This is the first major study in English for over half a century of one of Portugal's most important historical figures, Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo, marques de Pombal'1699-1782). He is best known today as the key figure in the reconstruction of Lisbon after the devastating earthquake of 1755. Pombal was an unusually singleminded and ruthless first minister, yet he was also one of the eighteenth century's most successful `enlightened despots'. This book is essential to a full understanding of the complexities and paradoxes of enlightened rulership in a southers European context.