. D. Leonor de Almeida Portugal was born in
Lisbon, on 31 October 1750, to João de Almeida Portugal, 2nd
Marquis of Alorna and 5th
Count of Assumar, and Leonor de Lorena e Távora, daughter of
Leonor Tomásia de Távora, 3rd Marchioness of Távora. She was born into the House of Távora, one of the most illustrious noble families in Portugal. Her family's wealth and power, however, achieved them suspicion from King
José I's Prime Minister
Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal. These tensions between the Távoras and the Marquis of Pombal accumulated in 1758, when Leonor was eight years old, in the
Távora affair. The affair saw the execution of her maternal grandparents and Leonor and her mother's forced placement in the Convent of São Félix of Chelas, until 1777. Likewise, her father and brother were imprisoned in the
Tower of Belém. While in the convent at Chelas, Leonor lived with her mother and sister. She devoted her time to studying the works of
Rousseau,
Voltaire,
Montesquieu,
Pierre Bayle, and the Encyclopedia of
Diderot. As there was not much for a young girl to do at a convent, Leonor spent most of her time composing poems and other lyrical pieces. It is during her childhood at the convent when Leonor began her career as a poet, publishing her first work, the
Poems of Chelas. It was also in the convent where she came in contact with famed poets and members of the Portuguese literary scene, convents and monasteries having been a traditional place for refuge by writers and artists in Portugal. The convent was often a location of retreat to the members of the Arcadia, a literary society, and to distinguished poets like Francisco Manuel do Nascimento, best known by his pen-name,
Filinto Elísio. Nascimento, having read the
Poems of Chelas, sought out Leonor, to listen her works and discuss poetry with her, and eventually became her tutor in literature, poetry, and
Latin. Nascimento's pen-name was, in fact, given to him by Leonor, while he was her tutor at the convent. It was also during her time at the convent when Leonor started being called
Alcipe, as the nuns often gave nicknames to the young girls at the convent, as they also gave Leonor's sister, Maria de Almeida Portugal, the nickname
Dafne. Leonor finally left the convent in 1777, when she was twenty-seven years old, at the orders of the newly acclaimed Queen
Maria I, who sought to reverse all the policies and actions of the Marquis of Pombal, whom she despised. Similarly, her father and brother were released from Belém Tower and the two branches of the family reunited. The family's former palaces, the envy of the
Portuguese nobility, had been destroyed by order of the Marquis of Pombal, and thus the family moved to the Quinta of Vale de Nabais, outside of Lisbon, which they renamed Quinta of Alorna. Though reduced from their previous standing, the family quickly rose in the Portuguese court and nobility. Leonor rapidly became a personality of the aristocracy, her intelligence and charm having captivated the nobles who expected a girl ruined by a forced convent life. == Marriage ==