The Americas

56:1 July 1999,91-113

Copyright by the Academy of American
Franciscan History

A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION:

MANUEL GONCALVES DORIA,
FIRST AFRO-BRAZILIAN TO BECOME A
KNIGHT OF SANTIAGO*

T
he first Afro-Brazilian to be awarded a knighthood in the Portuguese
Order of Santiago seems to have been the light-skinned mulatto,
Manuel Goncalves Doria. In 1628 he was rewarded by King Philip IV
with the habit and knighthood, as well as an annual pension of 20$ or 20
milreis, for his eight years of service as a soldier and captain (through 1627)
and, especially for his bravery in Bahia in 1624 and 1625, fighting against
the Dutch when they captured and occupied Salvador, the capital of Brazil.1
A letter from the crown praised him as "the prime mover behind the attacks
and ambushes" which the Portuguese made as the Dutch occupiers tried to
expand their military presence beyond the city limits.2 So great were his
exploits during the Dutch invasion that the Portuguese-born Jesuit priest
Bartolomeu Guerreiro, in his Jornada dos Vassalos da Coroa de Portugal,

* An earlier version of this article was presented at the XVI Annual Symposium on Portuguese Tra-
ditions, held at UCLA, 25 April 1993.
' See consulta of 26 April 1641 in Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (cited hereafter as ANTT),
Habilitacoes da Ordem de Santiago (cited hereafter as HOS), Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42, fol. 157. Six
documents are included in Doria's above-mentioned dossier: 1) consulta of Mesa da Consciencia e
Ordens dated 16 July 1630 (unnumbered); 2) undated petition of Manuel Gonjalves Doria on the eve of
returning to Brazil (pre-June 1630) (unnumbered); 3) consulta of the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens,
dated 26 April 1641 (fols. 157-162); 4) consulta of the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, dated 9 Septem-
ber 1641 (fols. 156-156v); 5) consulta of the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, dated 6 August 1642 (fols.
346-350v); 6) consulta of the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, dated 16 October 1647 (fol. 156). A sev-
enth document, erroneously filed in a new dossier under the name Manuel Goncalves, Letra M, Maco 5,
Numero 29, contains correspondence with the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, dated 20 April 1630. The
original notarized background investigations are missing. For a recent overview of the recapture of Bahia
in 1625, see Stuart B. Schwartz, "The Voyage of the Vassals: Royal Power, Noble Obligations, and Mer-
chant Capital before the Portuguese Restoration of Independence, 1624-1640," The American Historical
Review, 96:3 (June 1991), 735-762.
2
See Documentos Historicos {cited hereafter as DH) 110 vols. (Rio de Janeiro: Biblioteca
Nacional,1928), XVII, p. 36.

91
92 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

published in Lisbon in 1625, highlighted several examples of his derring-

do.3 Not to be outdone, the Bahian-born Franciscan Frei Vicente do Salvador
gave Goncalves Doria's actions against the Dutch at least eleven mentions
in his Historia do Brasil.4 But as Manuel and many of his contemporaries
would discover, it was one thing to be awarded a knighthood and another to
receive the authorization for the ceremonies to be performed.
What is frequently not realized by scholars is that there was a vast distance
between being awarded a habit and knighthood in one of the three Portuguese
military orders and actually receiving that habit and knighthood. An insight
into this anomaly can be found by examining Francisco de Assis Carvalho
Franco, Nobilidrio Colonial (Sao Paulo, 1941). Though there are some sig-
nificant omissions in his compilation, Carvalho Franco listed the names and
provided short biographical sketches for 698 men—many born or living in
Brazil—who were rewarded for Brazilian services (mostly in the Dutch wars)
with knighthoods in the military orders and patents of nobility. Of his list of
698 individuals, 114 were awarded knighthoods in the Order of Avis and 112
were awarded knighthoods in the Order of Santiago. Yet of the 114 awarded
knighthoods in the Order of Avis only 73 (64%) actually received them.
Forty-one (36%) did not. Of the 112 awarded knighthoods in the Order of
Santiago only 62 (55%) received them. Fifty (45%) did not. Preliminary evi-
dence reveals that there was a similar gap between those awarded knight-
hoods in the Order of Christ and those who actually received them.
The number of Brazilian-born to become knights of Santiago before the
end of Joao IV's reign in 1656 was relatively small. Only eight men became
knights—all from 1631-1655. Four were born in Bahia, two in Pernambuco,
one in Paraiba (Feliciano Dourado who would spend most of his life in royal
service in Portugal),5 and one in Rio de Janeiro (the Amerindian Manuel de
Sousa, who was authorized to become a knight of Santiago in 1644).6 The'
first Brazilian-bora to become a knight in the Order of Santiago was Bal-
tasar de Aragao de Sousa. Like Manuel Goncalves Doria, he was born in
Salvador. He too was being rewarded for his role in the recapture of Bahia

3
See especially Chapters XXIIII and XXV. I have used the edition published by the Biblioteca
Nacional do Rio de Janeiro in 1966.
4
Frei Vicente do Salvador, Historia do Brasil, 1500-1627, 5th ed. by Capistrano de Abreu, Rodolfo
Garcia and Frei Venancio Willeke, OFM (Sao Paulo: Edicoes Melhoramentos, 1965). pp. 441, 446, 447,
449, 460, 461, 463 and 500. Frei Vicente was 63 years of age when he completed his Historia in 1627.
See Ibid., p. 32. Manuel's exploits are also sketched in his patent of captain dated 18 January 1630. DH
XVII, pp. 36-38.
5
See footnote 84 below.
6
ANTT, Chancelaria da Ordem de Santiago (cited hereafter as COS), liv. 15, fols. 136v-137 and !41-
141v.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 93

from the Dutch in 1625 (and the services in Brazil and Angola of his father
who had the same name). Baltasar was issued his authorization to receive
the habit in 1631.7
The number of Brazilian-born to become knights in the Order of Avis
before the death of Joao IV was also small. Only seven became knights 1640-
1656. Three were born in Pernambuco, three in Bahia, and one in Para. The
first Brazilian-born to become a knight in the Order of Avis seems to have
been the Pemambucan Matias de Albuquerque Maranhao, future governor of
Paraiba, who was issued authorization to receive his knighthood in 1640.8
t As can be seen, Manuel Goncalves Doria would eventually become part
of a very select group. But it was not until 18 October 1647, after a great
deal of persistence on his part, that authorization was issued for him to
receive the habit he had been awarded almost two decades earlier.9 The case
of Manuel Goncalves Doria provides an excellent example of how race,
class, and religion (especially suspected New Christian heritage) played a
role in the search for status in the Luso-Brazilian world of the seventeenth
century.10 It also offers an insight into the workings of the Mesa da Con-
sciencia e Ordens and its relationship with the Crown.
Manuel was not the first person of African heritage to become a knight in
the Portuguese Order of Santiago. In the sixteenth century at least two and
possibly three men of African heritage had become knights in the order. The
first of the two, whose cartas de hdbito can be found in the order's registry
books, was Luis Peres, identified as fidalgo da casa del Rei de Congo and
his Lord Chamberlain (camareiro-mor). On 24 March 1550 he was issued
authorization to have the ceremonies performed for the reception of the
habit and knighthood in the order." The second was D. Pedro da Silva, iden-
tified as cavaleiro fidalgo da casa real, homen preto, and emissary (embaix-
ador) of the King of Angola. His authorization for a knighthood in the Order
of Santiago was dated 20 May 1579.'2 The record is not as clear for the third
person of African heritage said to be a knight of Santiago since his carta de
hdbito and alvard de cavaleiro have not yet been found in the order's reg-
istry books. This third person, Joao de Sa Panasco, was the famous court

7
ANTT, COS, liv. 13, fol. 139v.
8
ANTT, Chancelaria da Ordem de Avis, liv. 14, fol. 43v.
9
ANTT, COS, liv. 15, fol. 168.
10
See also Francis A. Dutra, "Blacks and the Search for Rewards and Status in Seventeenth-Century
Brazil," Proceedings ofthe Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies, vol. 6 (1977-1979), 25-35.
" ANTT, Ordem de Santiago, liv. 27, fols. lv-2 and 2v [formerly catalogued as Conventos Diversos,
Santiago, B-50-27].
12
ANTT, COS, liv. 1, fols. 369-369v.
94 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

jester during the reign of King Joao III. A former slave who rose to the rank
of cavaleiro da casa real, Panasco was said to have worn the habit of the
Order of Santiago.13 A document dated 16 June 1547 describes him as "Joam
de saa, homen preto caval(ey)ro de minha casa."14
Manuel Goncalves Doria was born in the Brazilian capital of Salvador,
the son of the Portuguese-born Domingos Pires and the Brazilian-born
Maria Fragosa. Domingos Pires and his parents (Manuel's paternal grand-
parents) were born in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Portela de Sao Fins de
Famel, near Barcelos in northern Portugal. Manuel's mother, born in Sal-
vador, Brazil, was the daughter of Luis Goncalves Doria, born on the island
of Madeira, and Isabel Fernandes, who was born in Porto and, as a little girl,
had lived on the Rua da Congosta before sailing to Brazil with her mother
as a seven-year-old.15
All three Portuguese military orders—Christ, Santiago, and Avis—under-
went significant reforms during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, who
governed Portugal until Spanish Habsburg rule was overthrown with the
acclamation on 1 December 1640 of D. Joao, 8th Duke of Braganca, as king
of Portugal. New statutes for each of the three orders were promulgated by
Philip IV in Madrid on 30 May 1627.16 Santiago's new statutes were

