FLORIDABLANCA, DON JOSE MORINO Y REDONDO, COUNT OF (1728-1808)

This article appears in Volume V10, Page 546 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FLA-FRA

FLORIDABLANCA, DON JOSE MORINO Y REDONDO, COUNT OF (1728-1808) , Spanish statesman, was born at Murcia in 1728. He was the son of a retired army officer, and received a good education, which he completed at the university of Salamanca, especially applying himself to the study of law. For a time he followed the profession of an advocate, and acquired a high reputation. A more public career was opened to him by the marquis of Esquilache, then

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

minister of state, who sent him

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

to Pope Clement XIV. Successful in his mission, he was soon after appointed by Charles III. successor to his patron, and his administration was one of the most brilliant Spain had ever seen. He regulated the police of Madrid, reformed many abuses, projected canals, established many societies of agriculture and

economy

ECONOMY

and many philanthropical institutions, and gave encouragement to learning, science and the fine arts. Commerce flourished anew under his

rule

RULE

, and the long-

standing

STANDING

disputes with Portugal about the

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

American colonies were settled. He sought to strengthen the alliance of Spain with Portugal by a

double

marriage

MARRIAGE

between the members of the royal houses, designing by this arrangement to place ultimately a Spanish prince on the throne of Portugal. But in this he failed. Floridablanca was the right-hand man of King Charles III. in his policy of domestic reform, and was much under the influence of French philosophes and economic writers. Like other re-formers of that school he was a strong supporter of the royal authority and a convinced partisan of benevolent despotism. The French Revolution frightened him into reaction, and he advocated the support of the first coalition against France. He retained his office for three years under Charles IV.; but in 1792, through the influence of the favourite

Godoy

GODOY, ALVAREZ DE FARIA, RIOS SANCHEZ Y ZARZOSA, MANUEL DE (1767-1851)

, he was dismissed and imprisoned in the castle of Pampeluna. Here he was saved from starvation only by the intervention of his brother. He was afterwards allowed to retire to his estates, and remained in seclusion till the French invasion of 18o8. He was then called by his countrymen to take the presidency of the central junta. But his strength failed him, and he died at Seville on the loth of November of the same yea He left several short treatises on jurisprudence.
See Obras originates del

Conde

de Floridablanca, edited, with biographical introduction, by A. Ferrer del Rio; in the Bi,,lioteca de Rivadeneyra, vol. lix.

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