Matias de Albuquerque
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Matias de Albuquerque (
Olinda Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Recife metropolitan area, Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state capi ...
,
colony of Brazil Colonial Brazil ( pt, Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Dur ...
, 1580s –
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 ...
,
Kingdom of Portugal The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kno ...
, 9 June 1647), the first and only
Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
of Alegrete, was a Portuguese colonial administrator and soldier. He was nicknamed "Hero of Two Continents" for his performance, beginning in 1624, against the Dutch invaders of
colonial Brazil Colonial Brazil ( pt, Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Durin ...
(
Captaincy of Pernambuco The Captaincy of Pernambuco or New Lusitania ( pt, Nova Lusitânia) was a hereditary land grant and administrative subdivision of northern Portuguese Brazil during the colonial period from the early sixteenth century until Brazilian independence. A ...
) and for his role, beginning in 1641, as a general in Portugal, fighting for king John IV during the
Portuguese Restoration War The Portuguese Restoration War ( pt, Guerra da Restauração) was the war between History of Portugal (1640–1777), Portugal and Habsburg Spain, Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon (1668), ...
, where he won the
battle of Montijo The Battle of Montijo was fought on 26 May 1644, in Montijo, Spain, between Portuguese and Spanish forces. Although the battle ended with a Portuguese victory, the Spanish saw it as a strategic success as they claimed to have prevented Matias d ...
over the Spaniards in 1644. For this victory he was rewarded the title of Count of Alegrete by the king. The youngest son of Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho, Matias was baptized as Paulo de Albuquerque, but he changed his name to Matias to honor his relative and godfather, Matias de Albuquerque, who was the Viceroy of India.


Career

The colony of Pernambuco in Brazil had been granted, in trust, to Matias's brother, Duarte de Albuquerque Coelho, under the system of hereditary captaincies (''capitanias'') established by the Portuguese crown as a way to administrate their overseas possessions. Olinda, a town in the Captaincy of Pernambuco, was Matias's birthplace, but, as a young man, he left Olinda for
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
, where he pursued a military career.


Lieutenant-governor of Pernambuco

He served three years in North Africa. In 1620 his brother Duarte asked him to serve as his agent in governing Pernambuco. There, he restored the personal authority of his family after almost fifty years of involvement in colonial administration only as absentees. He assumed the position of lieutenant-governor on 20 May 1620, and he went straight to work preparing the defenses of Pernambuco (he remained in the post until November 1627). The following year, the huge size of Brazil led the crown to divide the colonies into two ''estados'' (states); King Philip II created the
State of Brazil The State of Brazil ( pt, Estado do Brasil) was one of the states of the Portuguese Empire, in the Americas during the period of Colonial Brazil. History In 1621, the Governorate General of Brazil was split into two states, the State of Bra ...
, the most important colony, with
Salvador Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...
as its capital and, to its north, the State of Maranhão, with its capital at São Luís. Pernambuco was a captaincy in the State of Brazil.


