João Ameal

João Ameal was the literary pseudonym of Portuguese historian, journalist, politician and author João Francisco de Barbosa Azevedo de Sande Ayres de Campos, 3rd Count of Ameal, GCC (Coimbra, October 23, 1902 – Lisbon, November 23, 1982). Both as an writer and as a politician, he was active chiefly during Portugal's Estado Novo, and is regarded as one of the period's leading historiographers. He is especially renowned for his widespread História de Portugal (History of Portugal), a multi-volume work first published in 1941 and awarded the Alexandre Herculano Prize in 1943.

Family and early life

João Francisco de Barbosa Azevedo de Sande Ayres de Campos was the son of João de Sande Magalhães Mexia Ayres de Campos, 2nd Count of Ameal, and his wife Maria Benedita Falcão Barbosa de Azevedo e Bourbon. His father was a diplomat, having served in this capacity in the Hague, and also as Secretary to Portugal's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Venceslau de Lima. He was the grandson of renowned humanist and art collector João Maria Correia Ayres de Campos, 1st Count of Ameal; his great-grandfather, João Correia Ayres de Campos, a lawyer by profession, had himself been a historian of considerable reputation. Following the footsteps of his grandfather and great-grandfather, he studied Law, graduating from the University of Lisbon in 1921. His parents would die together in a car accident in Ota, near Lisbon, in 1952; until his father's death, he was styled Viscount of Ameal (Portuguese: Visconde do Ameal).

Politics

From a young age, João Ameal was affiliated with the movement called Integralismo Lusitano, a group of catholic royalists and political traditionalists influenced by Counter-Enlightenment ideology, namely by the thought of Charles Maurras and the Action Française.

References

• Respective entry at the Portuguese National Library Website [1]