The Desembargo do Paço and the “stupid” and “decrepit” widow in the way of the testamentary Law of June 25, 1766

Abstract

This article is based on an unpublished documentation transcribed from the National Archive of Torre do Tombo, in Portugal. It is about the process of confirmation of the inter vivos and mortis causa bequest made by the Portuguese widow Luíza Maria de Abreu to Ventura Pinheiro, in 1766, at the Desembargo do Paço. Based on the analysis of the legal process at the Portuguese Superior Court of Justice, I will identify the points of intercession between the widow’s donation and the implementation of the first Testamentary Law of June 25, 1766. Prepared by the Desembargo do Paço, this law intended to prevent the practice of the redaction of wills by people outside the family of the testator – laypersons and clerics – especially if he was vulnerable by illness, imbecility, or decrepit age. By investigating the relationship between the widow’s case, the work of the Desembargo do Paço and this testamentary law, it is possible to understand significant aspects of regalist politics that permeated the Pombaline reforms of the 1760s and 1770s. These reforms would strongly affect the succession law and the testamentary practice in the Portuguese world, impacting on the practice of the testators, until then, to bequeath a large part of the goods to the Church in search of salvation of the soul, instead to their family and blood relatives.