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 Alexandre Herculano de Carvalho e Araujo was born in Lisbon, March 28, 1810. He was of the common people, and, though he did not receive a university education, he acquired the Latin, English, French, and German languages early, and studied diplomacy and paleography in the Torre do Tombo. During the political disturbances in 1831 he left Portugal and went to Rennes, in France, where he devoted himself to historical studies. The following year he went to the Azores Islands and there enlisted in the army of the Queen of Portugal, from which he was honorably discharged in 1833, when he was made assistant to the episcopal librarian at Lisbon. A few months later he was appointed second librarian of the Public Library of Porto, a position he held until September, 1836, when he resigned for political reasons. In 1837 he was made editor of the Panorama, a literary publication; and in 1839 he was appointed the King's librarian and entrusted with the organization of the royal libraries of Ajuda and the Necessidades Palace in Lisbon. In 1840 he was elected a deputy from the city of Porto, but he does not appear to have been a productive legislator. In 1844 he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and while an active member of that body directed the publication of the Historical Monuments of Portugal, and, in the capacity of director, visited many of the libraries and archives of the country, collecting a large number of documents that were brought together in the Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. From 1857 to 1867 he devoted himself to historical studies and writings. In 1867 he withdrew to a small farm in the Valle dos Lobos where he followed agriculture on a small scale during the remainder of his life. He died there September 13, 1877.

His publications include a History of Portugal in four octavo volumes; one volume of poems; four volumes of romances; two volumes of short stories; one volume on civil marriage; eight volumes of miscellaneous papers on public, economic, and educational questions; and three volumes of the History of the Origin and Establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal.

His life was that of a student, and the last ten years were spent in modest retirement. He is generally recognized as the ablest and best equipped of the Portuguese writers upon history. His most important work is his History of Portugal. That work, however, brings the history of the country only to the end of the reign Affonso III in 1279, and consequently does not cover the period of the establishment of the Inquisition.