View source for António Luís de Seabra, 1st Viscount of Seabra

{{Short description|Portuguese judge, lawyer and politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix  = [[Senhor|His Lordship]]
| name              = The Viscount of Seabra
| honorific-suffix  = [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|ComC]]
| image             = Visconde de Seabra.png
| imagesize         =
| office            = [[Ministry of Justice (Portugal)|Minister and Secretary of State<br />of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice]]
| monarch           = [[Luís I of Portugal]]
| predecessor       = Augusto César Barjona de Freitas
| successor         = António Pequito Seixas de Andrade
| term_start        = 4 January 1868
| term_end          = 22 July 1868
| monarch2          = [[Maria II of Portugal]]
| predecessor2      = Joaquim Filipe de Soure
| successor2        = Frederico Guilherme da Silva Pereira
| term_start2       = 4 March 1852
| term_end2         = 19 August 1852
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|df=y|1798|12|02}}
| birth_place       = Atlantic Ocean{{efn|Seabra was born off the coast of [[Portuguese Cape Verde|Cape Verde]], on board the vessel ''Santa Cruz'', en route to [[Rio de Janeiro]], [[State of Brazil]]. He was baptized in Rio de Janeiro.}}
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=y|1895|01|19|1798|12|02}}
| death_place       = [[Anadia, Portugal|Mogofores, Anadia]], [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]]
| nationality       = Portuguese
| spouse            =
| occupation        = Politician
}}
[[Dom (title)|D.]] '''António Luís de Seabra e Sousa, 1st Viscount of Seabra''' (2 December 1798 – 19 January 1895) was a Portuguese politician, jurist, and magistrate. A notable figure of the [[History of Portugal (1834–1910)|Constitutional Monarchy]] period, he was a government minister, a [[Rector (academia)|rector]] of the [[University of Coimbra]], a judge in the Oporto [[appellate court]], a member of Parliament, a [[Chamber of Most Worthy Peers|Peer of the Realm]], and a judge of the [[Supreme Court of Justice (Portugal)|Supreme Court of Justice]].
The Viscount of Seabra is best known as the author of the first [[Portuguese Civil Code]], in 1867, which remained in force for a full century; the original Code is still sometimes referred to as the "Seabra Civil Code".
==Biography==
António Luís de Seabra was born on 2 December 1798, on board the vessel ''Santa Cruz'' off the coast of the Portuguese colony of [[Portuguese Cape Verde|Cape Verde]];<ref name="Arqnet">{{cite web |url=http://www.arqnet.pt/dicionario/seabra1v.html |title=Seabra (António Luís de Seabra, visconde de) |last=Torres |first=João Romano |website=Portugal – Dicionário Histórico, Corográfico, Heráldico, Biográfico, Bibliográfico, Numismático e Artístico, Volume IV |access-date=10 October 2018 }}</ref> his parents, António de Seabra da Mota e Silva (1763–1834) and Doroteia Bernardina de Sousa Lobo Barreto (1764–1809), were travelling to [[Rio de Janeiro]] as his father had been named ''ouvidor'' of [[Serro|Vila do Príncipe]] in [[Minas Gerais]], [[State of Brazil]].<ref name="Arqnet1">{{cite web |url=http://www.arqnet.pt/dicionario/seabraantonio.html |title=Seabra (António de) |last=Torres |first=João Romano |website=Portugal – Dicionário Histórico, Corográfico, Heráldico, Biográfico, Bibliográfico, Numismático e Artístico, Volume IV |access-date=10 October 2018 }}</ref> He was baptised on 5 February 1799, in [[Rio de Janeiro]]: his godparents were his sister, Josefa Emília de Seabra, and Luís Beltron de Gouveia de Almeida, the chancellor of the city's appellate court.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
He returned to Portugal for his preparatory studies, after which, in 1815, he enrolled at the [[University of Coimbra]], obtaining his degree in [[Law]] in 1820. From his student years, around the time of the [[Liberal Revolution of 1820]], he was politically on the side of the progressive Constitutionalists: when he heard of the Revolution in [[Porto|Oporto]], he enthusiastically penned a sonnet (''Accordai, cidadãos, que a Pátria geme'') that became rather popular in the day.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Seabra |first=Visconde de |date=1890 |title=Á briosa mocidade academica |trans-title=To the proud academic youth |url=https://digitalis-dsp.uc.pt/republica/UCSIB-GHC-21-1-2/UCSIB-GHC-21-1-2_item2/UCSIB-GHC-21-1-2_PDF/UCSIB-GHC-21-1-2_PDF_24-C-R0120/UCSIB-GHC-21-1-2_0001_rosto-26_t24-C-R0120.pdf |language=pt |journal=Anathema |volume=I |issue=1 |pages=11–12 |access-date=13 October 2018 }}</ref> It was also around this time that he founded the monthly political and literary periodical ''O Cidadão Literato''.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
In August 1821, he was made a ''[[Juiz de fora (office)|juiz de fora]]'' in the town of [[Alfândega da Fé]]; within that year (on 3 December), he was issued public praise from [[José da Silva Carvalho]], the Minister of Justice, for his services.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