" See A. C. de C. M. Saunders, "The Life and Humour of Joao de Sa Panasco, o Negro, Former Slave,
Court Jester and Gentleman of the Portuguese Royal Household (fl. 1524-1567)" in F. W. Hodcroft et al.,
Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies on Spain and Portugal in Honor of P. E. Russell (Oxford: Society
for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature, 1981), p. 183. To date, the best evidence that Joao
de Sa Panasco was a knight of Santiago is dito 402: "Zombando Fernao Cardoso com Joao de Sa, o
Negro, diante de el-rei, correu-se Joao de Sa; e Fernao Cardoso, assoprando-lhe no habito de Sant'Iago
que trazia, disse a el-rei: — Senhor, assopro esta brasa, porque se apaga este carvao." In Autor Descon-
hecido, Ditos Portugueses Dignos de Memoria. Historia Intima do Seculo XVI. Anotada e comentada por
Jose H. Saraiva, 3rd ed. (Lisbon: Publicacoes Europa-America, 1997), p. 152. Brasa refers to the red'
cross of the Order of Santiago on the front of their black habits.
14
ANTT, Chancelaria de D. Joao III, liv. 29, fol. 42, cited in Saunders, "Life," p. 184n. There is a
"Joao de Saa" listed under "cavalleiros" in the "Livro dos Moradores da Casa do Senhor Rey D. Joao III.
do nome, Rey de Portugal," published by D. Antonio Caetano de Sousa, Provas da Historia Genealog-
ica da Casa Real Portuguesa, 2nd ed., M. Lopes de Almeida and Cesar Pegado eds., 6 vols, in 12 (Coim-
bra: Atlantida-Livraria Editora, 1946-1954), 11:2, p. 491.
15
See the Biblioteca Nacional's, Ementas de Habilitagoes de Ordens Militares nos Principios do
Seculo XVII (hereafter cited as Ementas) (Lisbon: Biblioteca Nacional, 1931), pp. 86-87, and the con-
sulta of the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, dated 6 August 1642 in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4,
Niimero 42, fol. 346. According to the Ementas, Manuel's paternal grandparents were Jacome Martins
and Catarina Pires who were born in Porto. One witness claimed that young Isabel was ten years old
when she left Porto for Bahia. See consulta of 26 April 1641, ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Niimero
42, fol. 139v.
16
The early seventeenth-century statutes are conveniently reprinted in Jose Justino de Andrade e
Silva, Colleccdo Chronologica da Legislacao Portugueza (cited hereafter as CCLP), 10 vols. (Lisbon,
1854-1859). Those for the Order of Christ and the Order of Avis are found in volume III, pp. 181-271
and 272-408, respectively, while those for Santiago are found in volume IV, pp. 1-66.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 95

processed through its Chancellery in Lisbon on 23 November of that year.17

In the order's General Chapter of 1627, eighty-eight new statutes
[Definigoes] were authorized, replacing those in effect since 1542 when a
similar reform had been undertaken by Master D. Jorge.18 These regulations
of 1627 were the ones in effect when Manuel Goncalves Doria was awarded
his knighthood in the Order of Santiago.
Although the requirements for admission were the same for all three
orders, each order's regulations had a different flavor.19 The Order of Santi-
ago's Definigao III ("Qualifications a person must have to be received into
the Order") made a special point of revoking a significant part of Chapter
Four of the Order's 1542 Rule and Statutes. Chapter Four ("Those persons
to whom the habit should be granted") allowed Moslems and Jews who con-
verted to Christianity and who could be of service to the order to become
knights of Santiago.20 The new Definigao III not only revoked this provision,
but emphasized that a habit and knighthood could not be granted to any
person of Jewish or Moslem background and that a dispensation could not
be sought without the approval of the order's General Chapter. Furthermore,
Definigao III stated that anyone seeking to be a knight of the Order of San-
tiago must be noble on both his paternal and maternal sides, of legitimate
birth, an Old Christian, without any taint of Muslim, Jewish, or New Chris-
tian heritage—no matter how remote—and not descended from anyone who
had committed the crime of lese-majesty.21 Furthermore, the candidate, his

" CCLPIV, 65. The Order of Christ's new statutes were processed through its Chancellery in Lisbon
five days earlier on 18 November. CCLP III, 271. For reasons that are not clear, it was not until 7 Sep-
tember 1630 that the same was done for the statutes of Avis. CCLP III, 386.
18
For more on the Order of Santiago in the sixteenth century, see Francis A. Dutra, "Evolution of the
Portuguese Order of Santiago, 1492-1600," Mediterranean Studies, vol. 4 (1994), 63-72.
" Requirements for the Order of Christ are found in its 1627 Rule and Statutes, Part I, Title XVIII
(CCLP III, 203). Requirements for knighthood in the Order of Avis are found in Title III, Chapter IX
(CCLP III, 309).
20
This Chapter 4 is reprinted in CCLP IV, 20.
21
Despite various regulations prohibiting anyone of New Christian background from becoming a
member of the military orders, it was possible for those with such a background to obtain dispensations—
though usually papal as well as royal ones were required. This was true both before the 1627 reformed
statutes for all three orders as well as after (until the early 1670s). See Fernanda Olival, "Para um Estudo
da Nobilitacao no Antigo Regime: Os Cristaos Novos na Ordem de Cristo (1581-1621)" in As Ordens
Militares em Portugal (Palmela: Camara Municipal de Palmela, 1991), pp. 233-244. Regulations against
the admission of New Christians into the military orders began to harden during the reign of King Sebas-
tian (1557-1578), especially with his regimento on the subject dated 6 February 1572. Despite the strong
language both in this regimento and the 1627 statutes, during the last years of Habsburg rule in Portugal
(1635-1640) thirteen New Christians received dispensations to become knights of Santiago. For these
thirteen—all of whom remained loyal to Philip IV—see Francis A. Dutra, "The Restoration of 1640, the
Ausentes em Castela, and the Portuguese Military Orders: Santiago, a Case Study" in Joao Camilo dos
Santos and Frederick G. Williams, eds., O Amor das Letras e das Gentes. In Honor of Maria de Lourdes
96 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

parents and his grandparents on both sides were not to have been heathens,
rent collectors (rendeiros), moneychangers (cambiadores), traders or dealers
(mercadores), usurers (usurdrios), or their agents. In addition, the candidate,
his parents, and both sets of grandparents were never to have practiced any
artisan activity, or any lowly or indecorous occupation or have earned their
living by manual labor. Anyone later discovered to have violated these pro-
hibitions would be defrocked and expelled from the order.22
Though the details of how the background investigations of candidates
should take place were not specifically spelt out in the 1627 Statutes of the
Order of Santiago, they were detailed in Title XIX of the 1627 Statutes of
the Order of Christ and Title III, Chapter 10 of the Statutes of the Order of
Avis.23 An almost identical process was in use for all three military orders.24
Later in the century, there was a common printed questionnaire for the back-
ground investigations.25
Definigao V ("How to perform the background investigations of the
knights") of the Order of Santiago's new statutes stated that a background
investigation should be conducted by a knight and by a cleric of the Order
of Santiago, and that both should make a conscientious effort to get unbiased
and truthful information regarding the quality and purity of blood of the can-
didate, his parents, and grandparents. The knight and cleric were expected to
visit the birthplaces of the candidate, his parents, and his grandparents. If
these birthplaces were scattered, two or three (or more) sets of investigations
would be undertaken. If knights lived near some of the more remote towns
and villages from Lisbon, these knights were frequently given the assign-
ment. The order's statutes stated that the investigations should be handled
with "the appropriate exactitude, integrity, and secrecy." The cost of the
investigations was to be born by the candidate.26
Because during the Habsburg period the Orders of Santiago and Avis were
only about one-sixth the size of the Order of Christ,27 it was not unusual—

