Martim Afonso de Sousa
Portrait of Martim Afonso de Sousa in Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu, c. 1560.

Governor of Portuguese India
In office 1542–1545
Monarch	John III of Portugal
Preceded by	Estêvão da Gama
Succeeded by	João de Castro
1st Captain-major of the Captaincy of São Vicente
In office 1533–1564
Monarchs	John III of Portugal Sebastian of Portugal
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Pero Lopes de Sousa

Personal details
Born	c. 1500 Vila Viçosa, Kingdom of Portugal
Died	21 July 1564(1564-07-21) (aged 63–64) Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal
Spouse	Ana Pimentel
Children	Pero Lopes de Sousa Lopo Rodrigues de Sousa Rodrigo Afonso de Sousa Gonçalo Rodrigues de Sousa Inês Pimentel Brites Pimentel b. Tristão de Sousa b. Isabel Lopes de Sousa
Military service
Allegiance	Portuguese Empire
Rank	Captain-Major
Battles/wars	Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–1557)

Martim Afonso de Sousa (c. 1500 – 21 July 1564) was a Portuguese fidalgo, explorer and colonial administrator.^[1]^[2]

Life

Martim Afonso de Sousa was born in Vila Viçosa, and had been raised in the Duke of Braganza household and was a personal friend since childhood of King John III of Portugal, being also a cousin.^[2] When he left the service of the Duke of Bragança, in 1516, to stay at the court of the Royal House, he began to take mathematics, cosmography and geography classes with the chief cosmographer Pedro Nunes.^[3] He justified the decision by saying: "The duke can make me mayor, but the king can make me duke", but that never happened.^[1]

After the death of King Manuel II of Portugal, he accompanied the widowed Queen D. Leonor of Austria to Castile, where he married Ana Pimentel, from an illustrious Spanish family, around June 1523. Ana Pimentel was the daughter of Arias Maldonado, commendator of Estriana and governor of Salamanca and Talavera and of D. Joana Pimentel, daughter of D. Pedro Pimentel, Lord of Távara and sister of D. Bernardino Pimentel, 1st Marquis of Távara. The mother of Martim Afonso de Sousa's wife was thus a descendant, on her paternal side, of the Pimentel Counts of Benavente, a lineage of Portuguese origin that passed to Spain in the 14th century; and, on her maternal side, she descended from the Counts of Alba de Liste. This means that, through his marriage, Martim Afonso de Sousa became linked to some of the main lineages in Spain. At the time, it was unusual for non-titled Portuguese noblemen to marry Spanish women who came - even if, as in this case, through female origin - from families of the greatness of Spain, so it can be concluded that Martim Afonso managed to successfully develop a strategy of marriage alliance with positive repercussions in terms of his political career and connections with power in the first court of the Iberian Peninsula.^[3]

In Spain, where he lived for four years, he fought in the service of Emperor Charles V against the French. In the winter of 1525, Martim Afonso played a prominent role in the siege and capture of Fuenterrabía, in northwestern Spain. The emperor publicly praised him and invited him to remain in Castile.^[2]

Expedition to Brazil

Around 1530, King John III determined to send to an official Portuguese expedition to Brazil, and Martim Afonso de Souza was appointed by his first cousin Dom António de Ataíde, 1st Count of Castanheira, member of the Royal Council. Ataíde made this appointment with the intention of distancing Martim Afonso from King John III, so that he would be the only one to have a certain influence on the King.^[2]

Threatened by the presence of French ships along the coast of Brazil, the Portuguese crown in December 1530 sent a fleet with 400 people led by Martim Afonso de Sousa to establish control and explore. His mission was to place Portuguese markers as far south as the River Plate estuary, but he was shipwrecked there.^[4]

Upon return to São Vicente and Santos, in 1532 he led troops guided by the native inhabitants and by earlier Portuguese settlers such as João Ramalho up the Serra do Mar mountains to the area near the future village of São Paulo. On the high plateau, he founded the town of Santo André. He also established a sugar mill near the coast at São Vicente, with sugarcane brought from the Portuguese Cape Verde islands. In both activities, Afonso de Sousa established a pattern followed by Portuguese colonizers and Brazilians for long afterward: the "entradas" and "bandeiras" – or explorations and raids into the interior – and the production of sugar along the coast for export.

He fought French privateers on the coast and was honored by the Portuguese crown, under the reign of King John III, as Donatary captain of two tracts of land in Brazil: the two tracts of the Captaincy of São Vicente. Since the depart, he had received communication from the king that the immense territory would be divided into extensive strips of land: hereditary captaincies. On that occasion, he was given one hundred leagues on the coast and he was authorized to return to Lisbon.^[3] He was authorized to choose another eighty leagues for his younger brother Pero Lopes de Sousa.

