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Biography
Luis Maria Augusto Pinto de Soveral, Marquês de Soveral (28 May 1851 – 5 October 1922) was a Portuguese diplomat. The Kaiser nicknamed him "the Blue Monkey".
He was born at São João da Pesqueira, son of Eduardo Pinto de Soveral, visconde de São Luis, and his wife Maria da Piedade Paes de Sande e Castro.
Joining the diplomatic service, he was an attaché and Secretary of Legation at Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid. He was First Secretary at the London Embassy in 1885 and advanced to the rank of Minister in 1891. He was a Counsellor of State, and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1895 to 1897.
In 1897 he was made an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the British Order of St Michael and St George, and later that year was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St James's. Soveral was a friend of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and a prominent member of the "Marlborough House set". He was Ambassador Extraordinary for Edward VII's coronation and was made an Honorary Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1902. He was Ambassador Extraordinary to the Second Hague Conference in 1907. His tenure as Portuguese Minister in London ended in 1910, when the Revolution of 5 October overthrew the Portuguese monarchy.
Soveral was created a Marquess by the King of Portugal in 1900, and was a Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword. He died at Paris, when his title became extinct.
The sex scandal between the characters Lady Mary and Kemal Pamuk on Downton Abbey was based on a real-life scandal involving the Marquis of Soveral and a daughter of a host at a house where he died.