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Decline and death

King Joseph's daughter and successor, Queen Maria I of Portugal, loathed Pombal. After acceding to the throne, Maria forced Pombal from office.

She also issued one of history's first restraining orders, commanding that Pombal not be closer than 20 miles to her presence. If she were to travel near his estates, he was compelled to remove himself from his house to fulfill the royal decree. The slightest reference to Pombal in her presence was said to have induced fits of rage in the Queen.

Pombal's removal was the cause of much rejoicing and disorder in the streets. The Marquis took refuge first in Oeiras and then in his estate near Pombal. The crowd tried to burn down his house in Lisbon, which had to be protected by the troops. Almost all of his former allies abandoned him.

Pombal built a palace in Oeiras, designed by Carlos Mardel. The palace featured formal French gardens enlivened with traditional Portuguese glazed tile walls. There were waterfalls and waterworks set within vineyards.

Pombal died peacefully on his estate at Pombal in 1782. He was a controversial figure in his own era as it is today; today one of Lisbon's busiest squares and the busiest underground station is named Marquês de Pombal in his honour. There is an imposing statue of the Marquis depicting a lion next to him in the square, symbolising the merits of despotic power. This was the first public statue inaugurated by the Military Dictatorship of 1934, based on early projects by one of Pombal's descendants who was mayor of Lisbon. Several intellectuals of the time, such as Almada Negreiros, expressed their dismay and asked this statue to be removed, but it became an important symbol for the Dictatorship and later for the Portuguese Estado Novo.

João Francisco de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha was his grandson.