Belchior Ponies (Santa Barbara: Center for Portuguese Studies, University of California at Santa Bar-
bara, 1995), p. 118.
22
The regulations in Definicao III are found in CCLPIV, 37.
21
See CCLP III, 203-207 and 310-311, respectively.
24
For the Order of Christ during this period, see Francis A. Dutra, "Membership in the Order of Christ
in the Seventeenth Century: Its Rights, Privileges, and Obligations," The Americas, 27:1 (July 1970), 3-
25.
25
See, e.g., that for Pedro de Barbudo Maldonado, dated 8 March 1680, in ANTT, HOS, Letra P,
Maco 1, Niimero 23.
26
CCLP IV, 37.
27
For the number of knights in the Order of Christ 1510-1621, see Francis A. Dutra, "Membership in
the Order of Christ in the Sixteenth Century: Problems and Perspectives," Santa Barbara Portuguese
Studies, vol. I (1994), 233.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 97

despite what Definigao V stated—to have the background investigation per-

formed by a knight of the Order of Christ, especially in areas like Portuguese
America, where there were only a handful of knights of Santiago. Therefore,
it is not too surprising that the task of conducting Goncalves Doria's back-
ground investigation in Bahia was given to a knight in the Order of Christ, in
this case, Diogo Luis de Oliveira, Governor-General of Brazil.28
Diogo Luis de Oliveira, a member of the king's council, had earlier
served as mestre de campo in Flanders. By a carta regia of 26 February
1625, he was named governor-general of Brazil, but it was not until 25
August of the following year that he left Lisbon. After a brief but unautho-
rized stop at Pernambuo, he arrived in the Brazilian capital in early January
of 1627 and was officially installed as governor-general on the 27th of that
month.29 He remained in that post until 11 December 1635, when he was
replaced by Pedro da Silva, future 1st Count of Sao Lourenco.30
In September of 1628, the governor-general was given the charge of pre-
siding over the investigation into Manuel Goncalves Doria's Brazilian back-
ground.31 Diogo Luis de Oliveira had been a knight in the Order of Christ
since 1598.32 At the time of his appointment as governor-general of Brazil in
1625, he was commander of three commanderies in the Order of Christ:
Santo Adriao in the diocese of Porto, Sao Pedro de Comedeiros in the dio-
cese of Guarda, and Nossa Senhora de Anunciacao de Lourinha in the arch-
diocese of Lisbon.33
In December of 1628 the investigation of Manuel Goncalves Doria headed
by Oliveira had begun with the assistance of Padre Francisco, a canon in the
cathedral of Bahia, who served as scribe. People from Bahia were sought out

28
Despite the fact that Diogo Luis de Oliveira held office almost three times the normal term and was
one of the longest serving governors-general in seventeenth-century Brazil, he has yet to find a biogra-
pher.
2
' See Joaquim Ven'ssimo Serrao, 0 Brasil Filipino ao Brasil de 1640 (Sao Paulo: Companhia Edi-
tora Nacional, 1968), pp. 202-204.
30
Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, Historia Geral do Brasil, 7th ed., 5 vols. (Sao Paulo: Edicoes Mel-
horamentos, 1962), V, p. 245. See also Pedro Calmon, Historia do Brasil, 7 vols. (Rio de Janeiro:
Livraria Jose Olympio Editora, 1959), II, p. 530.
31
See consulta of 26 April 1641 in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Ntimero 42, fol. 158v.
32
ANTT, Chancelaria da Ordem de Cristo (cited hereafter as COC), livro 10, fols. 348-348v. Oliveira
also was listed in the order's Livro da Matricula. See Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (cited hereafter as
BNM), lib. 938, fol. 132.
33
See respectively, ANTT, COC, liv. 13, fol. 203v; liv. 9, fol. 63v; and liv. 21, fol. 54v. As an induce-
ment for him to serve in Brazil, he was issued an alvard dated 14 March 1625, allowing him to use the
receipts of his three commanderies for four years to pay his debts if he died in Brazil. The following day
he was promised a commandery -valued at $400 annually. Later that year, on 20 September, he was
granted $100 annually from the commandery of Sao Martinho de Pombal. See Ibid., liv. 12, fol. 39v and
fol. 36v.
98 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

who could testify to the nobility and purity of blood of Manuel and his par-
ents.34 A number of witnesses claimed that Manuel's maternal grandmother
was not the Isabel Fernandes born in Porto but a mestica (or mameluca as she
was called) with the same name born in the captaincy of Itamaraca, north of
Pernambuco. Furthermore, witnesses claimed that this Isabel's father was
Sebastian Dias, an Old Christian, who had married the mestica Cecilia Fer-
nandes, who, in turn, was the daughter of a New Christian and a Brazilian
Indian. Three witnesses stated that Manuel's maternal grandmother, Isabel
Fernandes, had been sentenced as a New Christian in an auto-da-fe held in
Bahia in the early 1590s when the Inquisitor Heitor Furtado de Mendoca had
visited Brazil and that they had been present.35 Furthermore, another witness,
Padre Francisco Ribeiro, swore that Manuel's maternal grandmother was
tainted with the infamy of being a New Christian. Nine other witnesses stated
that they had heard it said that Isabel Fernandes was a New Christian but
were unable to say where they had heard the information.36 Because of this
testimony accumulated by Diogo Luis de Oliveira, the Mesa de Consciencia
e Ordens headquartered in Lisbon decided that Manuel could not receive the
knighthood he had been awarded unless a papal dispensation were granted
and so advised King Philip IV, governor and administrator of all three Por-
tuguese military orders.37
Manuel Goncalves Doria seems to have visited Portugal twice during the
years 1628-1630. The first visit probably occurred sometime in the first half
of 1628. His objective was twofold. First, to petition for a knighthood in one
of the military orders because of his services against the Dutch in 1624 and
1625. Second, to obtain a new commission as a captain, since the company
he headed in Bahia had been reorganized in August of 1627 and he had lost
his post.38 He achieved both objectives. He was awarded a knighthood in the

34
ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42, fols. 158v-159.
" These three witnesses were Francisco de Barbuda, Tomas Pires, and Ant6nio do. . . . (The surname
of the last-mentioned is lost in the dossier's binding.)
16
They were Bras da Costa, Pedro Viegas, Jorge Ferreira, Aires de Aguirre, Luis Fernandes, Fran-
cisco Dias, Captain Joao Barbosa [de Melo]; Domingos Perdigao and Mateus Nunes.
37
See consulta of 16 July 1630, ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42. See also Ementas, pp.
86-87.
38
The reorganization had been ordered by the Crown on 12 June 1626 and implemented by the gov-
ernor-general Diogo Luis de Oliveira on 31 August 1627. See Biblioteca da Ajuda (hereafter cited as
BA), 49-X-7, fol. 136. For a brief sketch of the military structure of seventeenth-century Brazil, see "A
Note on Portuguese and Brazilian Military Organization" by Stuart B. Schwartz in Juan Lopes Sierra, A
Governor and His Image in Baroque Brazil The Funeral Eulogy ofAfonso Furtado de Castro do Rio de
Mendonca. Stuart B. Schwartz ed., Ruth E. Jones trans. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1979), pp. 173-177. In 1638, because of the Dutch threat, there were four tercos in Bahia: 1) the Terco
Velho with Giovanni Vincenzo de San Felice, Count of Bagnuoli, as mestre de campo; 2) the Terco Novo
with Luis Barbalho Bezerra as mestre de campo; 3) the Terco de Castela (also known as the Spanish
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 99

Order of Santiago with an annual pension of 20$ or 20 milreis. On 10 June

1628 he was issued an alvard granting him the next vacant post in one of the
companies in Bahia with orders to return to Brazil to take up his charge.39 On
11 August he was still in Portugal preparing to return to Brazil with a com-
pany of infantry.40 However, Manuel most probably was in Bahia about the
time the governor-general was undertaking his background investigation for
membership in the Order of Santiago.
The exact date Manuel returned to Portugal a second time is not known,
but it was probably in the latter part of 1629. Again, there was a twofold pur-
pose. First, he had lost his alvard of 10 June 1628 granting him the captain-
ship and needed a replacement one.41 On 18 January 1630 a new alvard was
issued.42 Second, and most importantly for Manuel, was his appeal to the
Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens. Though the statutes of the Order of Santiago
stated that the names of the investigators and the witnesses were to be kept
secret, Manuel managed to discover that the person in charge of this back-
ground investigation was his mortal enemy, Governor-General Diogo Luis
de Oliveira. He also uncovered the names of some of the witnesses who had
given testimony unfavorable to him.
In his appeal, Manuel pointed out that, because of the governor-general's
animosity toward him, trustworthy witnesses were not chosen. According to
Manuel, the governor-general hated him because he suspected that Manuel
had testified against him in an investigation regarding the governor-gen-
eral's behavior early in his administration.43 In fact, Manuel charged that

