Afonso de Albuquerque was a Portuguese general, a "great conqueror", statesman, and an empire builder. He became known as "the Great", "the Terrible", "the Caesar of the East", "the Lion of the Seas", and "the Portuguese Mars".
Background
Afonso de Albuquerque was born in 1453 in Alhandra, near Lisbon. He was the second son of Gonçalo de Albuquerque, Lord of Vila Verde dos Francos, and Dona Leonor de Menezes. His father held an important position at court and was connected by remote illegitimate descent with the Portuguese monarchy.
Afonso de Albuquerque had a bastard son with an unrecorded woman. He legitimized the boy in February 1506. Before his death, he asked King Manuel I to leave to the son all his wealth and that the King oversee the son's education. When Alfonso died, Manuel I renamed the child "Afonso" in his father's memory. Brás Afonso de Albuquerque, or Braz in the old spelling, was born in 1500 and died in 1580.
Education
Afonso was educated in mathematics and Latin at the court of Afonso V of Portugal, where he befriended Prince John, the future King John II of Portugal.
Career
Afonso fought in Portugal's wars in Spain and Africa. He was sent on a voyage to India in 1503-1504 and went to the East again in 1506 with Tristão da Cunha. In 1507 they captured the island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea, from where Tristão da Cunha sailed for India and Albuquerque for Hormuz. Albuquerque took Hormuz, the principal spice-distributing center for the Persian Gulf, and proceeded to India. He reached Cannanore in December 1508 and revealed his secret instructions to supersede Viceroy Francisco de Almeida, with the title of governor. Almeida, refusing to give up command, imprisoned him until a powerful Portuguese fleet under Fernando Coutinho arrived in October 1509 with a confirmation of Albuquerque's appointment. He then assumed power.
Albuquerque was the major figure in the establishment of the Portuguese sea empire in the East. In 1510 he captured Goa, which he fortified and made the chief trading post and permanent naval base in India. To give it a stable character, he offered lands and subsidies to Portuguese men who would marry native women. In 1511 Albuquerque captured Malacca; from this base he could control the trade from the East Indies and the coast of China. During his governorship Portuguese vessels touched on the coast of China and sailed to some of the islands of the East Indies, gaining naval ascendancy in the Far East.
In Goa again in 1512, Albuquerque strengthened Portuguese administration there and in other coastal cities and prepared a fleet for a campaign along the coasts of Persia and Arabia. His unsuccessful attack on Aden in 1513 failed to close the Red Sea to Moslem shipping. On his return to India, he secured from the King of Cambay the right to construct a fortress in Diu. His success brought friendly overtures from the Shah of Persia, the Samorin of Calicut, and the kings of Siam and Malacca, as well as several other rulers.
Portugal now controlled the principal strategic points from the east coast of Africa to Malacca, with the exception of the Red Sea. A system of licenses (called cartazas) required all ships to prove that they had paid customs duties at Malacca, Goa, or Hormuz. An unlicensed ship, particularly if it belonged to Moslems, was subjected to seizure and sinking. Albuquerque's policies thus had made the Portuguese the predominant, although not the only, commercial force in the East until the 17th century.
In 1515 Albuquerque was superseded by enemies he had previously sent back to Portugal as prisoners. He died at sea on December 16, 1515.
Religion
Afonso advanced the three-fold Portuguese grand scheme of combating Islam, spreading Christianity.
Views
Quotations:
When he was superseded by enemies he voiced his bitterness: "I am in ill favor with the king for love of men, and with men for love of the king. "
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Afonso’s early training is described by Diogo Barbosa Machado: “D. Alfonso de Albuquerque, surnamed the Great, by reason of the heroic deeds wherewith he filled Europe with admiration, and Asia with fear and trembling, was born in the year 1453, in the Estate called, for the loveliness of its situation, the Paradise of the Town of Alhandra, six leagues distant from Lisbon. He was the second son of Gonçalo de Albuquerque, Lord of Villaverde, and of D. Leonor de Menezes, daughter of D. Álvaro Gonçalves de Athayde, Count of Atouguia, and of his wife D. Guiomar de Castro, and corrected this injustice of nature by climbing to the summit of every virtue, both political and moral. He was educated in the Palace of the King D. Afonso V, in whose palaestra he strove emulously to become the rival of that African Mars”.
