Teófilo Braga

Joaquim Teófilo Fernandes Braga (24 February 1843 – 28 January 1924) was the president of Portugal, serving in 1915. A Portuguese writer, playwright, politician he became the leader of the Republican Provisional Government after the overthrow of King Manuel II, having become president after the resignation of President Manuel de Arriaga.

Biography

Teófilo Braga was born in the Azores, in São José, Ponta Delgada. His father, Joaquim Manuel Fernandes Braga, was probably a descendant of one of King João V's illegitimate children, most likely António of Braganza who was a Doctor in Theology, knight of the Order of Christ and known as one of the Children of Palhavã. His mother was Maria José da Câmara Albuquerque, from the island of Santa Maria, another descendant of Portuguese nobility because she could probably be traced back to Urraca Afonso, who was one of King Afonso III's illegitimate children, as the genealogist Ferreira Serpa has shown. Teófilo was the 13th descendant of Diogo Gonçalves de Travassos, father of D. Pedro, who married Violente Velho Cabral, sister of the Commander of Almourol, Gonçalo Velho, and descendant of Cristovão Falcão, a poet and Count of Avranches. His mother had seven children (Teófilo being the youngest), of which three died during infancy, the others being Luís, João Fernandes and Maria José. Teófilo's father became a widower when Teófilo was only three years old (his mother died at the age of 31). Originally, his father was an artillery lieutenant and commander in Mosteiros, and quit the army after the Concession of Evoramonte, and being without means, he established a nautical school and mathematics in Ponta Delgada, eventually finding a job at the local secondary school. Two years later, the elder Braga married a woman (Ricarda Joaquina Marfim Pereira) with a decidedly bad attitude to the young boy, fathering two daughters with her (Maria da Glória and Maria do Espírito Santo).