Dom Constantino of Braganza ( pt, Constantino de Bragança; 1528–1575) was a

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 ...

nobleman, '' conquistador'', and administrator of the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the ...

. Born a member of the powerful House of Braganza, he is best known for having served as Viceroy of Portuguese India and for initiating the Portuguese conquest of Sri Lanka.

Biography

He was the son of Dom James, 4th Duke of Braganza from his second marriage to Joana of Mendoça, daughter of Diogo of Mendonça, High-Alcaide of Mourão. When he was 19 years old, he was appointed by King Dom John III of Portugal as his special ambassador to the baptism ceremony of King

Henry II of France Henry II (french: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder bro ...

's son. In 1558, he was appointed by the

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

Dona Catherine of Habsburg (King Dom John III's widow) as the 20th Governor of Portuguese India, using also the title of 7th

Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning " ...

. He left Lisbon on 7 April 1558 and arrived in

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

on 3 September. He was a remarkable organiser of the local State, and he conquered Daman, Ceylon (nowadays known as Sri Lanka) and the island of Manar. A first expedition, led by Viceroy Dom Constantino de Bragança in 1560, failed to subdue Jaffna, but captured

Mannar Island Mannar Island ( ; ta, மன்னார் தீவு, Maṉṉār tīvu; si, මන්නාරම් දූපත, Mannāram dūpata), formerly spelt Manar Island, which lies off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka, is part of Mannar ...

.Abeysinghe, T. ''Jaffna Under the Portuguese'', p.3 By June 1619, despite sharp resistance from

Cankili II Cankili II ( ta, சங்கிலி குமாரன், translit=Caṅkili Kumāraṉ; died 1619) was the last king of the Jaffna kingdom and was a usurper who came to throne with a palace massacre of the royal prince and the regent Ara ...

of Jaffna, there were two Portuguese expeditions; a naval expedition that was repulsed by the Malabari corsairs and another expedition by Dom Filipe de Oliveira and his land army of 5,000, which defeated Cankili and conquered Jaffna, strengthening Portuguese control of shipping routes through the

Palk Strait The Palk Strait ( ta, பாக்கு நீரிணை ''Pākku Nīriṇai'', si, පෝක් සමුද්‍ර සන්ධිය ''Pok Samudra Sandhiya'') is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna Distri ...

. His government in India took three years and eight days, and during that period he made important reforms. He was considered by the historian

C. R. Boxer Sir Charles Ralph Boxer FBA GCIH (8 March 1904 – 27 April 2000) was a British historian of Dutch and Portuguese maritime and colonial history, especially in relation to South Asia and the Far East. In Hong Kong he was the chief spy for the ...

one of the most fanatic Portuguese governors of India together with Dom

Francisco Barreto Francisco Barreto (occasionally Francisco de Barreto, 1520 – 9 July 1573) was a Portuguese soldier and explorer. An officer in Morocco during his early life, Barreto sailed to Portuguese India and was eventually appointed viceroy of the colon ...

(1555–1558). He protected the poet

Luis Vaz de Camões Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, during his stay in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He was later governor of Ribeira Grande, in the island of Santo Antão,

Portuguese Cape Verde Cape Verde was a colony of the Portuguese Empire from the initial settlement of the Cape Verde Islands in 1462 until the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. History 15th century The islands of Cape Verde was discovered in 1444 by Dom Prin ...

, from 1562. Dom Constantino afterwards returned to the

Kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

. There he married his cousin, D. Maria de Melo, daughter of the 1st Marquess of Ferreira and 1st Count of Tentúgal, D. Rodrigo de Melo, and Dona Brites de Menezes (daughter of Dom Antão de Almada, 3rd

Count of Avranches This is a list of the counts of Avranches, a French fief in the Middle Ages. House of Almada *1445–1449 Álvaro Vaz de Almada, 1st Count of Avranches, KG (created by Henry VI of England); Avranches was lost to France soon after *1476&n ...

). The couple had no issue. King Sebastian of Portugal thought, in 1571, to appoint him as perpetual viceroy of India, but he refused.

Tooth relic

According to Mutu Coomara Swamy, Constantino claimed to play a part in capturing and destroying the Tooth-Relic of

Gotama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

, during the wars of the Portuguese. The native authorities however, maintained the relic was kept safe from harm.

Ancestry

References

*''Nobreza de Portugal e do Brasil'' – Vol. II, page 443. Published by Zairol Lda., Lisbon 1989.

External links

Genealogy of Constantino of Braganza, in Portuguese
* "Constantino de Bragança" in Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History, vol. 7, eds. David Thomas and John Chesworth, Leiden - Boston, Brill, 2015, pp. 841-84

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Constantino Of Braganza 1528 births 1575 deaths Colonial heads of Cape Verde Viceroys of Portuguese India Portuguese colonial governors and administrators House of Braganza 16th-century Portuguese people

Biography

Tooth relic

Ancestry

See also

References

External links