Captain of Portuguese Ceylon
Fernao Gomes de Lemos
(c. 1485 - c. 1535) was the third and last
Captain
of
Portuguese Ceylon
. Lemos succeeded
Lopo de Brito
and was appointed in 1522 under
John III of Portugal
, he was Captain until 1524. In 1524 when he left as Captain, the office was left vacant until 1551, where the office was succeeded by
Captain-majors of Portuguese Ceylon
.
[1]
He was also Portuguese Ambassador to
Persia
, appointed by
Afonso de Albuquerque
in 1515.
Biography
[
edit
]
He was the second-born son of Joao Gomes de Lemos, 2nd
Lord
of
Trofa
, by his wife, Violante de Sequeira.
He was probably born around 1485, a couple of years after his elder brother,
Duarte de Lemos
.
[2]
He went to India, with his elder brother - the aforementioned Duarte de Lemos, later
3rd Lord of Trofa
- in the armada that left
Lisbon
in 1508. He then took part in the
capture of Malacca
(1511) and
Hormuz
(1515) by the Portuguese under Afonso de Albuquerque. He was also present in the botched
siege of Aden
, in 1513.
Envoy to Persia
[
edit
]
In 1515, Albuquerque sent him as envoy to the court of Shah
Ismail I
of Persia.
[3]
From there Lemos wrote several letters to
King Manuel I
of Portugal; in one of these letters, dated January 4, 1517, he recalled that when Afonso de Albuquerque appointed him as Ambassador, the mission was "a difficult service because not even the path to that country [Persia] was well known".
[4]
[5]
Albuquerque's decision to appoint an Ambassador to the
Safavid
court was a necessity mandated by the geographical proximity of
Hormuz
- that had just been conquered by the Portuguese - to Persia and by the traditional role of Persia as a near
Suzerain
of Hormuz.
The diplomatic contacts maintained by Fernao Gomes de Lemos with the Safavid Shah were publicly cordial, but in private the Persian sovereign expressed his annoyance with the Portuguese occupation of Hormuz. The counterproposals made by Ambassador Lemos - including Portuguese military support, in the event of a conflict between Persia and her rival, the
Mamluk Sultanate
- managed, however, to set Luso-Persian relations on a relatively sound footing.
[6]
Captain of Portuguese Ceylon
[
edit
]
Lemos was the 3rd and last Captain of Portuguese Ceylon, from 1522 to 1524, based in
Colombo
.
Shortly after taking office, in early 1523, he wrote to King
Joao III
. In this letter, Lemos expressed the opinion that it would be useless and even counterproductive to maintain the Portuguese fortress in Colombo (built during the tenure of his predecessor), as it was causing a strong reaction of opposition among the
Sinhalese
"
who saw oppression [in the existence] of that fortress
". Thus, given the "
little fruit that could be drawn from the Portuguese military garrison
" and the fact that there were "
no greater Portuguese ambitions at stake
" and that in any case [there would be] "
very serious difficulties in achieving them
", Lemos concluded that "
for the purpose of vassalage and trade, it was enough to have a
Feitoria
; and everything else would serve as an impediment to the expansion of the [Portuguese] State by other means
".
[7]
[8]
The governor in Goa, Dom
Duarte de Meneses
, agreed with Lemos' opinion, and reinforced it by stating that in Ceylon only the
cinnamon
trade was important, everything else being "of little interest".
The Portuguese crown, taking into account the opinions of Captain Lemos in Colombo and Governor Meneses in Goa, sent instructions through the new viceroy, the Admiral Dom
Vasco da Gama
, that ordered the dismantling of the fortress, leaving in Colombo only a Portuguese factory. This had been a decision already considered by King
Manuel I
, and now implemented by his successor
Joao III
.
[7]
Fernao Gomes de Lemos, in compliance with the royal instructions, thus destroyed the fortress and returned with the Portuguese garrison and artillery to Goa, on the ship of Captain General Antonio de Lemos, his brother. In Colombo, only the head of the factory and
alcaide
, Nuno Freire de Andrade, would remain, with 20 soldiers; The viceroy Vasco da Gama, in Goa, wrote in the meantime to the
King of Kotte
,
Bhuvanekabahu VII
, informing him of the decision to destroy the fortress and to keep only a
feitoria
in Colombo, explaining that "the fortress was a cause of trouble; to satisfy Your Highness I thus order it destroyed and I only leave there a
Factor
to collect the tributes and trade in spices useful to the kingdom [of Portugal]".
Fernao Gomes de Lemos still had the time to formally introduce the new factor and his scrivener to King Bhuvanekabahu VII, who welcomed them with goodwill, promising them his support; only after performing this last diplomatic
d
emarche
did Lemos leave Colombo to sail back to the
Malabar coast
.
[7]
[8]
He returned to Portugal in the late 1520s, and bought an estate in
Alenquer
on August 3, 1529, for the sum of 850,000
reais
.
[4]
Death "in the service of the king"
[
edit
]
He is one of the four brothers of the above-mentioned Antonio de Lemos - the youngest son of the 2nd Lords of Trofa - whom the governor of
Portuguese India
,
Martim Afonso de Sousa
, writing to King
John III
from
Goa
, on December 1, 1543, mentions as having "
died in the service of the King
".
[4]
Thus, given the date of his purchase of an estate in Portugal and the date and contents of the letter of Martim Afonso de Sousa, it is likely that Lemos died in the
Estado da India
- and probably in combat - sometime during the 1530s.
He never married, but had an illegitimate daughter, Filipa de Lemos, to whom he left 40,000
reais
for her marriage, in his will.
[4]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Captains"
.
Sri Lanka
. World Statesmen.org
. Retrieved
17 February
2012
.
- ^
Soveral, Manuel Abranches.
"Duarte de Lemos, 3º senhor da Trofa (1514)"
.
Casa da Trofa
(in Portuguese)
. Retrieved
September 6,
2022
.
- ^
"Conhecimento de Fernao Gomes de Lemos, embaixador ao xeque Ismael. May 4, 1515 - Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo - DigitArq"
.
digitarq.arquivos.pt
(in Portuguese)
. Retrieved
2022-10-22
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Soveral, Manuel Abranches.
"Joao Gomes de Lemos, 2º senhor da Trofa (1497)"
.
Casa da Trofa
. Retrieved
September 6,
2022
.
- ^
"Carta de Fernao Gomes de Lemos para o rei, dizendo que Afonso de Albuquerque o nomeara como embaixador a Persia, ao cheque Mael.. January 4, 1517 - Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo - DigitArq"
.
digitarq.arquivos.pt
(in Portuguese)
. Retrieved
2022-10-22
.
- ^
Pelucia, Alexandra (2016).
Afonso de Albuquerque : corte, cruzada e imperio
(in Portuguese) (1a edicao ed.). Lisboa: Circulo dos Leitores. pp. 256?257.
ISBN
978-989-644-337-5
.
OCLC
958470506
.
- ^
a
b
c
Queiroz, SJ, Fernao de (1916) [1687].
"Conquista Temporal e Espiritual de Ceilao"
.
dlib.rsl.ru
(in Portuguese). Ceylon Government Printer. pp. 160?161
. Retrieved
2022-11-06
.
- ^
a
b
Queyroz, Fernao de (1992) [1687].
The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, Vol. I, Book 1-2 (translated by S. G. Perera)
(PDF)
. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. pp. 205?206
. Retrieved
November 6,
2022
.