Sancho de Tovar
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Sancho de Tovar, 6th Lord of Cevico, Caracena and Boca de Huérgano (c. 1465 – 1547) was a Portuguese nobleman of Castilian birth, best known as a navigator and explorer during the Portuguese age of discoveries. He was the sub-captain of the fleet that discovered Brazil in 1500, and was later appointed Governor of the East African port-city of Sofala by king Manuel I.
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[edit] Early life
Sancho de Tovar was born in Cevico (now Cevico de la Torre), Castile, to an old noble house dating back to the first centuries of the Iberian Reconquista. He was the eldest son of Martín Fernandez de Tovar, 5th Lord of Cevico and Boca de Huérgano, and his wife Leonor de Vilhena. His father's open support for Afonso V of Portugal in his claim to the Castilian throne made him an enemy of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, and he was convicted of high treason and beheaded around 1480, after a long imprisonment. At the age of 20, Sancho avenged the memory of his father by stabbing (or, according to some records, mutilating) the judge who had sentenced him to death. He subsequently fled to Portugal, where he was well received by Afonso's successor, king John II. He lived in Lisbon and attended the royal court, where he stood out as a gifted musician and poet (Garcia de Resende collected a few of his songs in his famous Cancioneiro Geral).[1]
[edit] Departure from Lisbon and life as a navigator
After the death of John II, Manuel I succeeded to the throne. The Portuguese effort towards maritime expansion was at its peak, and in 1499 Tovar was appointed by the king himself subcaptain of a large fleet led by Pedro Álvares Cabral, made famous by its discovery of Brazil. The original intentions behind this enterprise are still a matter of speculation: some say it was merely meant as an expedition to India (which had been discovered the year before by Vasco da Gama) and the discovery of Brazil was accidental, but others claim the voyage was carefully pondered and that the existence of Brazil was more or less suspected of (see Controversies about the European discovery of Brazil).
In Brazil, Sancho's fascination with the beauty of the land and his interest in the natives' way of life became apparent to Pêro Vaz de Caminha, the fleet's secretary and chronicler, who recorded these impressions in his famous Chronicle of the Discovery of Brazil. He also wrote of Sancho's attempt to give wine to the natives, and of their negative reaction to the beverage. Curiously, Caminha's elder brother Afonso eventually married Sancho's sister Maria de Tovar, giving origin to the Tovar-Caminha family, a secondary branch of the house of Tovar.
As the fleet resumed its supposedly programmed route to India, Sancho de Tovar played an important role on the occupation of the important East African port of Sofala, where his ship eventually stranded. It was then set on fire, in order to prevent its contents from falling into the hands of muslim pirates. Upon his return to Lisbon, he was put in charge of that city and its surrounding region by the king, a duty that he only performed de facto after his return to Africa in 1515. During his stay in there, he organized and led a great number of exploratory missions around the area of present-day Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. He is supposed to have been one of the first Europeans ever to contemplate the ruins of Great Zimbabwe (then referred to by the Portuguese as Monomotapa).
He died in Lisbon around the age of 75, and was burried next to his wife in the church of the monastery of Xabregas.
[edit] Marriage and children
Sancho de Tovar married Guiomar da Silva, daughter of the Alcaide-Mor (Governor) of Porto de Mós, and had a son, Pedro de Tovar.
Pedro's eldest son, Sancho de Tovar e Silva (1540-1598), who became Lord of the Honour of Molelos by marriage, was also a navigator. The country's policy, however, had changed towards terrestrial expansion and he eventually embraced military life, having fought at the disastrous battle of Alcácer Quibir alongside king Sebastian I.
[edit] See also
- Age of Discoveries
- Portuguese Empire
- Controversies about the European discovery of Brazil
- Pero Vaz de Caminha
- Pedro Álvares Cabral
- Juan de Tovar y Toledo
- Sancho de Tovar e Silva
[edit] References
- Townsend Miller. The Castles and the Crown: Spain 1451-1555 (New York: Coward-McCann, New York, 1963)
- Greenlee, William Brooks, ed. and transl. (1938). The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society.