Infantry Ter9o) with Joao Ortiz as mestre de campo; 4) the Terco de Napoles with Heitor de LaCalche as
mestre de campo. See Pedro Cadena de Vilhasanti, Relacao Didria do Cerco da Bahia de 1638. Serafim
Leite, S.J. and Manuel Murias eds. (Lisbon: Editorial Atica, 1941), pp. 147-156.
39
DH XVII, 36-37. Earlier he had been given a company of infantry by a carta regia dated 29 April
1628. See the requerimento of Manuel Goncalves Doria and its annexes described in Luiza da Fonseca,
"Indice Abreviado dos Documentos do Seculo XVII do Arquivo Historico Colonial de Lisboa" in Anais
do Primeiro Congresso de Historia da Bahia, 5 volumes (Salvador: Tipografia Beneditina, Ltda., 1950),
II, p. 42. The items are numbered 466-468. The Arquivo Historico Colonial is now the Arquivo Historico
Ultramarine
40
See document no. 468 mentioned in the preceding note.
41
DH XVII, 37.
42
Ibid.
43
For this or a similar investigation, see Stuart B. Schwartz, Sovereignty and Society in Colonial
Brazil. The High Court of Bahia and its Judges, 1609-1751 (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1973), p. 199. For other complaints against Oliveira, see the undated document entitled "Queixas que
Lourenco de Brito Correa faz a S. Mag. das vexacoes, opressoes publicas, injustices e roubos que Diogo
Luiz de Oliveira, Goveraador do Brasil, cometeu naquelle Estado," BA, 49-X-10, fol. 320. The king's
response is dated 28 August 1631, BA, 51-VI-3, fol. 29v. See also the letters of the governor of Portu-
gal, dated 14 February 1632 (BA, 51-VI-4, fol. 212v) and the king, dated 15 December 1632, (BA, 51-
VI-6, fol. 54v). On 27 August 1633 Lourenco was identified as Captain Lourenco de Brito Correa,
Fidalgo da Casa de Sua Magestade. See Livro Velho do Tombo do Mosteiro de Sao Bento da Cidade do
100 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

Oliveira had harassed him to the point of trying to have him assassinated and
later would present evidence—an affidavit from Pedro da Silva, Oliveira's
successor as governor-general—to this effect.44 It is not known if Diogo Luis
de Oliveira were held to account for his behavior.45 Records of his residen-
cia seem to have been lost.46 Manuel went on to say that since the governor-
general's ploys had not been effective, Oliveira tried to obtain revenge when
given the task of presiding over the Brazilian part of Manuel's background
investigation. Instead of questioning men of venerable age and quality who
resided in Bahia, knew Manuel's maternal grandparents, and could freely
and dispassionately swear to the truth of the matter, the governor-general
interviewed men not only of little credit but who were publicly known as
disreputable. Manuel then proceeded to list the names of a number of those
who had testified against him: Domingos Perdigao, who by sentence of the
Brazilian High Court (Relacao) had been condemned for perjury; Joao Bar-

Salvador (Bahia: Tipografia Beneditina, 1945), p. 80. Other complaints about the "molestias e vexacoes"
caused by the governor-general are found in the letters of Francisco Soares de Abreu, provedor-mor da
fazenda: Letter to the king, dated 20 November 1629, BA, 49-X-10, fol. 144; letters to the king, 25 Sep-
tember and 1 October 1630, BA, 51-X-12, fols. 154, 208, 290 and 370. Oliveira's retaliation against
Soares de Abreu is discussed in the latter's letter of 3 February 1632, BA, 49-X-12, fol. 22. See also the
response of the Conselho da Fazenda in documents dated 11 December 1635, BA, 49-X-10, fol. 165. The
case dragged on even after Soares deAbreu's death. Seethe consulta of 30 March 1640, BA, 51-V-6, fol.
286. The governor-general imprisoned Lourenco de Brito Correia. See the king's letters of 18 March and
15 December 1632 in BA, 51-VI-4, fol. 60v and 51-VI-6, fol. 54v, respectively.
44
The affidavit by Pedro da Silva is mentioned in the Mesa's consulta of 6 August 1642 in ANTT,
HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42, fol. 346v. In addition, Manuel presented further documentation
regarding the governor-general's "grandes mollestias e perseguicoes." See consulta of 26 April 1641 in
Ibid., fol. 157.
45
Clearly, his military experience as mestre do campo in Flanders and the dangers Brazil was facing
from Dutch attack—Pernambuco had been invaded in February of 1630—go far to explain King Philip
IV's reluctance to remove him from office. Oliveira was praised for readying Bahia defensively and for
defending the Brazilian capital against the two attacks of Piet Heyn in 1627. See the praise given Oliveira '
in D. Francisco Manuel de Melo, Epandforas de Vdria Historia Portuguesa, 3rd ed., Edgar Prestage ed.
(Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, 1931), pp. 378-379. For a favorable account by a modern historian
of Oliveira's three terms as governor-general, see Calmon, Historia do Brasil II, 530.
46
However, both Matias de Albuquerque (former governor-general of Brazil and superintendent of
the war against the Dutch in Pernambuco until 1635) and Diogo Luis de Oliveira, after having arrived in
northern Portugal upon returning with the fleet from Brazil in 1636, were ordered to be taken into cus-
tody. Albuquerque was imprisoned in Castelo da Vide and Oliveira in Tomar, while official investigations
(devassas) were being undertaken by Francisco de Andrade Leitao and Jorge Correia de Lacerda. See
letter of King to Vicereine of Portugal, Princess Margarida, Madrid, 11 August 1636, BA, 51-VI-8, fol.
40. Albuquerque remained under arrest until the Portuguese Restoration. Oliveira was freed and in 1637
served in Cantabria as mestre de campo under the Neapolitan D. Francisco Carrafa, Duke of Nochera, to
defend northern Spain against the French armies of Louis XIII. However, both men incurred the dis-
pleasure of the Count-Duke of Olivares and were imprisoned. For the death of Oliveira in prison, see D.
Francisco Manuel de Melo, Ecco Polytico. Responde en Portugal a la Voz de Castilla (Lisbon: Paulo
Craesbeeck, 1645), pp. llv-12. For more on Oliveira after his service in Brazil, see the same author's
Epandforas, pp. 42; 64; 142-143. Oliveira was still dealing with repercussions from his actions as gov-
ernor-general of Brazil as late as 26 March 1639. See consulta of that date in BA, 51-V-6, fol. 201.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 101

bosa de Melo, who by sentence of the ecclesiastical administrator of

Paraiba, had been expelled from that captaincy for consenting to the adul-
teries of his wife; Bras da Costa Cirne had been sentenced by Brazil's
Bishop D. Manuel Teixeira; and Gabriel da Costa and Domingos Mendes,
brothers and fishermen who were sons of a "mourisca captiva" who had
escaped from her master on the island of Terceira and fled to Bahia. More-
over, as Goncalves Doria emphasized, most of these witnesses were of so
young an age that they could not have personal knowledge of his grandpar-
ents.47 Furthermore, Manuel added, in 1627 in Bahia, in preparation for his
background investigation, he had gathered affidavits sworn to by persons of
quality attesting to the fact that he was an "Old Christian of pure blood with-
out any taint of contaminated race or any other ignominy or incapacity."48

Manuel was still in Portugal when news arrived that the Dutch on 15 Feb-
ruary 1630 had attacked Pernambuco.49 He was ordered by the crown to sail
to Pernambuco on the first caravels sent to help drive out the Dutch.50 In
response, Manuel sought to have new witnesses in Lisbon questioned who
knew the truth about his background, especially regarding his purity of
blood, so that he could receive his knighthood in Santiago before returning
to Portuguese America.51 But the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens informed
the king and the governor of Portugal that the matter was too complicated
for a quick decision and that the order's statutes should be followed.52 On 20
April 1630, D. Diogo de Castro, 2nd Count of Basto and now governing
Portugal, recommended that further information be obtained as soon as pos-
sible and that a report be submitted.53 In response, Manuel asked that what-
ever needed to be done, be done quickly, so that he could receive the knight-
hood promised him, pointing out that public knowledge of such an honor
would be an inspiration to others born in Portuguese America, especially in
light of the need to drive the Dutch from Brazil.54

On 26 June 1630 the governor of Portugal sent the case back to the Mesa
da Consciencia e Ordens for further recommendations, since the award had

