page_title: Leonor de Almeida Portugal, Marquise of Alorna
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Leonor de Almeida Portugal, Marquise of Alorna / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of the Marquise of Távora. C. 1770 copy of a portrait done in 1720-1730 by D. Ana de Lorena (1691-1761). Português: Retrato da Marquesa de Távora. Cópia datada de c. 1770 dum retrato pintado em 1720-1730 por D. Ana de Lorena (1691-1761).
context_page_description: D. Leonor de Almeida Portugal, 4th Marquise of Alorna, 8th Countess of Assumar was a Portuguese noblewoman, painter, and poet. Commonly known by her nickname, Alcipe, the Marquise was a prime figure in the Portuguese Neoclassic a proto-Romantic literary scene, while still a follower of Neoclassicism when it came to painting.
  Leonor was born into one of the many branches of the House of Távora, Portugal's most illustrious and powerful noble family at the time. This being said, the time of her birth and the subsequent years were a time of great trouble for the House of Távora, as they had been accused of treason against King José I of Portugal, in a series of events known as the Távora affair. Because of the unfortunate events in her early childhood, Leonor spent nineteen years forcibly imprisoned in a convent, where she spent most of her time reading and writing poetry. Her early success as a poet at the convent started her lifelong career which would lead her to becoming one of Europe's most noteworthy literary figures at the time.
context_section_description: D. Leonor de Almeida Portugal was born in Lisbon, on 31 October 1750, to João de Almeida Portugal, 2nd Marquis of Alorna and 4th Count of Assumar, and Leonor de Lorena e Távora, daughter of Leonor Tomásia de Távora, 3rd Marchioness of Távora. She was born into the House of Távora, one of the most illustrious noble families in Portugal. Her family's wealth and power, however, achieved them suspicion from King José I's Prime Minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal. These tensions between the Távoras and the Marquis of Pombal accumulated in 1758, when Leonor was eight years old, in the Távora affair. The affair saw the execution of her maternal grandparents and Leonor and her mother's forced placement in the Convent of São Félix of Chelas, until 1777. Likewise, her father and brother were imprisoned in the Tower of Belém.
  While in the convent at Chelas, Leonor lived with her mother and sister. She devoted her time to studying the works of Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Pierre Bayle, and to the Encyclopedia of Diderot. As there was not much for a young girl to do at a convent, Leonor spent most of her time composing poems and other lyrical pieces. It is during her childhood at the convent when Leonor began her career as a poet, publishing her first work, the Poems of Chelas. It was also in the convent where she came in contact with famed poets and members of the Portuguese literary scene, covents and monasteries having been a traditional place for refuge by writers and artists in Portugal.
  The convent was often a location of retreat to the members of the Arcadia, a literary society, and to distinguished poets like Francisco Manuel do Nascimento, best known by his pen-name, Filinto Elísio. Nascimento, having read the Poems of Chelas, sought out Leonor, to listen her works and discuss poetry with her, and eventually became her tutor in literature, poetry, and Latin. Nascimento's pen-name was, in fact, given to him by Leonor, while he was her tutor at the convent. It was also during her time at the convent when Leonor started being called Alcipe, as the nuns often gave nicknames to the young girls at the convent, as they also gave Leonor's sister, Maria de Almeida Portugal, the nickname Dafne.
  Leonor finally left the convent in 1777, when she was twenty-seven years old, at the orders of the newly acclaimed Queen Maria I, who sought to reverse all the policies and actions of the Marquis of Pombal, whom she despised. Similarly, her father and brother were released from Belém Tower and the two branches of the family reunited. The family's former palaces, the envy of the Portuguese nobility, had been destroyed by order of the Marquis of Pombal, and thus the family moved to the Quinta of Vale de Nabais, outside of Lisbon, which they renamed Quinta of Alorna. Though reduced from their previous standing, the family quickly rose in the Portuguese court and nobility. Leonor rapidly became a personality of the aristocracy, her intelligence and charm having captivated the nobles who expected a girl ruined by a forced convent life.
caption: Leonor's grandmother, Leonor Tomásia de Távora, 3rd Marquise of Távora.
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