Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada

Sir Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada, 1st Count of Avranches ( _pt. KG] (b. c. 1390, d. 20 May 1449 at the Battle of Alfarrobeira)

One of the noblest figures of Portuguese History, true symbol of bravery, loyalty and dedication, appears in a time and in a Court where whiten the first dawns of Renaissance, with the spirit of a Medieval Knight. The fact is so much to remark as his dilect friend, the Infante Dom Pedro, with whom he will be killed, is one of the forerunners of the Portuguese Renaissance, inspired in a life conception which nothing has already of Medieval.

Early life

Dom Álvaro was the son of João Vaz de Almada (b. circa 1360) and wife Joana Anes. He had a younger brother named Dom Pedro Vaz de Almada, married to Leonor de Gouveia de Queirós (daughter of Vasco Fernandes de Gouveia and wife Leonor Álvares de Queirós), who had female issue, and two half-brothers, born out of wedlock, by an unknown mother, named Dom João Vaz de Almada, 1st Lord of Pereira (b. circa 1400), married to Violante de Castro (born 1400), had issue (and also had a bastard son by an unknown mother), and Dona Brites de Almada, married to the English Earl of Arundel.

While was still a child, was with his father in England and with him took part at the conquer of Ceuta (1415). There he was armed a Knight by the Infante Dom Pedro, the whom just came from receiving from his father the order of chivalry. That ceremony should establish bounds of dedication between the initiate and the initiator, and never the precept was more nobly followed than in this case.

England

Returned to Portugal, it didn't take too long until Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada passed to England, where he served with such distinction that he was made a Knight of the Garter and Earl of Avranches, of Avranches, in Normandy (then under English rule), by Henry IV (August 8 1445), being granted to him an annual life pension of 100 marks, beside from being given to him, as a gift, a gold cup with 100 gold marks inside. He was the only Portuguese outside the Royal Family to receive the Knighthood of the Garter, and the only one to receive an English Title.

Holy Roman Empire

He also militated in the armies of Emperor Sigismund of Germany, and there he found himself with the Infante Dom Pedro, straitening the friendship that united to him, since he had armed him a Knight.

Back in Portugal

On June 23 1423 Dom João I appointed him Captain Major of the Galleys, charge that was kept in his House until the time of Dom Sebastião I, when it was extinct. On the exercise of these functions he participated in the unfortunate expedition to Tangiers in 1437.

After the passing of Dom Duarte I, and during the minority of Dom Afonso V, beginning the dissensions over the Kingdom's Regency, the people of Lisbon, who wished as Regent the Infante Dom Pedro, elected as his Alferes (Standard Bearer) Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada. Effectively, the Regency was trusted to Dom Pedro and the Queen left the country. It was later proclaimed the majority of Dom Afonso V, and the Count of Barcelos, Dom Afonso, bastard brother of Dom Pedro, started to frame his intrigue against the former Regent.

Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada found himself then militating in Ceuta. Barely he knew of what was being set up, he came back to Portugal. It is believable that the prestige of Dom Álvaro could concur to the victory of Dom Pedro against his enemies if he, instead of putting aside, would accept decisively the fight on the terrain in which they presented it to him. Dom Pedro, however, preferred to withdraw to Coimbra with Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada, and the King remained attached to his Counsellors.

The Battle of Alfarrobeira

The persecutions to the Infante were such that he could convince himself that it was settled his loss. He thus reunited his friends and Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada advised him that, assembling all his forces, he would march to meet of the King (who had put himself at the head of a powerful army), not to fight against him but to require justice against his enemies and fight with those, if they dared to affront him.

That was the decision which was taken. Dom Pedro called Dom Álvaro and asked him if he was decided to follow him in death, as in life he had always followed him. On an affirmative answer of Dom Álvaro, the two friends swore not to survive each other.

When the Infante was killed, the conde de Abranches was dauntlessly fighting in another side of the camp. A page, crying, transmitted him the news. He ordered him not to reveal the death of the Infante and immediately ran to his tent, took some wine, ate a little of bread, to recover his strength, which he was losing. Following that he move himself towards the battle. Recognized soon after by the King's soldiers, he was surrounded by them; he stroke down, however, whoever assaulted him. At the end, he exclamed with a loud voice: "My body, I feel you can no more; and you, my soul, already delaying." ("Meu corpo, sinto que não podes mais; e tu, minh' alma, já tardas.") He then felt on earth, exhausted. His enemies fell over and finished with him.

Title

Wrongly, in Portugal was always called (maybe by an error of the scribe who, for the first time, wrote down that foreign title), Conde de "Abranches", since the title that was granted to him was "Comte de Avranches" (city of France, in Normandy), as it can be seen in the respective Letter, thus mutilated, at the possession of the conde de Almada, his successors. The title, if given by a foreign sovereign, was recognized in Portugal, where it went on. They wore the Coat of Arms of the portuguese Almada family.

