John VI of Portugal - Private Life

Private Life

As a youth John was a retiring figure, heavily influenced by the clergy, living surrounded by priests and attending daily Mass in the church. Nonetheless, Oliveira Lima affirms that rather than being an expression of personal piety, this merely reflected Portuguese culture at that time, and that the king...

"...understood that the Church, with its body of traditions and its moral discipline, could only be useful for a good government in his manner, paternal and exclusive, of populations whose dominion was inherited with the scepter. Because of this, he was repeatedly the guest of monks and patron to composers of sacred music, but none of these Epicurean or artistic demonstrations compromised his free thought or denatured his skeptical tolerance. ... He made more use of the refectory of the monastery than of its chapel, because was about observance and in one thought of gastronomy, and in terms of observance the pragmatic one was enough for him. In the Royal Chapel he more took pleasure with the senses than he prayed with the spirit: andantes took the place of meditations."

He had a great appreciation of sacred music and was a great reader of works about art, but he detested physical activity. He appeared to have suffered periodic crises of depression. An aversion to changes in his routine extended to his clothing: he wore the same coat until it tore, forcing his chamberlains to sew it on his body while he slept in it. He suffered from panic attacks when he heard thunder, staying in his rooms with the windows shut and receiving no one.

John's marriage was never a happy one. Rumors circulated that at the age of 25 he fell in love with Eugênia José de Menezes, his wife's chaperone. She became pregnant, and John was suspected of being the father. The case was hushed up and the young woman was sent to Spain to bear the child. She gave birth to a daughter, whose name is unknown. The mother lived the rest of her life in nunneries and John supported her economically. Historians Tobias Monteiro and Patrick Wilcken write that there are indications that John also had a homosexual relationship as a sexual outlet, given his disastrous marriage, in which he lived apart from his wife, with whom he was together only on ceremonial occasions. His partner in this relationship would have been his favorite manservant, Francisco de Sousa Lobato, who, according to these historians, may have regularly masturbated his master. While it may have been out of sheer malice, a priest named Miguel stated that he once stumbled upon the scene and therefore was deported to Angola, but not before leaving written testimony. Regardless of the truth or falsity of the claim, Rufino de Sousa received a variety of honors, accumulating among others the charges of adviser to the king, secretary of the Casa do Infantado, secretary of the Bureau of Conscience and Orders (Mesa de Consciência e Ordens) and governor of the Santa Cruz fortress, receiving also the title of Baron and later Viscount of Vila Nova da Rainha.

In the precarious and spare environment of Rio the king's personal habits were simple. In contrast to his relative isolation in Portugal, he became more personally dynamic and interested in nature. He moved frequently between the Paço de São Cristóvão and the viceregal palace in the city, staying also at times at Paquetá Island, Governador Island, at Praia Grande (the beach at Niterói), and at the Royal (later Imperial) House of Santa Cruz. He went hunting and happily slept in a tent or under a tree. He liked the countryside, despite the swarms of mosquitoes and other pests and the scorching heat of the tropics that were detested by the majority of the Portuguese and other foreigners.