“The beautiful wife with the lover husband”: Portuguese colonial governors’ wives in the mid 18th and early 19th centuries

Abstract

The rulers of the Portuguese colonies did not usually take their wives with them. In the last decades of the eighteenth century, a remarkable change was observed and viceroys and governors proceeded to the colonies accompanied by their wives and often by small sons and daughters, which points to a change of mentality in relation to the family. The present article tries to understand the role played by these women in the colonies.