João Caeiro (also spelled as João Cayeyro,Pinto and Catz 1989: 601 Joano Cayeyro,Harvey 1925: 155–156 John CayeroRyley 1899: 139) was a 16th-century Portuguese mercenary in the service of King

Tabinshwehti Tabinshwehti (, ; 16 April 1516 – 30 April 1550) was King of Burma from 1530 to 1550, and the founder of the First Toungoo Empire. His military campaigns (1534–1549) created the largest kingdom in Burma since the fall of the Pagan Empire ...

of the

Toungoo Dynasty ''taungnguumainn saat'' , conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty , common_name = Taungoo dynasty , status = Empire/Monarchy, Kingdom , event_start = Independence from Kingdom of Ava, Ava Kingdom , yea ...

, rulers in modern day

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(Myanmar). He was the leader of a group of 700 Portuguese mercenaries who as musketeers and artillery men fought at the

battle of Martaban (1540–41) A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

. They were opposed by Martaban's defenses which employed another group of Portuguese mercenaries led

Paulo de Seixas Paulo de Seixas was a 16th-century Portuguese mercenary in the service of Saw Binnya, the viceroy of Martaban (Mottama). He is known for his leadership of Martaban's musket and artillery corps at the battle of Martaban (1540–41) against Toun ...

. Caeiro is said to have seriously considered defecting to the side of

Saw Binnya Saw Binnya (, ; died 1541) was viceroy of Martaban (Mottama) from c. 1510s to 1539, and the self-proclaimed king of the rump Hanthawaddy Kingdom from 1539 to 1541. First appointed viceroy of Martaban, one of the three provinces of the Mon-s ...

, the ruler of Martaban, who had offered him an enormous bribe. He rejected the offer after his Portuguese officers threatened to report the matter to the Burmese king.

Death

João Caeiro died in 1548, possibly in

Pathein Pathein ( ; , ; , ), formerly called Bassein, is the largest city and the capital of the Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar. It is located 190 km (120 mi) west of Yangon within Pathein Township on the bank of the Pathein River—a western branc ...

(Bassein). He left 13,000 to 14,000 ''pardaos'' (Indo-Portuguese silver coins), which were taken into

Portuguese India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

's treasury, according to a report dated 24 December 1548 by Simão Botelho, the financial superintendent of Portuguese India.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caeiro, Joao 16th-century Portuguese military personnel People from the First Toungoo Empire 1548 deaths Year of birth unknown Portuguese mercenaries