Henrique O'Neill, 1st Viscount of Santa Mónica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henrique O'Neill, 1st and only Viscount de Santa Mónica (May 3, 1821, Lisbon – December 6, 1890, Lisbon)


Contents

[edit] Background

Henrique O'Neill was a son of José Maria O'Neill, General Consul of Denmark in Lisbon, Commander of the Royal Orders of the Knights of Christ and of Our Lady of Concepcion of Vila Viçosa, of Portugal, and wife Ludovina de Jesus Alves Solano. He descended from a most noble Irish family that had fled to France in the 17th century due to religious persecution and which then passed to Portugal.

[edit] Career

Bachelor of Law at the Universidade de Coimbra, he left to go to Germany soon after his graduation and there he lectured on Portuguese language at the University of Göttingen. Invited by the minister Martens Ferrão, then Minister of Justice, to come and lead one of the branches of his ministry, he returned to Portugal, where he initiated his career as functionary which rapidly took him to General Director of Justice and Preceptor of Prince Dom Carlos and Infante Dom Afonso, with the title of Major Officer of the Royal Household. He was also General Prosecutor of the Crown and Treasury and Overseer of Queen Dona Maria Pia.

[edit] Other Works

He was a very distinguished and literate person, who socialized with Alexandre Herculano, de Castilho and other worthies of the time, reached a position of a certain relief in Letters since he was a student, when he published poems in the Trovador, to which group he belonged. He translated and adapted the Fables of Lessing and published Fabulário, In Memoriam, Feira da Ladra, and the Turra de Dois Caturras, all in out of the market editions.

[edit] Title, Honours and Decorations

He was a member of His Most Faithful Majesty's Council, 309th Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Our Lady of Concepcion of Vila Viçosa, of Portugal, also Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Rose, of Brasil, and of the Royal Order of the Crown, of Italy, Commander of the Legion d'Honneur, of France, Associate of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon and the Institute of Coimbra. His title of 1st Viscount de Santa Monica was conceded to him by decree dated December 2, 1876, by King Dom Luís I. He used the Arms of O'Neill plenes.

[edit] Sources

  • "Nobreza de Portugal e do Brasil", Volume Terceiro, p. 299