Back to the Kingdom

In 1533 he was already in Portugal. Then on December 19, 1533, four months after he had returned from his tiring journey, King John III sent him to serve in India with the post of Captain-Major of the Indian Sea. To this end, he was entrusted with the leadership of five ships. According to chronicler Gaspar Correia, in Legends of India, "Martim Afonso was very disgusted by the decision, because he felt that it was coming from D. António".^[2]

Governor of Portuguese India

He was tasked with protecting Portugal's possessions in the East. He defended the trading post of Diu against Moors and Hindus, defeated the Zamorin of Calicut and fought the corsairs who plundered Portuguese vessels in the region. He agreed to build the Fortress of Diu, obtained through negotiations by Martim Afonso de Sousa when he was in Chaul in 1535. Victorious, he was appointed by the King as Viceroy of the Indies. These and other situations earned him respect and fear in Asia and returning to the Kingdom.

Later life

There is controversy regarding the end of his career. Some historians claim that he returned to Portugal in 1545 or 1546, becoming one of the members of the Council of State.^[2] Others maintain that he was recalled on charges of embezzlement of Crown money and illicit enrichment, remaining away from public life until his death.

He was Lord of Alcoentre, which he bought from the Marquis of Vila Real and Mayor of Rio Maior. He established a morgue, was a donatary captain of the captaincies of São Vicente and Rio de Janeiro, Commendator of Mascarenhas in the Order of Christ and Nobleman of the Council of King John III. At the end of his life, he regained the landlordship of the town of Prado that he had sold as a young man.^[2]

He died on July 21, 1561 and lies in the Convent of São Francisco da Cidade, in Lisbon.

References

External links

Governors and Viceroys of the Portuguese State of India (1505–1961)