47
See consulta of 6 August 1642 in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42, fols. 346v-347 and
the consulta of 26 April 1641 in Ibid., fols. 157-158.
48
See consulta of 26 April 1641, ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42, fol. 158.
49
For details on the Dutch invasion and the Iberian response, see Charles R. Boxer, The Dutch in
Brazil 1624-1654 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), pp. 39-43.
50
See consulta of 6 August 1642 in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42, fol. 347v.
" See the letter of 20 April 1630, HOS, Letra M, Maco 5, Numero 29 and the consulta of 16 July
1630 in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42.
52
See letter of 20 April 1630, ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 5, Numero 29
53
Ibid.
54
Undated formal petition (requerimento) in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42.
102 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

already been made.55 In the meantime, Captain Goncalves Doria was en

route to Pernambuco. By 24 July 1630 he had arrived there, for on that date
his alvard of captain was registered at the Arraial de Bom Jesus by Matias
de Albuquerque.56 Meanwhile, on 16 July 1630, a new consulta was issued
by the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens. The Mesa stated that impediments
discovered in the background investigation needed dispensations—espe-
cially Manuel's lack of purity of blood on the part of his maternal grand-
mother, which required a papal dispensation. However, since Manuel com-
plained of bad will (md vontade) towards him on the part of the knight who
had conducted the investigation in Bahia, the Mesa recommended that a
second background investigation be undertaken in Bahia as soon as possible
by a suitable person. Then, the deputies stated, it would be clear how the
king should proceed and whether a dispensation was actually needed. On 14
August the Governor of Portugal agreed with this recommendation.57

A new background investigation was undertaken in Brazil, this time

headed by the aging Bento Maciel Parente, the noted Indian fighter and con-
queror of Maranhao.58 Bento Maciel Parente had himself been awarded a
knighthood in the Order of Santiago at one time and had undergone a back-
ground investigation for admission into that order, but eventually became a
member of the Order of Christ.59 He had been awarded a knighthood in the
latter order by May of 1630. He successfully fought to have the earlier back-
ground investigation for Santiago used for admission into the Order of
Christ and to have the ceremonies of receiving the habit at Lisbon's
monastery of Nossa Senhora da Luz since he was at that time preparing to
sail on the fleet that was bringing aid to Pernambuco. Bento's background
investigation revealed that he himself was more than fifty years old and may

55
ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 5, Numero 29. See also the consulta of 16 July 1630, ANTT, HOS,
Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42.
56
DH XVII, p. 38. He probably arrived shortly before 18 July 1630, for on that day Captain Santos
da Costa,"who only a few days earlier had arrived from Portugal," was killed in a skirmish against the
Dutch. See Duarte de Albuquerque Coelho, Memorias Didrias da Guerra do Brasil, 1630-1638 (Recife:
Secretaria do Interior, 1944), pp. 41-42, under the entry of 18 July. This is a Portuguese translation of
Memorias Didrias de la Cverra del Brasil (Madrid: Diego Diaz de la Carrera, 1654). Duarte was the
fourth lord-proprietor of Pernambuco. Matias de Albuquerque was Duarte's younger brother.
57
ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42. The consulta was signed by the deputies D. Antonio
Mascarenhas, Sebastiao de Carvalho, Diogo de Brito, and D. Carlos de Noronha.
58
Bento Maciel Parente, who has been described as "a courageous but rapacious Indian-fighter and
backwoodsman," still lacks a definitive biography. The quotation is from Stuart B. Schwartz, "Colonial
Brazil, c. 1580-C.1750: Plantations and Peripheries" in Leslie Bethell, ed., The Cambridge History of
Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984) II, p. 474.
59
It is not clear if he were ever a knight in Santiago. There is no record of his membership in the reg-
istry books of the order.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 103

have turned up evidence that his father had been a tailor.60 Authorization for
the knighthood, habit, and profession of vows in the Order of Christ were
issued on 8 June 1630.6'

Bento Maciel Parente seems to have been born in Viana do Castelo in

northern Portugal in 1567 but at a very young age came to Pernambuco
where he had many relatives. There he grew up.62 He was present in the cap-
taincy of the Albuquerque Coelhos when Sir James Lancaster captured
Recife in 1595. In 1621 the former governor-general of Brazil, Gaspar da
Sousa, who had designs on the Maranhao region for himself, advised the
Council of State that "Bento Maciel does not have the quality [i.e., nobility]
to be respected in that post [i.e., governor of Para]."63 The king ignored this
advice and Bento served as governor of Para from 1621-1626.64 In July or
August of 1630, Bento Maciel was in Pernambuco, having arrived on the
second set of caravels sent to the relief of that captaincy.65 However, he only
remained in Pernambuco briefly and was soon in Bahia.

On 17 August 1630 an order was issued to Bento Maciel Parente to under-

take a second investigation in Brazil into the background of Manuel
Goncalves Doria.66 Special instructions for this task were signed by Marcos
Rodrigues Tinoco, escrivao da cdmara for the Mesa da Consciencia e
Ordens. Serving as scribe in Brazil for this second background investigation

60
See letters of the king dated 15 May and 8 June 1630 in ANTT, Mesa da Conscidncia e Ordens, liv.
30, fols. 145v-146 and 146 respectively.
" ANTT, COC, liv. 26, fols. 90v-91; He was listed in the Order's Livro da Matricula for 1630. See
BNM, lib. 938, fol. 148v.
62
See Albuquerque Coelho, Memorias Didrias, p. 42. Bento Maciel Parente should not be confused
with his illegitimate son with the same name. The younger Bento Maciel Parente's mother was an
Amerindian from Sao Paulo. The younger Bento possibly was conceived when his father was in Sao
Paulo with D. Francisco de Sousa about 1609. The Brazilian-born younger Bento was awarded a knight-
hood in the Order of Christ on 5 April 1644 for his services in Brazil and in Portugal during the Wars of
Restoration. This Bento received permission to have the Sao Paulo or maternal part of his background
investigation held in Lisbon (the paternal part being conducted in Viana and Caminha). A number of
impediments were discovered: His father's father was a tailor, his maternal grandparents were pagans
from Brazil, and he himself was illegitimate. Though in a consulta dated 20 July 1644, the Mesa da Con-
sciencia e Ordens recommended a dispensation because of Bento's services at the front in the Wars of
Restoration, King Joao IV refused. There is no record in the registry books of the Order of Christ that the
younger Bento ever received the knighthood he had been awarded, though, earlier, he was made afidalgo
da cam real. See ANTT, Habilitacoes da Ordem de Cristo (cited hereafter as HOC), Letra B, Ma90 12,
Niimero 85. His award of the knighthood in the Order of Christ is found in Inventario dos Livros das
Portarias do Reino (cited hereafter as IPR) 2 vols. (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1909-1912), I, p. 94. See
fn. 80 below
61
See Calmon, Historia do Brasil, II, p. 557.
64
Varnhagen, Historia Geral, -V, 273.
65
Albuquerque Coelho, Memorias Didrias, p. 42.
66
See consulta of 26 April 1641 in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero 42, fol. 159.
104 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

was Afonso Gonsalves de Azevedo, a knight in the Order of Christ. The

questioning of witnesses began on 6 November 1630.67
Ten men testified. One of them, Dom Cosme de Santiago, Abbot of the
Benedictine monastery in Salvador, testified that Manuel Goncalves Doria,
his parents, and grandparents were always known as Old Christians and free
of any stain. Dom Cosme added that during the Dutch occupation of Sal-
vador, Manuel by his courage showed himself to be worthy of reward by the
crown. All the people Dom Cosmo had spoken to considered Manuel to be
an "honorable man and of unsoiled lineage." Another witness, seventy-five-
year-old Frei Goncalo, stated that when he sailed to Brazil on the ship Nossa
Senhora da Ajuda (captained by Joao Alvares de Macoreto) also on board
were Isabel Pires and her daughter Isabel Fernandes, grandmother of
Manuel Goncalves Doria, the younger Isabel being about ten years old at the
time. They were going to Brazil to be reunited with their husband and father.
The family, according to Frei Goncalo, "had the reputation of being people
of rank and pure of blood." A third witness, Manuel Cardoso de Amaral, tes-
tified that he knew the great-grandparents as well as the grandparents of
Goncalves Doria and that they had purity of blood and were so considered.
They had lived in Bahia for forty years. A fourth witness, Sebastiao Camelo,
testified that he had heard it said that the parents and relatives of Goncalves
Doria had purity of blood. However, he added, Manuel's father had once
been a carpenter, although for more than the past thirty years he had lived
according to the law of nobility. A fifth witness, Miguel Dias, sixty-years-
old, stated that Manuel's maternal grandmother and his mother and father
were known to be Old Christians without any stain whatsoever. However, he
added that he had heard it said that Manuel's maternal great-grandfather had
been a carpenter. Dias emphasized that he knew this because he had lived
fifty years in Bahia. A sixth witness, Mateus Nunes, a citizen of Salvador, /
stated that he knew the maternal grandparents of the candidate and that Luis
Goncalves was part mulatto. However, both Luis and his wife Isabel Fer-
nandes were Old Christians and reputed to be such and that he had known
them for fifty years. A seventh witness, Afonso Pires, testified that Isabel
Pires, mother of Isabel Fernandes, was a native of Porto and was well known
as an Old Christian. An eighth witness, Francisco da Fonseca, claimed to be
eighty-years-old and had lived fifty years in Bahia. He testified that Isabel
Fernandes, grandmother of Manuel, was well known as an Old Christian but
that her husband was a mulatto. A ninth witness, Tome Ferreira, a cavaleiro
fidalgo da casa real, testified that Isabel Fernandes was considered to be an
Old Christian with no Moorish or Jewish blood. A tenth witness, seventy-

