Alorna, Marquesa de (1750–c. 1839)
Alorna, Marquesa de (1750–c. 1839)
Portuguese poet. Name variations: (pseudonym) Alcipe. Born Leonor de Almeida Portugal de Lorena e Lencastre in Portugal in 1750; died around 1839; married the count of Oeynhausen, in 1779.
In 1758, eight-year-old Marquesa de Alorna was confined, along with her mother and sister, at the convent of Chellas, while her father was imprisoned for conspiring against King Joseph I Emanuel. Alorna was 27 before she was released from the convent upon the death of the king. Two years later, she married the count of Oeynhausen, a diplomat, and moved to Vienna, where he was stationed and would later become minister of Vienna. When the count died in 1793, Alorna and her two children moved to England, then Lisbon. Though she wrote and published poetry, Alorna is best remembered for her salon and her influence on young writers such as Manuel Bocage and Alexandre Herculano. In 1814, she returned to Portugal and reclaimed the titles and properties that had been stripped from the family by the king in 1758.
Crista Martin , Boston, Massachusetts