The corruption of the nobility. The trajectory of the almeida Portugal from the vicreroyal to the crime of injury to the homeland

Abstract

In this article, corruption will be discussed by going through the saga of a noble family in Portugal : the House of Alorna. Three types of corruption named and interpreted throughout the eighteenth century until the first decades of the nineteenth will be exemplified. It is demonstrated in the ascension of this family, going until its fall, the corruption by the post and administrative position through involvement in clientele networks in the government overseas. Then, in the later generation, the case of the second marquis : political and name corruption imposed on him in accusation and imprisonment for long years. Last but not least, at the dawn of the 19th century, the corruption of political identity, that is, the corruption that ended in the conviction of the holder of the House for a crime against majesty and against the country, in a final overthrow of the men of that family , the ruin of the noble name and its status, in a evident example of conflict between the ambitions and the duties of serving the monarchy that were previously manifested in documents to be presented in the text. The intention is to go beyond the first notions about what corruption means in the Modern Age, starting from crimes, situations and other accusations, to explore the possibilities of this extraordinarily polysemic concept, but undoubtedly central in political debates and studies on the Ancient Regimen.