Fighting the Dutch

When the first invasions of the
colony of Brazil Colonial Brazil ( pt, Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Dur ...
occurred in 1624 and 1625, the Dutch immediately seized Salvador, the capital of the State of Brazil and, in the process, captured the governor-general, Diogo de Mendonça Furtado. When news reached the colonial authorities elsewhere in the captaincies of Brazil that Mendonça had been deported to the Netherlands and imprisoned, they met at Vitória in the captaincy of Espírito Santo and appointed Albuquerque to temporarily fill the post of governor-general of Brazil. Once Bahia had fallen, Portuguese resistance was first reorganized under the self-appointed leader of the provisional government, Bishop Marcos Teixeira, who recruited about two thousand men and later, under the captain of nearby Recôncavo, Francisco Rolim de Moura. Due to their initiative, the Dutch were subjected to continuous harassment. They were contained, for the most part, within the boundaries of the capital, Salvador. When he first received word of his appointment, Albuquerque's first instinct was to gather his forces and march to the relief of occupied Bahia, but he was cautioned to bide his time. From his base at Olinda, at the end of 1624, he sent troops to reinforce the Portuguese guerillas based at Arraial do Rio Vermelho and at Recôncavo. The following year, an experienced hand, Diogo Luis de Oliveira, was found to assume the role of permanent governor-general. Bahia did not stay long in the possession of the Dutch Republic. (This was during the period when
Spain and Portugal , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
were both ruled by a single
Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
king from 1580 to 1640). The Spaniards were aware of the capture of Bahia a whole month earlier than the Dutch. A relief force was assembled and sent as quickly as possible. The West India Company was well aware of the Spanish relief force, but, due to bad weather, a Dutch fleet could not be sent to aid Bahia. It was also believed that the Dutch would be able to hold out until help could be sent: they were wrong. The armada, a Spanish-Portuguese fleet of 52 ships under the command of Don Fadrique de Toledo, arrived on 30 March 1625 in the bay of Salvador (''
Bahia de Salvador Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest by ...
''). After a siege lasting a whole month, the Dutch were forced to surrender the city on 30 April 1625. The Spanish-Portuguese allowed the Dutch occupation force and their ships to leave Bahia. Albuquerque was called to Madrid for consultations with the king's ministers. There, rumors of a major new Dutch invasion of Brazil were in the air. As a partial response, Albuquerque was appointed superintendent of fortifications and inspector-general of the northern captaincies in the State of Brazil. However, Spain was embroiled in the
Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
, and, while the Dutch threat to Brazil was considered credible, resources were more likely to be devoted to military operations on the European continent and to shore up the defenses of the gold- and silver-producing colonies that fed the Caribbean treasure fleets. Albuquerque returned to South America in 1629 with the meager resources the King's treasury could spare for the defense of Brazil, – a bit of money, in silver coin, and twenty-seven Portuguese soldiers.


The second Dutch invasion

In February 1630, the long-anticipated Dutch invasion finally arrived, and it immediately overwhelmed Olinda and its port,
Recife That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...
. Albuquerque and his smaller force was compelled to retreat, but, before doing so, they managed to burn the sugar warehouses at the port of Recife, preventing the
Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...
from using them and denying them the profit of their contents. He re-organized the Portuguese-Spanish defense on high ground at a place called Arraial Velho do Bom Jesus, about halfway between Olinda and Recife, and, in doing so, he established a fortified position that was quite easily defended, and its well-chosen location, for the most part, confined the Dutch within the towns. Albuquerque maintained this cordon until 1635, even though his position at Arraial came under repeated Dutch attacks.


Calabar

Some of these attacks on Arraial were masterminded by a man named
Domingos Fernandes Calabar Domingos Fernandes Calabar (c. 1600–1635) was a Portuguese soldier, smuggler, and plantation owner during the time of the Netherlands intrusion into Brazil. He first fought for Portugal against the Netherlands before switching sides and fighting ...
, a mulatto born in
Porto Calvo Porto Calvo is a municipality in Alagoas, Brazil. Its population was 27,249 in 2020 and its area is 260 km².IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the ag ...
, Alagoas, then within the colony of Pernambuco. Before the ten-year truce between Portugal and the Netherlands expired in 1621, Dutch traders had regularly called at ports in Portuguese Brazil and through these contacts, Calabar had, at Recife, managed to talk his way into a job working for the Dutch West Indies Company in the Netherlands. When relations between Portugal and the Dutch soured in 1624 because of the seizure of Bahia, Calabar found himself in a delicate position, torn between a loyalty to the place of his birth and a loyalty to the payer of his wages. By 1630, he was back in Recife, where his knowledge of the local geography made him a valuable man to know. The Dutch had become familiar with the rivers and streams, the swamps and islets, along the coasts, but their knowledge of the interior was almost nil. As a merchant and smuggler, Calabar knew every turn in every inland road. In fact, he had a remarkable sense of the local topography. In April 1632, Calabar went to the Dutch authorities and expressed his willingness to help. He soon demonstrated that he was especially adept at planning and executing ambushes. The name of Calabar came to the attention of Albuquerque and the other Portuguese, and, because of his frequent successes, he developed a considerable reputation among them for his cleverness and his treachery. After a time, the Dutch decided to evacuate Olinda, burn it, and concentrated on Recife.


Notes


References


Bibliography

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External links


Albuquerque, Matias De (1595–1647)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albuquerque, Matias de Counts of Portugal Portuguese colonial governors and administrators Portuguese military commanders of the Portuguese Restoration War Portuguese soldiers Portuguese generals 1580s births 1647 deaths Portuguese colonization of the Americas People of the Dutch–Portuguese War 16th-century Portuguese people 17th-century Portuguese people People from Olinda