António José de Ávila (Matriz,ónioJosédeÁvilastDukeofÁ Horta; 8 March 1807 – 3 May 1881) was a Portuguese politician, minister of the kingdom, mayor of the city of Horta, on the island of Faial, in the Azores, Civil Governor of the same, Peer-of-the-Realm, Minister of State, and later Ambassador to Spain.
Biography
António José was the son of Manuel José de Ávila, a modest merchant and administrator of the local tithes and his wife, D. Prudenciana Joaquina Cândida da Costa, who lived in a humble home on Rua de Santo Elias.
Of their ten children, only four survived to adulthood: António José was the oldest, his sister Joaquina Emerenciana (born in 1804), Maria do Carmo (born in 1815) and Manuel José (born in 1817). During António José's infancy, the family's economic conditions improved substantially, enough that his father could provide him with sufficient funds to permit him to study off-island: a privilege that only a few families could provide their children.
Career
After completing his local studies, he traveled to Coimbra to study at the University in 1822, receiving a bachelors degree in Philosophy in 1826. While at Coimbra he also frequented some courses in Mathematics and entered the first year studies in Medicine, but he did not show any particular interest in politics. During the Liberal Wars (1832–34) he returned to Horta (the liberal government-in-exile escaped to the Azores during this period), where he taught for several years before becoming a politician of some success. As mayor through D. Pedro's liberal regency, António José was instrumental in obtaining a new charter, that elevated Horta to the status of city (4 July 1833).
Politician
After the War (1834), Ávila was elected to the Cortes, beginning an active and uninterrupted career that would last for the next 47 years, in different positions, in parliamentary and governmental roles, as well as a period in the Chamber of Peers (taking on the leadership of the group from the Duke of Loulé, from 1872 until May 1881). He was, as his biographer once wrote: "...one of the more distinct parliamentarians in the history of Portuguese constitutionalism...". In actuality, in the 11 legislatures that he participated, during 27 years (between 1834 and 1861) he participated in 30 commissions in the Chamber of Deputies, and 40 in the Chamber of Peers (between 1861 and 1881); he was involved in 2000 interventions. He did not limit himself to representing the citizens of Horta; during his many years in parliament he represented populations in Évora, Beja, Estremadura, Beira Alta, Chaves, Vila Real and Oliveira de Azeméis.
An excellent orator, untiring worker and astute politician, he was regularly called on to handle governmental functions. Ideologically, Ávila was a conservative within the liberalist ranks, usually referred to as Cartismo, and was in opposition to the progressive wave that appeared as a result of the Septemberist Revolution (September 1836). As the Septemberist movement declined (with the election of the Cartista Joaquim António de Aguiar, in 1841), he was appointed Ministro da Fazenda (English: Minister of Commerce) in the cabinet of Joaquim António de Aguiar, at the age of 34, maintaining the post in the governments of Costa Cabral and the Duque da Terceira. In 1857, he resumed the Minister of Commerce post, under the premiership of the Duque de Loulé, after the fall of the Saldanha government.