Ibid.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 105

six-year-old Francisco Ribeiro—not to be confused with the priest of the

same name who had testified in the first of the background investigations—
had been born in Porto but had lived in Bahia for fifty years and was a citi-
zen of the Brazilian capital. He swore that on the ship on which he sailed to
Brazil were Isabel Pires and her daughter Isabel Fernandes, natives of Porto.
He further testified that in Brazil, Isabel Fernandes married Luis Goncalves.
All on the boat believed that the two Isabels were Old Christians with no
Moorish or Jewish blood. All those from Porto living in Bahia were con-
vinced of their Old Christian background. Ribeiro added that Luis
Goncalves, husband of Isabel Fernandes, was an "homem pardo" or mulatto.
Furthermore, according to Francisco Ribeiro, when the Inquisitor Heitor
Furtado de Mendoca visited Bahia in the early 1590s, Isabel Fernandes was
taken into custody for engaging in certain religious practices but was given
her freedom and was not punished for Judaizing. This information was con-
firmed by an earlier witness, Manuel Cardoso do Amaral.68
Bento Maciel Parente, who conducted this second investigation, in an
accompanying letter to the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, emphasized that
he had interviewed the most noble and oldest witnesses he could find. Fur-
thermore, he himself was convinced that in the first investigation the ene-
mies of Goncalves Doria (and not the better settlers of Bahia) had been
sought out to testify.69
The Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, after having studied the testimony of
the second background investigation, charged one of its deputies, Diogo de
Brito, with the task of checking the records of the Inquisition in Lisbon to
see if there were anything in its files regarding the Isabel Fernandes who had
been sentenced by the Visitor Heitor Furtado de Mendoca and if she had
been found to be a New Christian. Diogo de Brito found documents which
stated that "Isabel Fernandes, a mameluca, had 'ra$a de cristao nova.' [She
was] born on the island of Itamaraca, daughter of Sebastiao Dias, an Old
Christian, white man, and Cecilia Fernandes mameluca. The said Cecilia
Fernandes [was] the daughter of a New Christian and a Brazilian Indian.
[Isabel Fernandes was] married to Vicente Rodrigues, an Old Christian."70
However, as it should have been clear to all concerned, the Isabel Fer-
nandes who was born in Itamaraca was married to a Vicente Rodrigues,
described in the Inquisition records as an Old Christian, a lavrador, and res-
ident in Itamaraca. The Isabel Fernandes from Porto, Manuel Goncalves

" This testimony is synthesized in Ibid., fols. 159-160.

69
Ibid., fol. 160v.
™ Ibid., fols. 160v-161. See also consulta of 6 August 1642, ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Numero
42, fol. 348v.
106 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

Doria's maternal grandmother, was married to Luis Goncalves Doria, resi-

dent in Bahia. Furthermore, this Isabel Fernandes from Itamaraca, identified
as a "mameluca and of New Christian heritage," made a public confession
for blasphemy on 19 December 1594 in the town of Conceicao in Itamaraca.
At that time Isabel stated that she was forty-years-old and that her mother,
Cecilia Fernandes, was still alive. It is not clear, from the printed Inquisition
records, if the Isabel Fernandes from Itamaraca were ever in Bahia. At the
time of her confession in Itamaraca, she was admonished by Furtado de
Mendoca not to sin again and be more temperate in her speech.71
Using this documentation from the Inquisition and after making a few
inquiries, the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, on 12 September 1631,
ignored the clear evidence from the background investigation conducted by
Bento Maciel Parente that Manuel Goncalves Doria's maternal grandmother
had been born in Porto and accepted the claim that she was born in Itama-
raca. Furthermore, they melded—garbled might be a better description—the
results of the two Brazilian investigations (those of Oliveira and Parente)
and decreed that Manuel Goncalves Doria was ineligible for a knighthood in
the Order of Santiago because he was a mulatto and was descended from
New Christians on the side of Isabel Fernandes his maternal grandmother. In
addition, he lacked nobility because of the artisan background of his father
and paternal grandparents.72 On 17 December of that year, King Philip IV
agreed with the Mesa, instructing them to follow the order's statutes and not
prepare letters authorizing the knighthood Goncalves Doria had been
awarded.73 Goncalves Doria's hopes for the knighthood in the Order of San-
tiago he had been awarded had been put in abeyance. But on the same 17
December, Philip IV, as sort of a consolation prize, gave Manuel the post of
captain of one of the companies stationed in Bahia's presidio and ordered
that the governor-general of Brazil be informed of this appointment.74

" The confession and the identification of Isabel Fernandes are found in Jos6 Ant6nio Gonsalves de
Mello, ed., Confissoes de Pernambuco 1594-1595 (Recife: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 1970),
pp. 118-119. There is no Isabel Fernandes from Itamaraca in the two volumes of Inquisition records from
Licenciado Heitor Furtado de Mendoca's visit to Bahia, 1591-1593, that have been published. See Joao
Capistrano de Abreu, ed., Primeira Visitacdo do Santo Officio as Partes do Brasil. Confissoes Bahia,
1591-1592 (Rio de Janeiro: F. Briguiet & Ca., 1935) and Joao Capistrano de Abreu, ed., Primeira Visi-
tacdo do Santo Officio as Partes do Brasil. Denunciagoes da Bahia, 1591-1593 (Sao Paulo: Homenagem
de Paulo Prado, 1925). Finally, none of the women with the name Isabel Fernandes denounced to the
Inquisition in Pernambuco, Itamaraca, and Paraiba between 1593-1595 fit the description of the Isabel
Fernandes from Itamarad See Heitor Furtado de Mendoca, Primeira Visitagao do Santo Officio as Partes
do Brasil. Denunciagoes de Pernambuco, 1593-1595 (Sao Paulo: Homenagem de Paulo Prado, 1929).
72
See consulta of 26 April 1641, ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Niimero 42, fol. 161. The actual
consulta of 12 September 1631 and Philip IV's response is missing from Manuel's dossier.
73
Ibid.
,4
BA, 51-VI-3, fol. 131.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 107

In the meantime, after serving briefly in Pernambuco, Manuel Goncalves

Doria returned to Bahia. He was there on 21 April 1632 when his arch-
enemy Diogo Luis de Oliveira, at the king's orders, named Manuel to the
vacant post of Captain of the Spanish infantry in the tergo of mestre de
campo, D. Vasco Mascarenhas, future 1st Count of Obidos. Before his
appointment, he had satisfactorily served in that same tergo. At the crown's
order, Manuel was to receive a salary of 30 cruzados a month.75
On 18 December 1635 he petitioned the crown for permission to return to
Portugal to further pursue his claims for the knighthood in the Order of San-
tiago he had been awarded.76 But, as he later reported, he was denied per-
mission on the grounds that his presence in Brazil was essential to the war
effort there.77
Manuel probably held the post of Captain of the Spanish infantry in the
tergo of D. Vasco Mascarenhas, which was stationed in Salvador as part of
the Brazilian capital's garrison, until mid-1638, when, after almost eight
more years of service and fighting the Dutch in Pernambuco and Bahia,
Manuel Goncalves Doria was finally granted permission to return to Portu-
gal. On 10 January 1639, Manuel's vacant post was filled by his brother,
identified in crown documents as Francisco Fernandes, who at the time of
his promotion was serving as alferes in that company.78 Both Manuel
Goncalves Doria and his brother had valiantly defended the Brazilian capi-
tal against the attacks in April and May of 1638 by Johan Maurits, Count of
Nassau, who had sailed from Pernambuco on 8 April of that year with 3600
Europeans and 1000 Amerindians.79 In a letter dated 10 May 1638, Pedro
Cadena de Vilhasanti, provedor-mor da fazenda of the State of Brazil,
praised the bravery of Captain Manuel Goncalves Doria, who was in the
vanguard of a two-hour skirmish with the Dutch.80

