João de Castro

His Lordship João de Castro
Portrait of D. João de Castro in Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu, c. 1560.

Governor and Viceroy of India
In office 1545–1548
Monarch	John III
Preceded by	Martim Afonso de Sousa
Succeeded by	Garcia de Sá

Personal details
Born	27 February 1500 (1500-02-27) Lisbon, Portugal
Died	6 June 1548 (1548-06-07) (aged 48) Goa, India
Military service
Allegiance	Portuguese Empire
Battles/wars	Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts Conquest of Tunis (1535) Siege of Diu (1538)

D. João de Castro (27 February 1500 – 6 June 1548) was a Portuguese nobleman, scientist, writer and colonial administrator, being the fourth Portuguese Viceroy of India from 1545 to 1548. He was called Strong Castro (Portuguese: Castro Forte) by the poet Luís de Camões. De Castro was the second son of Álvaro de Castro, the civil governor of Lisbon. His wife was Leonor Coutinho.^[1]^[2]

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Early life

As the younger son of Álvaro de Castro, João was destined for the church. He studied mathematics under Pedro Nunes, along with Luis, Duke of Beja, son of King Manuel I of Portugal, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. At eighteen, he went to Tangier for several years, where he was knighted by Dom Duarte de Menezes, the governor.^[3]

Voyages to India and the expedition to Egypt

In 1535 de Castro accompanied Dom Luís to the siege of Tunis, where he refused knighthood and rewards from Emperor Charles V. When de Castro returned to Lisbon, the king awarded him the commendation of São Paulo de Salvaterra in the Order of Christ in 1538.^[3]

Soon after, de Castro left for India with his uncle Garcia de Noronha, and participated in the relief of Diu upon his arrival at Goa. In 1540 he served on an expedition to Suez under Estêvão da Gama (the son of Vasco da Gama and then viceroy of India), who knighted his son, Álvaro de Castro in recognition of D. João.^[3] After Noronha's death, da Gama succeeded him, and de Castro joined da Gama on an expedition to the Red Sea. Da Gama departed on 31 December 1540, with 12 large galleons (one of which was captained by de Castro) and carracks, and 60 galleys.

De Castro kept a detailed journal of the voyage with maps, calculations, pictures, and detailed notes of the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and regions that are known as Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt today. He traveled to Suez and other ports on the shores of the Sinai Peninsula, all included in the Roteiro do Mar Roxo.

Unlike other viceroys, Castro was interested in Indian culture and religion. He collaborated with the humanist André de Resende to write a book on Indian art. His estate of Penha Verde, in Sintra, contains the two famous black stones of Cambay, retrieved by de Castro and his son.

Later life

Returning to Portugal, de Castro was named commander of a fleet in 1543 to clear Atlantic Europe of pirates. In 1545 he was sent to India with six ships to replace governor Martim Afonso de Sousa. Seconded by his sons (one of whom, Fernão, was killed) and by João Mascarenhas, de Castro overthrew Mahmud, King of Gujarat, and defeated the army of the Adil Khan. He also captured Bharuch, subjugated Malacca, and traveled in António Moniz's passage into Ceylon. In 1547, he was appointed to be viceroy by King João III of Portugal due to his victory at the second siege of Diu.^[3]

After the victory of his Armada in the relief of Diu, he asked the king to not prolong his term of office beyond the ordinary three years and to allow him to return to the Sintra Mountains in Portugal. After his victory over Mahmud and the Adil Khan, de Castro rebuilt Diu with the money received from the citizens of Goa. He did not live long enough to fulfill this goal, and died in the arms of his friend, Saint Francis Xavier, on 6 June 1548.^[3]

He was buried at Goa before his remains were exhumed and transported to Portugal to be reinterred in the convent of Benfica.

The terrestrial magnetism in the Roteiro from Lisbon to Goa: the experiences of João de Castro

The ancient Greeks had discovered that a dark metallic stone could attract or repel objects of iron. During the voyage, the navigators could not find a ship at sea by longitude because determining this required a clock on board to indicate the exact time at the reference median, and the astronomical determination of longitude gave unacceptable errors. On the trip to India, de Castro carried out a series of experiments that succeeded in detecting the phenomenon^[which?] with the magnetic needle on board. When de Castro attempted to determine the latitude of Mozambique on 5 August 1538, he noted the deviation of the needle 128 years before Guillaume Dennis (1666) of Nieppe, who is normally credited with this discovery. He observed a magnetic phenomenon on 22 December 1538 near Bassein, which was confirmed four centuries later. De Castro refuted the theory that the variation of magnetic declination is formed by geographic meridians.^[4]

