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Brazil Portal |
Bernardo Vieira de Melo was the first Governor of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte.
Vieira was born in the parish of Muribeca (today Jaboatão dos Guararapes) in 1658, and began life as a Brazilian backwoodsman. He was the son of Captain Bernardo Vieira de Melo and Maria Camelo de Melo, and grandson of Antonio de Vieira Mello who arrived in Pernambuco, coming from Portugal in 1654, shortly after the Dutch invasion.
Vieira entered the military in 1675 and was made a captain-general on November 17, 1691.
On January 8, 1695, he was appointed Captain-General of Rio Grande do Norte, and on September 25, 1709 Sergeant Major of the Third of Palmares, in which position he took an active part in War of the peddlers. In November 1710, Vieira was the first to call for the creation of a Republic of Brazil, an act for which he was arrested in Recife in 1712 and shipped to Lisbon with his son, Andrew. He was executed in the Limoeiro prison in 1718.
He married Catarina Leitao, daughter of Captain Gonçalo Leitão Arnoso.
| Preceded by — |
Governor of Rio Grande do Norte 1697 — 1701 |
Succeeded by Antônio de Carvalho e Almeida |
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