Marriage and children

Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada married twice: firstly before January 2 1436 to Isabel da Cunha (b. c. 1400), the daughter of Álvaro da Cunha, 3rd Lord of Pombeiro, and wife Beatriz de Melo, who didn't got to become a Countess, and had issue, from which the de Abranches descend (as in the mencioned corruption of the title); secondly to Dona Catarina de Castro, the daughter of Dom Fernando de Castro, 1st Lord do Paúl de Boquilobo, Governor of the Household of the Infante Dom Henrique and brother of the 1st Count de Monsanto, and wife Isabel de Ataíde, and had issue. His second wife later remarried Dom Martinho de Ataíde, 2nd Count de Atouguia, without issue.

The children of the first marriage were:
*Dom João de Abranches (b. c. 1420), married first to Leonor ..., without issue, and married second to his distant relative Mécia da Cunha (daughter of Vasco da Cunha and wife Maria Rodrigues de Azevedo), and had issue
*Dona Leonor da Cunha
*Dona Violante da Cunha (b. c. 1430), married to Dom Fernão Martins Mascarenhas, 1st Lord of Lavre and 1st Lord of Estepa (b. c. 1430, d. 1501) (son of Nuno Vaz Mascarenhas and wife Catarina de Ataíde), without issue
*Dona Isabel da Cunha (b. 1420), married to Álvaro Pessanha (b. c. 1415) (a bastard son of Carlos Pessanha, 6th Admiral of Portugal, by an unknown woman), and had issue
* Dona Brites da Cunha, married to the English nobleman Sir ... de Mabermont

The son of the second marriage was:
* Dom Fernando de Almada, 2nd Earl of Avranches or 2nd Conde de Avranches (b. c. 1430, d. April 29 1496), married in 1463 to Dona Constança de Noronha, 5th Lady of Lagares de El-Rei (b. c. 1435), and had issue, also had two children born out of wedlock by an unknown mother

The Almada and Abranches families

It seems that it was Joane Anes de Almada, vassal of Kings Dom Afonso IV, Dom Pedro I and Dom Fernando I, who began to use this surname, and who descended from some of the English noblemen (coming for the Second Crusade) who helped Dom Afonso I Henriques at the Conquest of Lisbon (in 1147), by which motive the same Prince gave them the place of Almada.

The Almadas notabilized themselves for many deeds of value, pointing out in this family the great patriotism of which it always gave proofs.

João Vaz de Almada, who served Dom João I - wrongly pointed as being a Knight of the Garter as his son, Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada, killed at the Battle of Alfarrobeira, in company of the Infante Dom Pedro- and Dom Antão de Almada, one of the forty Complotters who helped to shake off the Castilian yoke and to restore the Portuguese throne in 1640, symbolize the warrior virtues and the love of the Fatherland of the family that so well knew to defend it and to honor it.

From Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada, 1st Earl of Avranches, in France, and his first wife Isabel da Cunha proceeded the Abranches.

The family Abranches proceeds from Dom Álvaro Vaz de Almada, who had the title of Earl of Avranches in Normandy and married twice, leaving issue from both marriages. But the one of his first wife Isabel da Cunha took as surname the name of the Earldom, which sticked as Abranches, using it firstly attached to de Almada, and then just alone.

Dom João Ribeiro Gaio, the Bishop of Malacca, made for and dedicated to the de Almadas and de Abranches one of his tunes, the next five-verse stanza:

"Dos Almançores temidos, / das batalhas vencedores, / em suma embaixadores, / na paz melhores vestidos, / nas Hespanhas os melhores."

("By the Almançors feared, / of battles winners, / in sume ambassadors, / in peace best dressed, / in the Spains the best.")

The arms which the ones of this surname use in Portugal and Spain are: or, with a band azure, charged with two florenced and empty crosses or, accompanied with two stretched eaglets gules, armed and beacked sable. Crest: an eaglet from the shield.

The Abranches don't have arms, though the Armory books and some Letters of Arms attribute them some, which are the ones of the Almadas, from whom they descend.

There is, in Beira province, an Abranches family which has nothing to do with this one, whereby thy surname is de Abrantes, the which som branches transformed into that, at the beginnings of the XVIIIth century.

Some of them had Letters of Arms that the Kings of Arms had passed them with the ones of the Abranches, proving, falsely, that they descended from this family.

ources

*Various Authors, "Nobreza de Portugal e do Brasil", Volume Segundo, p. 356-7, Lisbon, Portugal, 1960
*Various Authors, "Armorial Lusitano", p. 26-7 and p. 42-3, Lisbon, Portugal, 1961
*Visconde de Figanière, "Alguns Documentos Acerca do Conde de Avranches", in Panorama, 3rd Series, Vol. V, Nr. 9