When the liberal government fell in June 1823, following the royalist ''[[Vilafrancada]]'' coup, Seabra tendered his resignation. He retreated to his paternal family's house in [[Vila Flor]], where he busied himself translating [[Horace]]'s ''[[Satires (Horace)|Satires]]'' and ''[[Epistles (Horace)|Epistles]]'' (which he would only publish in 1846) and studying [[rhetoric]] and [[natural philosophy]]. In 1825, he was appointed ''juiz de fora'' in [[Montemor-o-Velho]]. In 1826, he published in [[Coimbra]] an Ode to [[Infanta Isabel Maria of Portugal|Infanta Isabel Maria]], who was at the time [[Regent]]. That same year, he had [[Francisco José Freire|Cândido Lusitano]]'s poem ''O Mentor de Filandro'' published.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
As he actively opposed [[Miguel I of Portugal|King Miguel]]'s assumption of the throne in 1828, he was forced to move abroad, where he published political pamphlets about the current political situation in his home country. He only returned to Portugal in 1833, following the victory of the Constitutionalists in the [[Portuguese Civil War]]. He was soon appointed [[prosecutor]] in the [[Castelo Branco (district)|Castelo Branco]] appellate court, as well as interim ''[[corregedor]]'' of [[Alcobaça, Portugal|Alcobaça]]. In 1834, he was elected to [[Cortes Gerais|Parliament]] for [[Trás-os-Montes Province|Trás-os-Montes]].<ref name="Arqnet"/>
In 1836, he founded the political periodical ''O Independente'' and, that same year, was again elected to Parliament, although the [[September Revolution]] interrupted the works of the legislature before they began. On 9 December 1838, he was sworn in as member of Parliament for [[Penafiel]] and, later, for [[Porto|Oporto]]. During the [[Patuleia]], he was part of the Oporto Junta.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
[[File:ViscondeSeabra.png|thumb|left|The Viscount of Seabra in his elder years]]
In 1849, he published in Lisbon ''Observações sobre o artigo 630.º da Novíssima Reforma Judiciária'' ("Remarks on Article 630 of the New Judiciary Reform) and, in 1850, in Coimbra, the first volume of ''A Propriedade, Filosofia do Direito; para servir de introdução ao Comentário sobre a lei dos forais''.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
By decree of 8 August 1850, he was trusted with the important mission of drawing up a [[civil code]] collecting and restating all [[private law]] of the kingdom, as mandated by the [[Constitutional Charter of 1826]]. The project was concluded in 1859, and the civil code was discussed at length in [[Cortes Gerais|Parliament]] before finally being approved on 1 July 1867. This civil code, sometimes called [[Portuguese Civil Code|Seabra's Civil Code]] remained in force for exactly a century, until it was replaced in 1967.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
In the [[1851 Portuguese legislative election|1851 legislative election]], he was again elected member of Parliament, this time for [[Aveiro, Portugal|Aveiro]], and, on 4 March 1852, was made [[Ministry of Justice (Portugal)|Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice]] in the third [[João Carlos de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha|Saldanha]] government. In 1862, he became Speaker of the [[Chamber of Deputies of Portugal (1822–1910)|Chamber of Deputies]] and, in 1868, after he was made a [[Peer of the realm|Peer]], became Speaker of the [[Chamber of Most Worthy Peers]].<ref name="Arqnet"/>
On 26 July 1866, he was made Rector of the [[University of Coimbra]], and was inaugurated the following 14 August; his tenure ended in 1868, when he was again made Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice in the first [[António José de Ávila, 1st Duke of Ávila and Bolama|Ávila]] cabinet.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
In the last years of his life, his eyesight declined almost to the point of blindness; still, he endeavoured to translate [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Tristia]]''. His last published work, in 1893, was a translation of [[Anne-Marie du Boccage]]'s ''La Colombiade'', dedicated to [[Amélie of Orléans|Queen Amélie of Orléans]]. He left a novel, titled ''António Homem, ou o Mestre Infeliz'', unfinished.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
==Private life==
The Viscount of Seabra married twice: the first marriage was to his cousin Doroteia Honorata, the sister of the Baron of Mogofores, and the second to Ana de Jesus Teixeira, widow of Manuel José Teixeira, with children from her first marriage. The Viscount of Seabra had three sons from his first marriage: António Luís de Seabra, Álvaro Ernesto, and Francisco Luís (who became a priest). From his second marriage, he had a single son, Aristides de Seabra.<ref name="Arqnet"/>
==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Seabra, Antonio Luis de Seabra e Sousa, 1st Viscount of}}
[[Category:1798 births]]
[[Category:1895 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Portuguese judges]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of Christ (Portugal)]]
[[Category:Justice ministers of Portugal]]
[[Category:University of Coimbra alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Coimbra]]
[[Category:Viscounts of Portugal]]
[[Category:People born at sea]]