Mariana Alcoforado

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Marianna Alcoforado (2. April 1640 in Beja/Alentejo - ? 28. July 1723 in Beja/Alentejo]) was was a Portuguese nun, living in the convent of the Poor Ladies (Convento de Nossa Senhora da Conceição) in Beja, Portugal.

Until the 20th century, she was believed to be the real Portuguese author of the Letters of a Portuguese Nun (comprising five letters). Her purported love affair with the French officer Noël Bouton, Marquis de Chamilly and later Marshall of France, has made Beja famous in (mainly Portuguese and French) literary circles

The letters are now considered a fictional work by most literary scholars, and their authorship is ascribed to Gabriel-Joseph de La Vergne, comte de Guilleragues (1628–1685), although a real nun named Mariana Alcoforado probably did exist. In her recent book Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a Seventeenth-Century Forbidden Love (2006), the author Myriam Cyr has attempted to reassert the attribution of the letters to the real Mariana Alcoforado.

For information about authorship and publication of the letters, see "Letters of a Portuguese Nun"

[edit] Biography

Note: the following biography is based in large part on the letters and may contain, for that reason, fictionalized elements.

Marianna Alcoforado was born in Beja, the daughter of a landed proprietor of Alemtejo. Beja was the chief garrison town of the province and the principal theatre of the twenty-eight years' war with Spain that followed the Portuguese revolution of 1640. Marianna's widowed father, occupied with administrative and military commissions, placed her in the wealthy convent of the Conception for security and education. She made her profession as a Franciscan nun of the Poor Ladies at sixteen or earlier, without any real vocation, and lived a routine life in that somewhat relaxed house until her twenty-fifth year, when she purportedly met the young French nobleman Noël Bouton. This man, afterwards known as marquis de Chamilly, and marshal of France, was one of the French officers who came to Portugal to serve under the captain, Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg, the re-organizer of the Portuguese army, campaigning against the Spanish army in the Alentejo.

During the years 1665-1667 Chamilly spent much of his time in and about Beja, and probably became acquainted with the Alcoforado family through Marianna's brother, who was a soldier. Custom permitted those in religious orders to receive and entertain visitors, and Chamilly found it easy to get round the trustful nun. Before long their affair became known and caused a scandal, and Chamilly deserted Marianna and returned to France. This resulted in Marianna writing the letters.

There are signs in the fifth letter that Marianna had begun to conquer her passion, and after a life of rigid penance, accompanied by much suffering, she died at the age of eighty-three.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. (which still maintained the authenticity of the letters)
• Lefcourt Charles R. (September 1976). "Did Guilleragues Write "The Portuguese Letters"?". Hispania 59 (3): 493-497.
• Owen, Hilary (1997). "The Love Letters of Mariana Alcoforado". Cultura 16 (14).
• Cyr Myriam - "Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a Seventeenth-Century Forbidden Love"; Hyperion Books; January 2006; ISBN 07-868-6911-9 (description)