75
DH XVI, 60-61. Manuel's patent was registered in Bahia on 9 August 1632. Ibid., p. 61.
76
See document no. 676 in Fonseca, "Indice Abreviado," p. 57.
77
See consulta of 6 August 1642 in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Niimero 42, fol. 347v.
7
" DH XVII, 145-148. See also Ibid., pp. 468-469. Duarte de Albuquerque Coelho, who was in the
Brazilian capital at the time, calls him Francisco Goncalves. In an entry dated 26 April 1638, Albu-
querque Coelho mentioned the exploits of Francisco Goncalves, brother of Captain Manuel Goncalves
Doria, both natives of Bahia, fighting the Dutch. See Memorias Didrias, p. 284. According to his patent,
Francisco had been serving the crown since 1625 and had played an important role in driving the Dutch
from the Brazilian capital that year.
7
' Boxer, Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654, p. 87.
"° Cadena de Vilhasanti, Relacao Didria, p. 52. See also pp. 314-315 for Manuel Murias's list of doc-
uments on the military career of Goncalves Doria. Manuel's brother Francisco was rewarded for his brav-
ery against the Dutch in 1638 by being granted an "escudo de vantagem." Ibid., p. 262. A copy of the
award is found in DH XVII, 468-469. This document makes special mention of Francisco's services
against the Dutch forces on 18 May 1638. It also states that Francisco's father—and presumably
Manuel's father as well—was killed during the 1638 Dutch attack on Bahia. Ibid., p. 469.
108 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

But Manuel Goncalves Doria was only briefly in Portugal. He soon

returned to Brazil, this time on the ill-fated expedition (1638-1640) of D. Fer-
nando Mascarenhas, 1st Count of Torre, that was eventually driven by storms
to the West Indies.81 Exactly, when Manuel arrived again in Portugal is not
clear, though it was probably late 1640 or very early 1641. In Lisbon he con-
tinued to seek the knighthood in Santiago and the 20$ or 20 milreis annually
that he had been awarded back in 1628. He pointed out that during the past
twelve, going on thirteen years (as he expressed it), since he had originally
been awarded the knighthood, he had always served at the rank of captain or
higher and on occasion had even temporarily held the posts of sargento-mor
and mestre de campo. Furthermore, he had served in guerra viva in the
trenches within sight of the enemy and was the senior captain. In one of his
many petitions he pointed out that in the present year of 1641 he was being
named sargento-mor of the troops fighting on the front in Elvas in Portugal.82
In a consulta dated 26 April 1641, the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens,
under the new king Joao IV, reviewed the case through 1631. They then
emphasized that Manuel Goncalves Doria had been alleged to have four
impediments: 1) he was a mulatto; 2) he had non-noble background; 3) his
maternal grandmother had been publicly sentenced (sahir em cadafalso pub-
lico) as a witch (feitaceira); 4) his maternal grandmother was also a New
Christian. They stated that the first two impediments (being a mulatto and
non-noble) were clearly proven since the necessary six witnesses had
revealed them.
The last two impediments were discovered in the first of the two back-
ground investigations, the one conducted by Diogo Luis de Oliveira. The
Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens stated that because Manuel Goncalves Doria
had proven with a number of documents that the governor-general had been
his mortal enemy, then, in accordance with the Ordenacoes Filipinas, livro
3, title 62, paragraph 2, that testimony should be disregarded and new testi-
mony taken. Therefore, the Mesa emphasized that Manuel could not be con-
sidered ineligible especially since the second background investigation had

81
For his services on the armada headed by the 1st Count of Torre, see the consulta of 26 April 1641
in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Niimero 42, fol. 158. The 1641 consulta states: "E porqto elle suppli-
cante tornou acontinuar na guerra do Brasil desde o dito ano de 1638 ate o passado de 1640 que foi na
armada do Conde da Torre e veo deRotado a esta cidade de Indias." The 1642 consulta gives the impres-
sion that he never left Brazil until 1640—"em que se embarcou na armada do Conde da Torre e foi deRo-
tada a Indias." See fol. 347v. The Count of Torre's armada left Lisbon in September of 1638. After much
loss of life by disease off the Cape Verde islands, the armada arrived in Bahia in 1639. After obtaining
reinforcements and supplies, it set sail on 19 November 1639 to attack Dutch-held Pernambuco. For the
Count of Torre's expedition, see C. R. Boxer, Salvador de Sd and the Struggle for Brazil and Angola,
1602-1686 (London: The Athlone Press, 1952), pp. 116-120.
82
See consulta of 26 April 1641 in ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Niimero 42, fol. 158.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 109

found him to have the required purity of blood. Furthermore, the second
investigation clearly showed that the Isabel Fernandes whom the witnesses
in the first investigation knew and who was mentioned in the Inquisition
records was not the Isabel Fernandes who was the grandmother of
Goncalves Doria. The first Isabel was Brazilian-born. The second Isabel—
as Frei Goncalo and Francisco Ribeiro pointed out—was born in Porto and
had sailed in the company of her mother and these witnesses to Brazil and
had married Luis Goncalves, the grandfather of Manuel, in Brazil. Further-
more, the Porto-born Isabel Fernandes was the daughter of Isabel Pires and
Antonio Fernandes.
' The Mesa further emphasized that the fifth and seventh witnesses in the
second investigation—Manuel Dias and Afonso Pires—also swore that
Isabel Fernandes, grandmother of Manuel, was from Porto. Thus, the Mesa
concluded that it was clear that the two persons with the same name—Isabel
Fernandes—were not the same, having different birthplaces, parents, and
grandparents. It was also clear that Manuel's grandmother was an Old Chris-
tian as all ten witnesses in the second investigation swore. Therefore,
Manuel Goncalves Doria did not have the impediments asserted by the first
background investigation.
The Mesa's recommendation was to conduct a third background investi-
gation, although they pointed out, strictly speaking, by the evidence of the
second investigation, Manuel was eligible for a knighthood in the Order of
Santiago. This consulta of 26 April 1641 was signed by the president of the
Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, D. Carlos Noronha, and the deputies
Estevao Fuzeiro de Sande, Antonio de Mendonca, Simao Torresao Coelho,
and D. Leao de Noronha.83 Nonetheless, in a reply dated June 1641, King
Joao IV stated that "the impediments that are proven are sufficient for the
award not to have effect."84

"Ibid., fols. 157-162.

84
Ibid., fol. 157. King Joao IV (r. 1640-1656), especially in the early years of his reign—in contrast
to his widow Queen Luisa when she served as regent (1656-1662) for young Afonso VI—was reluctant
to grant dispensations, especially to those born in Brazil, despite their excellent services. Another good
example is the case of the Paraiban-born Feliciano Dourado. On 12 April 1642, Dourado, a future
member of the newly-created Portuguese Overseas Council was awarded a knighthood in Santiago. IPR
I, 42. He was serving as secretary to the Portuguese embassy to the Netherlands. Dourado's initial back-
ground investigation revealed that his paternal grandfather had been a carpenter and that little was known
about his grandmother—though both were from Portalegre in Portugal. The Mesa da Consciencia e
Ordens in a consulta dated 19 May 1642, recommended a dispensation. On 21 May and 27 October 1642
King Joao demanded further diligence by the Mesa in obtaining more information about Dourado's
maternal grandmother. On 6 February 1643, the Portuguese monarch ordered the Mesa to follow the
statutes of the order. It was not until 19 July 1644 that King Joao IV authorized the dispensation. See
ANTT, HOS, Letra F, Maco 2, Niimero 6. The carta de hdbito was dated 23 August 1644 and authorized
that the ceremonies take place in the Netherlands. ANTT, COS, liv. 15, fols. 137-137v.
110 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

Shortly after this decision by the king, Manuel Goncalves Doria, now
sargento-mor, appealed his case, asking for a new background investigation
since the first had been conducted by his mortal enemy, the then governor-
general of Brazil. In a consulta of 9 September 1641 the Mesa, sympathetic
to the persistent sargento-mor, recommended that because of Manuel's
bravery and services, the king dispense him from the impediments of his
father being an artisan and his grandfather a Brazilian Amerindian ("negro
dos naturaes do Brasil"), since these were impediments that the crown was
accustomed to dispense.85 Although the Mesa's heart was in the right place,
they had confused Manuel's grandfather from Madeira with an
Amerindian.86 As for the impediment of New Christian blood, the Mesa
pointed out that this charge was false as the second background investiga-
tion and their consulta of 26 April 1641 had clearly shown.87 The king how-
ever was unmoved. On 12 December 1641, he referred the Mesa back to his
June decision that the impediments were too extensive to allow Manuel to
receive membership in the Order of Santiago.88

The following year, Manuel again petitioned to be granted the knighthood

in Santiago he had been awarded. This time, in a consulta of 6 August 1642
signed by D. Carlos de Noronha, Simao Torresao Coelho, D. Leao de
Noronha, and Gregorio Mascarenhas, the Mesa gave its opinion to the king
that Manuel did not have the impediment of being a Cristao Novo, as could
be clearly seen in the second background investigation (the one conducted
by Bento Maciel Parente). The only impediments Manuel had were that his
father had been an artisan and his grandfather a mulatto. These impedi-
ments—the Mesa again emphasized—were ones with which the monarch
was accustomed to dispense. Furthermore, the Mesa pointed out that it
would be proper for the king to dispense him from the above-mentioned
impediments because of Manuel's services and courage. And, the Mesa '
added, an additional motive for the king to grant the dispensations was the
great need of Portugal (in the Wars of Restoration) for people with military
experience. With rewards like these dispensations, the king could better
inspire his soldiers to take greater risks in the struggle against Portugal's
enemies. King Joao IV was not pleased with this recommendation and in a
marginal note, dated 7 October 1642, to their consulta chastised his Mesa,

