King of Portugal 1750-1777. heHe was the 3rd child of king João V and his wife queen Maria Anna Josepha of Austria. He had an elder brother, Pedro, who died at the age of 2. In 1729 José married a Spanish princess, Marianne Victoria of Borbón, daughter of king Felipe V and queen Isabella Farnese of Spain, and José's sister Barbara married the future king Fernando VI of Spain. Marianne Victoria loved music and hunting, but she was also a serious woman, who disliked her husbands affairs, and had no problems about talking about them to everybody. José and Marianne Victoria had no sons and 4 daughters, of whom the eldest Maria Francisca succeeded him on the throne in 1777. Another daughter Maria Benedicta (1746-1829) married her nephew, crownprince José, son of queen Maria I Francisca and Pedro III, when she was 30.José was devoted to the Church and the Opera. He succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1750, 35 years old, and almost immediately placed effective power in the hands of the Marques de Pombal. The powerfull marquess sought to overhaul all aspects of econimoc, social and colonial policy to make Portugal a more efficient contender to the great powers in Europe, and thus secure her opwn middle-power ststus as a result. An alledged conspiracy of the nobles, aimed at murdering king José and the marquess, gave Pombal the pretext to get rid of his personal enemies, the Távora family, and to expel the Jesuits in September 1759, thus gaining control of public education and the wealth of church lands.The reign of José I was also famous for the great Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755, in which around 30.000 people lost their lives. The capital, Lisbon, was eventually rebuilt at great cost, and an equestrian statue of king José still dominates Lisbon's main plaza. With teh death of José I on Febuary 24, 1777 the throne passed to his daughter Maria I Francisca, and Marques Pombal's iron rule was sharply brought to an end.