Sir Edward Brampton, (

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: ''Duarte Brandão'') KG (c.1440–1508) was the Governor of

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

, a knight, adventurer, ship commander and the godson and protégé of King

Edward IV of England Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

Origins

Duarte Brandão came from the Jewish community of Portugal.''The first of the Tudors: a study of Henry VII and his reign'', (Taylor & Francis, 1981) By Michael Van Cleave Alexander, page 97 He was brought up in the Jewish faith, but his parentage is uncertain. It has been suggested that his mother was Christian and his father, Rui Barba, was Jewish. Another version is that “Rui Barba was a Christian who begat Edward Brampton out of wedlock with the wife of a Jew.” Later Portuguese genealogy records indicate that his father could have been Fernão Rodrigues Alardo, the main

alcaide Alcaide is a Spanish name, meaning 'castle commander'. It is borrowed from the Arabic term , which literally means 'commander'. Etymology The Spanish form is alcayde whereas Portuguese form is alcaide. Notable people * Anselmo Pardo Alcaide ...

Leiria Leiria (; cel-x-proto, ɸlāryo) is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat of its own distr ...

and Óbidos.

Life in England

Born in about 1440 in the

Jewish community Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, his mother's name was Mariana and his father was a blacksmith, Duarte emigrated to England during the late 1450s. In order to be accepted at court, he converted to Catholic Christianity, with

King Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in Englan ...

standing as his sponsor. Upon his conversion, he adopted the English name of Edward Brampton in honour of his Sponsors. Brampton was an adventurer, soldier, and ship's commander, who fought in several engagements during the

War of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the throne of England, English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These w ...

, including the

Battle of Tewkesbury The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses in England. King Edward IV and his forces loyal to the House of York completely defeated those of the rival House of Lancaster ...

, and was eventually awarded the position of Governor of

. With the help of his wife Lady Margaret Brampton, he won favours in both the Portuguese and English royal courts and was knighted in August 1484 by

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

. Following the defeat of Richard III, Brampton left England for the court of Margaret of Burgundy, where it is presumed he met

Perkin Warbeck Perkin Warbeck ( 1474 – 23 November 1499) was a pretender to the English throne claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, who was the second son of Edward IV and one of the so-called "Princes in the Tower". Richard, were he alive, ...

, a pretender to the throne of England, who he later employed. From his marriage to Lady Margaret Brampton, he had six children: João, Jorge, Henrique, Isabel, Maria and Joana.

Popular culture

In the novel ''

The Family A family is a domestic or social group. Family or The Family may also refer to: Mathematics *Family of curves, a set of curves resulting from a function with variable parameters *Family of sets, a collection of sets *Indexed family, a family wh ...

'', by

Mario Puzo Mario Francis Puzo (; ; October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author, screenwriter, and journalist. He is known for his crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably ''The Godfather'' (1969), which ...

, Duarte Brandão is depicted as an escapee from England who becomes the personal advisor of

Pope Alexander VI Pope Alexander VI ( it, Alessandro VI, va, Alexandre VI, es, Alejandro VI; born Rodrigo de Borja; ca-valencia, Roderic Llançol i de Borja ; es, Rodrigo Lanzol y de Borja, lang ; 1431 – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Churc ...

(Borgia), a mortal opponent of

Savonarola Girolamo Savonarola, OP (, , ; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498) or Jerome Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of ...

. In the novel

A Song of Sixpence ''A Song of Sixpence'' is a 1964 novel by A. J. Cronin about the coming to manhood of Laurence Carroll and his life in Scotland. Its sequel is ''A Pocketful of Rye''. As with several of his other novels, Cronin drew on his own experiences growi ...

, by Judith Arnopp, Brampton features as the rescuer of

Richard of Shrewsbury Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

from the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brampton, Edward History of Guernsey English people of Portuguese-Jewish descent Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism 1440 births 1508 deaths English Roman Catholics Jewish British politicians 15th-century English businesspeople 16th-century English businesspeople English people of Portuguese descent