De Castro's recorded values of magnetic declination in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the sixteenth century were useful for the study of terrestrial magnetism. He made 43 observations of magnetic declination through measurements of geomagnetic declination over the entire route around Africa. The instrument he used was the Bussola de Variacão, which was developed by Felipe Guillén a decade earlier in Seville. He discovered spatial variations of declination in the bay of Bombay (near Bassein), which he attributed to the disturbing effects of underwater rock masses.^{[citation needed]} In the 1890s, G. Hellman, quoted by Chapman and Bartels (1940), considered de Castro to be the most important representative of scientific maritime investigations of the time, and the method he tested was universally introduced on ships and used until the end of the sixteenth century.^[5]

Notes

^ Freire de Andrade, Jacinto (1664). The life of Dom John de Castro, the fourth viceroy of India wherein are seen the Portuguese's voyages to the East-Indies, their discoveries and conquests there, the form of government, commerce, and discipline of warr in the east, and the topography of all India and China : containing also a particular relation of the most famous siege of Dio, with a map to illustrate it / by Jacinto Freire de Andrada, written in Portuguese ; and by Sr Peter Wyche, Kt., translated into English. — Vida de Dom João de Castro, quarto viso-rey da India. English.
^ Thomas, David; Chesworth, John. "Asia, Africa and South America". Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 7 Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America (1500-1600).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Chisholm 1911.
^ "The road to the magnetic north pole".
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-26. Retrieved 2011-08-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Castro, João de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 484.
Jacinto Freire de Andrade Vida de D. João de Castro, Lisbon, 1651 (English translation by Sir Peter Wyche in 1664).
Diogo de Couto, Décadas da Ásia, VI.
The Roteiros, or logbooks of Castro's voyages in the East (Lisbon, 1833, 1843 and 1872) are of great interest.

Preceded by Martim Afonso de Sousa (1542 – 1545)	Governor and Viceroy of Portuguese India João de Castro (1545 - 6 June, 1549)	Succeeded by Garcia de Sá (June, 1548 – 13 June 1549)

