciste de la maison de Bragance : ses écrits firent reconnaître en Europe l'indépendance portugaise de 1640 ; garrotté par l'Inquisition comme judaïsant
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica, « Fernandes Villareal, Manuel » ; Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, procès de l'Inquisition ; revue e-Spania (OpenEdition)
