The Crown, the Court and the Casa Da Índia: Political Centralization in Portugal 1479-1521

198 Pages·2015·1.184 MB·English

by  Susana Ferreira

The Crown, the Court and the Casa da Índia
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The Medieval and Early
Modern Iberian World
formerly medieval iberian peninsula
Editors
Larry J. Simon (Western Michigan University)
Gerard Wiegers (University of Amsterdam)
Arie Schippers (University of Amsterdam)
Isidro J. Rivera (University of Kansas)
Mercedes García-Arenal (cchs/csis)
VOLUME 60
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/memi
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The Crown, the Court and the
Casa da Índia
Political Centralization in Portugal 1479–1521
By
Susannah Humble Ferreira
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Livro do Armeiro-Mor: Armas do Rei de Portugal, fol. 10 (1509). With kind permission of
Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo.
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
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issn 1569-1934
isbn 978-90-04-27886-8 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-29819-4 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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To David Charlton Humble
∵
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations x
Names and Currency xi
Introduction 1
1 Spin Doctors of the Crown: The Chroniclers and Their Contexts 17
Fernao Lopes, (Crónista Mor 1434–54) 20
Gomes Eanes de Zurara, (Crónista Mor 1454–74) 22
Dr. Vasco Fernandes de Lucena, (Crónista Mor 1474–97) 26
Rui de Pina, (Crónista Mor 1497–1522) 30
Duarte Galvão 37
João de Barros and Damião de Góis 39
2 From Royal Household to Royal Court: Patronage as a Political
Strategy 44
Political Utility of Large Households 45
Limitation of Household Size 46
‘New Monarch’ or King of the Roads? 54
Reorganization and Expansion of the Royal Household 58
3 Inquiry and Reform 69
Return of the Exiles 71
Expulsion of Jews and Muslims 75
The Manueline Reforms 79
Bureaucratization and Plural Appointments 84
Re-routing the Court: Palaces and Itineraries 92
4 Alms for the King 101
Controlling the Episcopacy 102
Hospitals and Confraternities 108
The Order of Christ and the Conquest of Morocco (1495–1510) 120
5 The Crown and Its Castles 128
Castles and Councillors 130
Changes to Warfare at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century 140
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viii CONTENTS
North Africa 142
Death of Ferdinand of Aragon 147
Estado da Índia 148
Conclusion 157
Bibliography 171
Index 182
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Acknowledgements
Over the many years that it has taken to bring this book to completion, I have
received generous support from a number of organizations. I would like to
thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and
The Johns Hopkins University for supporting the research for my doctorate.
I am additionally grateful to the institutions in Portugal that supported my
research: the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Luso-American Foundation
and the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. I also appreciate the assistance that
I received from the archivists at the Arquivo Nacional, Torre do Tombo.
This book has grown from a number of conversations, letters and unpub-
lished insights of many important scholars in the field of Portuguese History:
Professors A.H. Oliveira Marques, Sir Peter Russell, João José Alves Dias, José
Custódio Vieira da Silva, Rita Costa Gomes, João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, José
Pedro Paiva, Frank Dutra, David Higgs and Martin Elbl, among many others.
I would also like to thank Dr. Sean Cunningham and Dr. Malcolm Mercer in the
uk, and Professors John Marshall and Thomas Izbicki at Johns Hopkins, for
their assistance with the Tudor comparison upon which this book about
Portugal has been based. In addition, I am greatly appreciative of the candid
feedback that I received from my colleagues at the summer ‘works in progress’
seminars at the University of Guelph, to Ricardo Ferreira for his help in transla-
tions and to Wendy Humble for her assistance in editing the text. Of course, all
mistakes and oversights are my own.
I would like to make special mention of the ongoing mentoring and assis-
tance given to me by Professor Ivana Elbl who first brought me into the fas-
cinating world of late medieval Portugal and its overseas expansion. Finally
I would like to express my full appreciation to my late Ph.D. supervisor, Professor
A.J.R. Russell-Wood who shaped my original dissertation by asking probing
questions and by putting me on the telephone to Oxford and Lisbon in search
of the answers.
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