v t e Governors and Viceroys of the Portuguese State of India (1505–1961)
Kingdom	Dom Francisco de Almeida 1505–1509 Afonso de Albuquerque 1510–15 Lopo Soares de Albergaria 1515–18 Diogo Lopes de Sequeira 1518–22 Dom Duarte de Menezes 1522–24 Dom Vasco da Gama 1524 Dom Henrique de Menezes 1525–26 Lopo Vaz de Sampaio 1526–29 Nuno da Cunha 1529–38 Dom Garcia de Noronha 1538–40 Dom Estêvão da Gama 1540–42 Martim Afonso de Sousa 1542–45 Dom João de Castro 1545–48 Garcia de Sá 1548–49 Jorge Cabral 1549–50 Dom Afonso de Noronha 1550–54 Pedro Mascarenhas 1554–55 Francisco Barreto 1555–58 Dom Constantino de Bragança 1558–61 Dom Francisco Coutinho 1561–64 João de Mendonça 1564 Dom António de Noronha 1564–68 Dom Luís de Ataíde 1568–71 Dom António de Noronha "Catarraz" 1571–73 António Moniz Barreto 1573–76 Dom Diogo de Menezes 1576–78 Fernão Teles de Menezes 1581 Francisco de Mascarenhas 1581–84 Dom Duarte de Menezes 1584–88 Dom Manuel de Sousa Coutinho 1588–91 Matias de Albuquerque 1591–97 Dom Francisco da Gama 1597–1600 Aires de Saldanha 1600–05 Martim Afonso de Castro 1605–07 Aleixo de Meneses 1607–09 André Furtado de Mendonça 1609–10 Rui Lourenço de Távora 1610–12 Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo 1612–17 Dom João Coutinho 1617–19 Fernão de Albuquerque 1619–22 D. Francisco da Gama (second time) 1622–28 Luís de Brito e Meneses 1629–29 Miguel de Noronha 1629–35 Pero da Silva 1635–39 António Teles de Meneses 1639–40 João da Silva Telo e Meneses 1640–44 Filipe Mascarenhas 1644–51 João da Silva Telo e Meneses 1651 Vasco Mascarenhas 1652–55 Brás de Castro 1655 Rodrigo Lobo da Silveira 1655–56 Manuel Mascarenhas Homem 1656 António de Melo e Castro 1662–66 João Nunes da Cunha 1666–68 Luís de Mendonça Furtado e Albuquerque 1671–76 Dom Pedro de Almeida 1676–78 António Brandão 1678–81 Francisco de Távora 1681–86 Rodrigo da Costa 1686–90 Dom Miguel de Almeida 1690–91 Pedro António de Meneses Noronha de Albuquerque 1692–97 António Luís Gonçalves da Câmara Coutinho 1697–1701 Caetano de Melo e Castro 1702–1707 Dom Rodrigo da Costa 1707–12 Vasco Fernandes César de Meneses 1712–17 Sebastião de Andrade Pessanha 1717 Luís Carlos Inácio Xavier de Meneses 1717–20 Francisco José de Sampaio e Castro 1720–23 Cristóvão de Melo 1723 João de Saldanha da Gama 1725–32 Pedro de Mascarenhas 1732–40 Luís Carlos Inácio Xavier de Meneses 1740–42 Pedro Miguel de Almeida Portugal e Vasconcelos 1745–50 Francisco de Assis de Távora 1750–54 Luís Mascarenhas 1754–56 Manuel de Saldanha e Albuquerque 1758–65 João José de Melo 1768–74 Filipe de Valadares Sotomaior 1774 Dom José Pedro da Câmara 1774–79 Dom Frederico Guilherme de Sousa Holstein 1779–86 Francisco da Cunha e Meneses 1786–94 Francisco António da Veiga Cabral da Câmara 1794–1806 Dom Bernardo José Maria da Silveira e Lorena 1806–16 Dom Diogo de Sousa 1816–21 Dom Manuel da Câmara 1823–25 Dom Manuel Francisco Zacarias de Portugal e Castro 1826–35 Bernardo Peres da Silva 1835 Dom Manuel Francisco Zacarias de Portugal e Castro 1835 Joaquim Manuel Correia da Silva e Gama 1835 Bernardo Peres da Silva 1836–37 Simão Infante de Lacerda de Sousa Tavares 1837–39 José António Vieira da Fonseca 1839 Manuel José Mendes 1839–40 José Joaquim Lopes Lima 1840–42 Francisco Xavier da Silva Pereira 1842–43 Joaquim Mourão Garcez Palha 1843–44 José Ferreira Pestana 1844–51 José Joaquim Januário Lapa 1851–55 António César de Vasconcelos Correia 1855–64 José Ferreira Pestana 1864–70 Januário Correia de Almeida 1870–71 Joaquim José Macedo e Couto 1871–75 João Tavares de Almeida 1875–77 António Sérgio de Sousa 1877–78 Caetano Alexandre de Almeida e Albuquerque 1878–82 Carlos Eugénio Correia da Silva 1882–86 Francisco Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral 1886 Augusto César Cardoso de Carvalho 1886–89 Joaquim Augusto Mouzinho de Albuquerque 1889 Vasco Guedes de Carvalho e Meneses 1889–91 Francisco Maria da Cunha 1891 João Manuel Correia Taborda 1891–92 Francisco Teixeira da Silva 1892–93 Rafael Jácome de Andrade 1893–94 João Manuel Correia Taborda 1894 Elesbão José de Bettencourt Lapa 1894–95 Rafael Jácome de Andrade 1895–96 Prince Afonso Henriques de Bragança 1896 João António de Brissac das Neves Ferreira 1896–97 João Manuel Correia Taborda 1897 Joaquim José Machado 1897–1900 Eduardo Augusto Rodrigues Galhardo 1900–05 Arnaldo de Novais Guedes Rebelo 1905–07 José Maria de Sousa Horta e Costa 1907–10
Republic	Francisco Manuel Couceiro da Costa 1910–17 Francisco Maria Peixoto Vieira 1917 José de Freitas Ribeiro 1917–19 Augusto de Paiva Bobela da Mota 1919–20 Jaime Alberto de Castro Morais 1920–25 Francisco Maria Peixoto Vieira 1925 Mariano Martins 1925–26 Tito Augusto de Morais 1926 Acúrcio Mendes da Rocha Dinis 1926–27 Pedro Francisco Massano de Amorim 1927–29 Acúrcio Mendes da Rocha Dinis 1929 Alfredo Pedro de Almeida 1929–30 João Carlos Craveiro Lopes 1930–36 Francisco Craveiro Lopes 1936–38 José Ricardo Pereira Cabral 1938–45 Paulo Bénard Guedes 1945–46 José Ferreira Bossa 1946–47 José Alves Ferreira 1947–48 Fernando de Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias 1948–52 Paulo Bénard Guedes 1952–58 Manuel António Vassalo e Silva 1958–61
Note: The head of Portuguese India could have either the title of "Governor" or the more prestigious "Viceroy" though their responsibilities were the same

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This page was last edited on 16 May 2024, at 21:07

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