Luís da Cunha

D. Luís da Cunha (; 25 January 1662 – 9 October 1749) was a Portuguese diplomat who served under King John V of Portugal as part of His Most Faithful Majesty's Council. He was also Judge of the Royal Household, Envoy Extraordinary of Portuguese Cortes to London, Madrid and Paris, and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Congress of Utrecht, as well as part of the Portuguese Royal Academy of History.

D. Luis da Cunha was considered an estrangeirado, a Portuguese that has been influenced greatly by foreign ideas. He was a critic of the Inquisition and the persecution of New Christians.

Early life D. Luís da Cunha was born on 23 January 1662, in Lisbon, to D. António Álvares da Cunha, Lord of Tábua, head of the House of Cunha and a member of the Forty Conspirators, and Maria Manuel de Vilhena, of the family of the Counts of Vila Flor.

During his childhood, he lived in the Palace of the Counts of Cunha, in the Bairro Alto neighborhood, which was the headquarters of the Academia dos Generosos, founded by his father, where intellectual and influential people met.

He studied law at the University of Coimbra, where he participated in important negotiations related to the Portuguese intervention in the War of the Spanish Succession, the most complex political event of the time. In 1712, along with the Count of Tarouca, he represented Portuguese interests in the Congress of Utrecht. By April 1712, da Cunha had left his post.

Distinctions Knight Commander of the Order of Christ