Gonçalo (Gonçalves) Pereira (c.1280–1348) was a Portuguese prelate of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

who served as the archbishop of Braga from 1326 until 1349. Pereira was a son of Gonçalo Pires Pereira, who held the titles of count of the Kingdom of Portugal and knight commander of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

. After being raised at the court of King

Denis of Portugal Denis (, ; 9 October 1261 – 7 January 1325), called the Farmer King (''Rei Lavrador'') and the Poet King (''Rei Poeta''), was King of Portugal from 1279 until his death in 1325. Dinis was the eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second ...

, he studied law at the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca () is a public university, public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by Alfonso IX of León, King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the ...

, where he met Teresa Peres Vilarinho (1285-?). Their son, Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira (c. 1310 - c. 1379), was the father of

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

Nuno Álvares Pereira '' Dom'' Nuno Álvares Pereira, OCarm (; 24 June 1360 – 1 November 1431) was a very successful Portuguese general who had a decisive role in the 1383–1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile. He later became a my ...

, an ancestor of the

House of Braganza The Most Serene House of Braganza (), also known as the Brigantine dynasty (''dinastia Brigantina''), is a dynasty of emperors, kings, princes, and dukes of Portuguese people, Portuguese origin which reigned in Europe and the Americas. The hous ...

. After completing his studies, he returned to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, where he became a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

of the Cathedral Chapter of the Diocese of Tuy and, later, dean of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Porto. In 1320, King Denis sent him and Admiral Manuel Pessanha as envoys to the papal court at Avignon to obtain, among other things, financial aid for the war against the Moors. In the following year he was elected bishop of Évora but was never consecrated bishop of that see. On 21 August 1322,

Pope John XXII Pope John XXII (, , ; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death, in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Papacy, Avignon Pope, elected by ...

appointed him

bishop of Lisbon The Metropolitan Patriarchate of Lisbon () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or patriarchal archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Its archiepiscopal see is the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Mary Major, i ...

. The decrees of the diocesan synod that he held in 1324 were seen as imposing excessive financial burdens and were revoked by his successor. In 1326, Pope John XXII appointed him archbishop of Braga,Rodrigo da Cunha
Historia ecclesiastica dos arcebispos de Braga
parte II, cap. XLII y XLIII
Historia ecclesiastica da Igreja de Lisboa
part II, chap. LXXXVI. a post that he held until his death on 22 December 1348. He helped Queen Elizabeth settle the quarrels between her husband King Denis and their son, the future Afonso IV. In 1338 he was King Afonso's ambassador to the

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingd ...

, arranging peace between the two kingdoms. He participated in the famous

Battle of Río Salado The Battle of Río Salado also known as the Battle of Tarifa (30 October 1340) was a battle between the armies of King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castile against those of Sultan Abu al-Hasan 'Ali of the Marinids and Yusuf ...

on 30 October 1340, when the joint forces of both kingdoms destroyed those of Sultan Abu al-Hasan 'Ali of

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

and Yusuf I of

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

References

Bibliography

*LARA, António da Costa de Albuquerque de Sousa, SAMPAIO, Vasco de Bettencourt de Faria Machado e, AZEVEDO,Marcelo Olavo Correia de, ''Ascendências Reais de Sua Alteza Real a Senhora Dona Isabel de Herédia Duquesa de Bragança'', vol. I, Lisboa, Universitária Editora, 1999. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Goncalo 1348 deaths 14th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Portugal Roman Catholic archbishops of Braga University of Salamanca alumni Burials at Braga Cathedral Bishops of Lisbon People of the Reconquista 13th-century births