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214:, and first wife Leonor Mendes. She had three brothers: Baltasar Vaz Alcoforado, Miguel da Cunha Alcoforado and Francisco da Cunha Alcoforado, and two sisters: Anna Maria da Cunha Alcoforado, wife of Rui de Mello Lobo Freire, and Maria Peregrina Alcoforado. Beja was the chief garrison town of the province and the principal theatre of the twenty-eight years' war with Spain that followed the
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During the years 1665-1667, the marquis of
Chamilly spent much of his time in and about Beja, and probably became acquainted with the Alcoforado family through Sóror Mariana's brother, who was a soldier. Custom permitted those in religious orders to receive and entertain visitors, and Chamilly found
218:. Mariana's widowed father, occupied with administrative and military commissions, placed her in the wealthy convent of the Conception for security and education. He later remarried and had two more daughters, Maria da Conceição Alcoforado and Catarina Alcoforado, and was also made a
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She made her religious profession as a
Franciscan nun of the Poor Ladies at sixteen or earlier, without any real vocation, and lived a routine life in that somewhat relaxed house until her twenty-fifth year, when she purportedly met the young French nobleman
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There are signs in the fifth letter that Soror
Mariana had begun to conquer her passion. After a life of rigid penance, accompanied by much suffering, she died, aged 83. Soror Mariana's life story has also been described in the novel by
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it easy to get round the trustful nun. Before long their affair became known and caused a scandal, and to avoid the consequences
Chamilly deserted Soror Mariana and returned to France. This resulted in Soror Mariana writing the letters.
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Cyr Myriam - "Letters of a
Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a Seventeenth-Century Forbidden Love"; Hyperion Books; January 2006;
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Note: the following biography is based in large part on the letters and may contain, for that reason, fictionalized elements.
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Letters of a
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161:(1628–1684), although a real nun named Mariana Alcoforado indeed existed. In her recent book
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Some literary scholars consider the letters a fictional work and ascribe their authorship to
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
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Lefcourt
Charles R. (September 1976). "Did Guilleragues Write "The Portuguese Letters"?".
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has attempted to reassert the attribution of the letters to the real
Mariana Alcoforado.
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The convent where Soror
Mariana Alcoforado lived (now a regional museum); in
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426:. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 525.
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Owen, Hilary (1997). "The Love
Letters of Mariana Alcoforado".
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This source assumed the authenticity of the letters.
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Debate continues as to whether Mariana was the real
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159:Gabriel-Joseph de Lavergne, comte de Guilleragues
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248:Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg
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