!5
ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Maco 4, Niimero 42, fols. 156-156v. The consulta was signed by the
deputies D. Carlos de Noronha, Estevao Fuzeiro de Sande, Simao Torresao Coelho and D. Leao de
Noronha.
x
Ibid. Jol 156v.
"Ibid.
81
Ibid., fol. 156.
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 111

telling them that he only wanted advice on Manuel's background investiga-

tions and impediments, and nothing more.89
Five full years elapsed before there was further serious action by the
Crown and the Mesa regarding Manuel's fight to obtain his knighthood in
Santiago. In the meantime, in 1644, when the Crown was preparing an
escort armada for Brazilian shipping, to be commanded by Salvador Correia
de Sa, Manuel Goncalves Doria, because of his military experience and
services in Brazil and in crown armadas, was proposed by the Overseas
Council as sargento-mor to sail with Sa.90 Sa's armada—reduced to two
royal galleons according to Boxer—did not leave for Brazil until Christmas
'of 1644. It is not clear whether Goncalves Doria was aboard. Sa returned to
Lisbon on 15 October 1645.91 On 30 June 1647 Manuel Goncalves Doria
was nominated by the Portuguese Council of War for the post of sargento-
mor of the armada that was being prepared for Brazil.92 On 17 July 1647,
provisions were made regarding Manuel's back pay.93
Finally, on 7 October 1647, because of his services in Pernambuco,
Bahia, and Portugal, Manuel was granted a new award—a promise of 100$
or 100 milreis annually and the choice of a knighthood in Santiago or Avis
with permission to will the 100$ or 100 milreis to his wife upon his death.94
A number of weeks earlier, the case of Manuel Goncalves Doria had again
come before the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens. Because of holidays and
other reasons, action on Goncalves Doria's case continued to be delayed.
But because Manuel was preparing to leave on the upcoming armada to
Brazil and because of his frequent importuning for action, the king and the
Mesa sat down on 16 October. They again went over the consulta of 6
August 1642. On this occasion, one of the deputies, Doctor Antonio de Men-
donca, pointed out that the king had recently granted dispensations in other
similar cases—including a number with more and greater impediments than
were present in Manuel's case—and in still others to men who did not have
anywhere near the Bahian's services. Mendonca then recommended that the
monarch follow the recommendation that the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens
had made back in 1642. On the same day, 16 October 1647, the king agreed

89
ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Ma90 4, Numero 42, fols. 346-350v.
*° Cadena de Vilhasanti, Relagao Didria, p. 315, citing the consulta of 21 January 1644 in Arquivo
Hist6rico Ultramarino (cited hereafter as AHU), codice 13, fol. 25.
" For the "armada," see Boxer, Salvador de Sd, pp. 182-211.
92
See H. Madureira dos Santos, Catdlogo dos Decretos do Extinto Conselho de Guerra (Lisbon: Gra-
fica Santelmo, Lda., 1957) I, 160.
93
Cadena de Vilhasanti, Relagao Didria, p. 315, citing AHU, codice 92, fol. 97.
94
IPR I, 250. The portaria states that Manuel was being rewarded for his services in "Pernambuco,
Bahia e Salvador." Salvador should read Portugal.
112 A HARD-FOUGHT STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION

with what the Mesa's deputy, Antonio de Mendonca, had recommended,

based on what was contained in the 1642 consulta and because of Manuel's
past services and those he would perform on the newly prepared armada.95
Two days later, on 18 October 1647, presumably with Manuel Goncalves
Doria aboard, the Armada Real do Mar Oceano, composed of fifteen ships
left the Tagus river. Under the command of Antonio Teles de Meneses,
newly created 1 st Count of Vila Pouca de Aguiar and Governor-General of
Brazil, succeeding Antonio Teles da Silva, its mission was to oust the Dutch
from the island of Itaparica in the Bay of All Saints. The Dutch had recently
captured the island and were threatening the Brazilian capital.96 On the same
day, letters were issued authorizing that the ceremonies of the reception of
the habit and the knighthood of Santiago take place in Brazil, the king
having dispensed Manuel from the two impediments of his being the son of
an artisan and the grandson of an "homen pardo."97
Perseverance had won out. Manuel Goncalves Doria had finally received
authorization to become a knight in the Portuguese Order of Santiago—the
first, and only known, Afro-Brazilian to achieve such an honor. Unfortu-
nately, we have no knowledge of the remainder of Manuel's life and how
long he was able to enjoy the prestige of being a knight of Santiago.
His achievement stands out even more when compared to others of
African descent in seventeenth-century Brazil. True, the mulatto Joao Fer-
nandes Vieira became a knight and commander in the Order of Christ and
Governor of Paraiba (1655-1657) and Angola (1658-1661) before dying in
Olinda in 1681. But Vieira was born in Madeira. Because of his military
exploits in the First (1648) and Second (1649) Battles of Guararapes against
the Dutch and the urgency of the Crown to quickly reward him, he underwent
only a preemptory background investigation in Lisbon instead of in Brazil ,
and Madeira as the order's regulations dictated. As a result little or no infor-
mation about Vieira's racial and social background was brought to light.98
Vieira's case was the great exception. None of the four blacks (pretos)—
Henrique Dias, Antonio Goncalves Caldeira, Amaro Cardigo, and Domingos
Rodrigues Carneiro—who had served long and valiantly in Pernambuco's
Black Terco and were awarded knighthoods in the Portuguese military orders

'5 ANTT, HOS, Letra M, Ma9o 4, Numero 42, fol. 345. In addition to Mendonca, the consulta was
signed by D. Leao de Noronha, Diogo de Sousa, and Andre Franco.
*> Boxer, Dutch in Brazil, p. 190.
97
ANTT, COS, liv. 15, fol. 168.
98
See, Dutra, "Blacks," p. 31. The definitive biography of Vieira is that of Jose Ant6nio Gonsalves
de Mello, Joao Fernandes Vieira, Mestre de Campo do Terco de Infantaria de Pernambuco, 2 vols.
(Recife: Universidade do Recife, 1956).
 FRANCIS A. DUTRA 113

ever received them. Dias had been awarded a knighthood in the Order of
Christ, Caldeira and Cardigo, knighthoods in the Order of Santiago, and
Carneiro a knighthood in the Order of Avis." However, all four of these men
were former slaves or descended from slaves who had lived in Brazil.
What about those of African heritage whose parents or grandparents were
not born in Brazil? The classic case is that of Bahian-born Bernardo Vieira
Ravasco, Secretary of the State of Brazil and full-brother of the famed (but
Lisbon-born) Jesuit Antonio Vieira, whose Portuguese grandmother was
identified as "cor parda." On 5 July 1673, after almost a decade of investi-
gations, the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens recommended that Bernardo be
denied the knighthood in the Order of Christ he had been awarded, one of
the reasons being that his paternal grandmother "era de cor parda." Ten days
later Prince Regent Pedro concurred.100 However, on 6 February 1688,
Bernardo's Brazilian-born illegitimate son, Goncalo Ravasco Cavalcanti e
Albuquerque, after a long struggle of almost ten years, was issued authori-
zation to receive in Bahia the knighthood in the Order of Christ denied to his
father, though he needed a dispensation because of his illegitimacy and
because the birthplaces of both paternal grandparents were not known.101
There was no mention that his great-grandmother was "cor parda." Time and
social distance had made the difference.
Those whose African heritage was obvious and who were living in Brazil
would get little sympathy from the Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens. In a con-
sulta of 30 April 1688 referring to sargento-mor Domingos Rodrigues
Carneiro, the deputies argued that "for the good reputation of the [military]
orders and the nobility" the former slave and tailor should not be allowed to
become a knight of Avis. "It does not seem right," they added, "that the habit
of Sao Bento de Avis be seen on a person so despicable in the esteem of
people as that of a Black."102 In the face of such sentiment on the part of the
Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens, a bellwether of social perceptions in the Por-
tuguese world, the obtaining of knighthoods in the military orders would con-
tinue to be difficult for Brazilians, especially those with any African heritage.

University of California FRANCIS A. DUTRA

Santa Barbara, California

99
For further discussion of these four cases, see Dutra, "Blacks," pp. 26-30.
100
ANTT, HOC, Letra B, Maco 12, Numero 149.
101
See ANTT, HOC, Letra G, Maco 6, Numero 159. For his carta de hdbito and dispensation, see
COC, liv. 79, fol. 217.
102
ANTT, Habilitacoes da Ordem de Avis, Letra D, Maco 1, Numero 1.