Governors and Viceroys of the Portuguese State of India (1505–1961)
Kingdom	Dom Francisco de Almeida 1505–1509 Afonso de Albuquerque 1510–15 Lopo Soares de Albergaria 1515–18 Diogo Lopes de Sequeira 1518–22 Dom Duarte de Menezes 1522–24 Dom Vasco da Gama 1524 Dom Henrique de Menezes 1525–26 Lopo Vaz de Sampaio 1526–29 Nuno da Cunha 1529–38 Dom Garcia de Noronha 1538–40 Dom Estêvão da Gama 1540–42 Martim Afonso de Sousa 1542–45 Dom João de Castro 1545–48 Garcia de Sá 1548–49 Jorge Cabral 1549–50 Dom Afonso de Noronha 1550–54 Pedro Mascarenhas 1554–55 Francisco Barreto 1555–58 Dom Constantino de Bragança 1558–61 Dom Francisco Coutinho 1561–64 João de Mendonça 1564 Dom António de Noronha 1564–68 Dom Luís de Ataíde 1568–71 Dom António de Noronha "Catarraz" 1571–73 António Moniz Barreto 1573–76 Dom Diogo de Menezes 1576–78 Fernão Teles de Menezes 1581 Francisco de Mascarenhas 1581–84 Dom Duarte de Menezes 1584–88 Dom Manuel de Sousa Coutinho 1588–91 Matias de Albuquerque 1591–97 Dom Francisco da Gama 1597–1600 Aires de Saldanha 1600–05 Martim Afonso de Castro 1605–07 Aleixo de Meneses 1607–09 André Furtado de Mendonça 1609–10 Rui Lourenço de Távora 1610–12 Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo 1612–17 Dom João Coutinho 1617–19 Fernão de Albuquerque 1619–22 D. Francisco da Gama (second time) 1622–28 Luís de Brito e Meneses 1629–29 Miguel de Noronha 1629–35 Pero da Silva 1635–39 António Teles de Meneses 1639–40 João da Silva Telo e Meneses 1640–44 Filipe Mascarenhas 1644–51 João da Silva Telo e Meneses 1651 Vasco Mascarenhas 1652–55 Brás de Castro 1655 Rodrigo Lobo da Silveira 1655–56 Manuel Mascarenhas Homem 1656 António de Melo e Castro 1662–66 João Nunes da Cunha 1666–68 Luís de Mendonça Furtado e Albuquerque 1671–76 Dom Pedro de Almeida 1676–78 António Brandão 1678–81 Francisco de Távora 1681–86 Rodrigo da Costa 1686–90 Dom Miguel de Almeida 1690–91 Pedro António de Meneses Noronha de Albuquerque 1692–97 António Luís Gonçalves da Câmara Coutinho 1697–1701 Caetano de Melo e Castro 1702–1707 Dom Rodrigo da Costa 1707–12 Vasco Fernandes César de Meneses 1712–17 Sebastião de Andrade Pessanha 1717 Luís Carlos Inácio Xavier de Meneses 1717–20 Francisco José de Sampaio e Castro 1720–23 Cristóvão de Melo 1723 João de Saldanha da Gama 1725–32 Pedro de Mascarenhas 1732–40 Luís Carlos Inácio Xavier de Meneses 1740–42 Pedro Miguel de Almeida Portugal e Vasconcelos 1745–50 Francisco de Assis de Távora 1750–54 Luís Mascarenhas 1754–56 Manuel de Saldanha e Albuquerque 1758–65 João José de Melo 1768–74 Filipe de Valadares Sotomaior 1774 Dom José Pedro da Câmara 1774–79 Dom Frederico Guilherme de Sousa Holstein 1779–86 Francisco da Cunha e Meneses 1786–94 Francisco António da Veiga Cabral da Câmara 1794–1806 Dom Bernardo José Maria da Silveira e Lorena 1806–16 Dom Diogo de Sousa 1816–21 Dom Manuel da Câmara 1823–25 Dom Manuel Francisco Zacarias de Portugal e Castro 1826–35 Bernardo Peres da Silva 1835 Dom Manuel Francisco Zacarias de Portugal e Castro 1835 Joaquim Manuel Correia da Silva e Gama 1835 Bernardo Peres da Silva 1836–37 Simão Infante de Lacerda de Sousa Tavares 1837–39 José António Vieira da Fonseca 1839 Manuel José Mendes 1839–40 José Joaquim Lopes Lima 1840–42 Francisco Xavier da Silva Pereira 1842–43 Joaquim Mourão Garcez Palha 1843–44 José Ferreira Pestana 1844–51 José Joaquim Januário Lapa 1851–55 António César de Vasconcelos Correia 1855–64 José Ferreira Pestana 1864–70 Januário Correia de Almeida 1870–71 Joaquim José Macedo e Couto 1871–75 João Tavares de Almeida 1875–77 António Sérgio de Sousa 1877–78 Caetano Alexandre de Almeida e Albuquerque 1878–82 Carlos Eugénio Correia da Silva 1882–86 Francisco Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral 1886 Augusto César Cardoso de Carvalho 1886–89 Joaquim Augusto Mouzinho de Albuquerque 1889 Vasco Guedes de Carvalho e Meneses 1889–91 Francisco Maria da Cunha 1891 João Manuel Correia Taborda 1891–92 Francisco Teixeira da Silva 1892–93 Rafael Jácome de Andrade 1893–94 João Manuel Correia Taborda 1894 Elesbão José de Bettencourt Lapa 1894–95 Rafael Jácome de Andrade 1895–96 Prince Afonso Henriques de Bragança 1896 João António de Brissac das Neves Ferreira 1896–97 João Manuel Correia Taborda 1897 Joaquim José Machado 1897–1900 Eduardo Augusto Rodrigues Galhardo 1900–05 Arnaldo de Novais Guedes Rebelo 1905–07 José Maria de Sousa Horta e Costa 1907–10
Republic	Francisco Manuel Couceiro da Costa 1910–17 Francisco Maria Peixoto Vieira 1917 José de Freitas Ribeiro 1917–19 Augusto de Paiva Bobela da Mota 1919–20 Jaime Alberto de Castro Morais 1920–25 Francisco Maria Peixoto Vieira 1925 Mariano Martins 1925–26 Tito Augusto de Morais 1926 Acúrcio Mendes da Rocha Dinis 1926–27 Pedro Francisco Massano de Amorim 1927–29 Acúrcio Mendes da Rocha Dinis 1929 Alfredo Pedro de Almeida 1929–30 João Carlos Craveiro Lopes 1930–36 Francisco Craveiro Lopes 1936–38 José Ricardo Pereira Cabral 1938–45 Paulo Bénard Guedes 1945–46 José Ferreira Bossa 1946–47 José Alves Ferreira 1947–48 Fernando de Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias 1948–52 Paulo Bénard Guedes 1952–58 Manuel António Vassalo e Silva 1958–61
Note: The head of Portuguese India could have either the title of "Governor" or the more prestigious "Viceroy" though their responsibilities were the same

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