Jose Moñino, 1st Count of Floridablanca (21 October 1728 – 30 December 1808) was Prime Minister of Spain from 1777 to 1792, succeeding Jeronimo Grimaldi and preceding Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea.
Biography[]
Jose Moñino was born in Murcia, Spain on 21 October 1728, and he became a criminal prosecutor in Castile in 1766. Moñino earned a good reputation as a lawyer, and he supported King Carlos III of Spain's reformist policies, leading to the king appointing him ambassador to Pope Clement XIV in 1772. Moñino was created "Count of Floridablanca" after he acquired the Pope's assistance with the suppression of the Jesuits, and he was named Chief Minister (Prime Minister) in 1777. In 1778, he established commercial freedom in the American colonies, founded the National Bank of San Carlos in 1782, and enacted university reform programs; Spain also assisted France and the United States in the fight against Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. He lost power after liberalism was seen as a threat to Spain after the 1789 French Revolution, and the queen's lover Manuel Godoy ousted Moñino from power by accusing him of embezzlement in 1792.