Manuel Luís Baltazar da Câmara (5 January 1630 – 29 December 1673, in
Lisbon), member of the Gonçalves da Câmara, was the son of
Rodrigo da Câmara and succeeded him as the 8th Donatary Captain of the island of
São Miguel, 4th
Count of Vila Franca and first
Count of Ribeira Grande.
Biography
Early life
Manuel was the son of Rodrigo da Câmara and D. Maria Coutinho, dame in the court of Queen
Elizabeth of Bourbon.
He was 21 years old when he testified against his
father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
in front of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, for alleged practices of sodomy and for supposed incestuous relations. These crimes, at the time, resulted in the forfeiture of family possessions and loss of honour at Corte: his father eventually died miserable conditions in the convent of Cape St. Vicent. The remainder of the family, consequently, suffered a period of financial chaos and became social outcasts at court. Manuel Luís married late, and remained with his mother at the convent where his father was incarcerated, until his father's death.
Donatário
Following the death of the 3rd Count of Vila Franca, the Countess used her family's connections (the
Counts of Vidigueira were descendants of
Vasco da Gama) with the royal family to attempt to recover the possessions confiscated following the scandal of her ex-husband, and to rehabilitate the family honour.
[Carlos Melo Bento (2008), p.52] She, therefore, sought from King
Afonso VI to resuscitate the Captaincy and the incomes associated with this patronage.
[ By royal letter, dated 15 September 1662, the monarch named D. Manuel Luís Baltazar da Câmara, the first Count of Ribeira Grande, returning his familial interests and providing an inheritance for him and his descendants. Shortly later, on 28 September, the King re-instituted all the possessions confiscated from his father, including the Captaincy of São Miguel.][
]
Later life
Manuel served in the Restoration Wars in the province of Alentejo, as master-of-camp in Setubal.
The 1st Count of Ribeira Grande did not narrowly support the development of São Miguel, and was instrumental in the support of the Catholic church, donating funds to the ''Império dos Nobres'' on Faial, in order to fulfill a promise made to the Holy Spirit. In this intervention he promised to institutionalize the Cult of the Holy Spirit
The Cult of the Holy Spirit ( pt, Culto do Divino Espírito Santo), also known as the Cult of the Empire of the Holy Spirit (''Culto do Império do Divino Espírito Santo''), is a religious sub-culture, inspired by Christian millenarian mystics, ...
if God would provide him with a strong son: his son, José
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...
, would later inherit the Captaincy of São Migel.
He was believed to have gone mad before dying.[
]
References
Notes
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Camara III, Rui Goncalves da
Camara Manuel 3
1630 births
1673 deaths
Counts of Ribeira Grande
17th-century Portuguese people
Portuguese nobility