Vida, diplomacia e sociabilidade: biografia política de D. Domingos de Sousa Coutinho (1762-1815)

Abstract

The thesis aims to make a biographical approach of Don Domingos Antônio de Sousa Coutinho, Portuguese diplomat born in 1762 in Chaves, Vila Real. Member of one of the most important families of Portuguese nobility, D. Domingos played a prominent role in the context of the so-called Portuguese regime crisis, marked by the Napoleonic invasions and the consequent transfer of the Royal Family to Rio de Janeiro. The study focused on Domingos' political biography, produced from a "cartography of sociabilities". To that end, a mapping of the main spaces of sociabilities in which he was inserted was made. The thesis addresses three of these spaces which, although being divided in the scope of this work, have their points of intersection, namely: the family scope; his formation circle, which comprises his time at Coimbra University and the beginning of his diplomatic career; lastly, his circle in diplomacy with emphasis on the period in which he was Portuguese ambassador in the court of London.