Lopo Soares de Albergaria ( – ) was the fifth captain-major of the Portuguese Gold Coast and third

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Portuguese India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

, having reached India in 1515 to succeed

Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...

as governor.

Career

Lopo Soares de Albergaria (sometimes called Lopo Soares de Alvarenga, or simply Lopo Soares) was a middling noble, well-connected to the powerful Almeida family. Lopo Soares had served a successful term (1495–99) as captain-general of São Jorge da Mina in the Portuguese Gold Coast (West Africa). In 1504 Lopo Soares commanded the 6th Portuguese India Armada. Regarded as one of the more successful early India armadas, Lopo Soares brought the fleet back in 1505 nearly intact, with one of the best cargos yet received by King

Manuel I of Portugal Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate (), was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, John II of Portugal, as monarch. Manu ...

. This placed him in a good position for future preferment and appointments. In March 1515 Lopo Soares de Albergaria was chosen by King Manuel I to succeed

as governor of

, and departed from Lisbon to India on 7 April. The seventeen-ship fleet transported also an embassy to the

emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia (, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse (, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The emperor w ...

with Portuguese ambassador Duarte Galvão, Ethiopian ambassador Mateus (also known as Matthew the Armenian) and father

Francisco Álvares Francisco Álvares ( – 1536–1541) was a Portugal, Portuguese missionary and exploration, explorer. In 1515 he traveled to Ethiopia as part of the Portuguese embassy to emperor Lebna Dengel accompanied by returning Mateus (Ethiopia), Ethi ...

. In August, having learned through contacts in Venice that the Mamluk Sultan of Cairo had prepared a fleet at Suez to fight the Portuguese, king Manuel repented to have replaced Albuquerque, and immediately wrote to Albergaria to return the command of all operations to Albuquerque, and provide him with resources to fight. However, when the letter arrived, Albuquerque had already died. Portuguese attack on Jiddah 1517

As governor in India Albergaria made a naval expedition into the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

in 1517, taking on board the embassy to Emperor Dawit II of Ethiopia, including Mateus, Duarte Galvão and Francisco Álvares, with the intent of landing them on the coast. First Albergaria reached

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

, which offered to surrender but he felt he could not spare the men to garrison the port. Albergaria failed to capture Jeddah in 1517, and the attempt to land the embassy by reaching the port of

Massawa Massawa or Mitsiwa ( ) is a port city in the Northern Red Sea Region, Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak Archipelago. It has been a historically important port for ...

failed as well, with Albergaria getting no closer than the Dahlak Archipelago, and was aborted after the death of old Duarte Galvão at Kamaran. Álvares and Mateus were forced to wait until Albergaria's replacement,

Diogo Lopes de Sequeira Diogo Lopes de Sequeira (1465–1530) was a Portuguese '' fidalgo'', sent to analyze the trade potential in Madagascar and Malacca. He arrived at Malacca on 11 September 1509 and left the next year when he discovered that Sultan Mahmud Shah was ...

, successfully sent the embassy under D. Rodrigo de Lima in 1520. In 1518 Lopo Soares de Albergaria captured

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

for his king, having landed at

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

with a large fleet. Here he ordered the construction of a small fort named "Nossa Senhora das Virtudes" or "Santa Bárbara".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albergaria, Lopo Soares De Portuguese admirals Viceroys of Portuguese India 1460s births 1520s deaths Captain-majors of Portuguese Gold Coast People from Portuguese India 16th-century Portuguese nobility People from Lisbon People from Torres Vedras Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain 15th-century Portuguese people

Career

See also

References