Manuel Pessanha (Portuguese translation of Italian Emanuele Pessagno) was a 14th century Genoese merchant sailor who served as the first admiral of Portugal at the time of King

Denis of Portugal Denis (, ; 9 October 1261 – 7 January 1325), called the Farmer King (''Rei Lavrador'') and the Poet King (''Rei Poeta''), was King of Portugal from 1279 until his death in 1325. Dinis was the eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second ...

. His brother was the Genoese merchant and administrator, Antonio Pessagno. Manuel Pessanha was the son of Simone, lord of the Castle di Passagne. In 1316–17 Manuel Pessanha reached an agreement with king Denis of Portugal, who appointing him to reform the new

Portuguese Navy The Portuguese Navy (), also known as the Portuguese War Navy (''Marinha de Guerra Portuguesa'') or as the Portuguese Armada (''Armada Portuguesa''), is the navy of the Portuguese Armed Forces. Chartered in 1317 by King Dinis of Portugal, it is ...

. Pessanha then employed twenty men from Genoa to be captains of the vessels. In a royal charter of 1 February 1317, Pessanha was appointed with the title of Admiral of PortugalDiffie 1960, p. 54 (which would become hereditary in his family), entitled to a pension of 3,000 pounds, divided into three equal payments due in the months of January, May and September, and from rural incomes from several land possessions in Portugal. This contract was subsequently renewed later in 1317 and on 14 April 1321 and 21 April 1327. He participated in the naval battles between Castile and Portugal during the reign of king Afonso IV of Portugal. He was taken prisoner by the Castilians in 1337 after the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, but released in 1339. On 30 October 1340 he commanded the Portuguese fleet that helped Castile in the Battle of Río Salado, fought off

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

, while the

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

' ships blocked Tarifa. In 1341, he participated in an attack on

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

, considered a nest of Moroccan pirates who regularly attacked the coasts of

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

. His performance in this confrontation led to the Pope Benedict XII praising him in a

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not Castration, castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol cattle in r ...

which was sent to the Portuguese king. He had two sons from his first marriage to Genebra Pereira, Carlos Pessanha and Bartolomeu Pessanha, both of whom would succeed him in turn as Admiral of Portugal, and a son from his second marriage to Leonor Afonso, Lançarote Pessanha, who also would be an admiral of Portugal, who was murdered at the Castle of Beja during the 1383–85 Portuguese interregnum. Carlos and Bartolomeu, had no heirs, so the admiralty title passed through both of Lançarote's sons, Manuel II and Carlos II, until the 1430s, when lacking male heirs, the Admiral title would pass through the family's female lines through several Portuguese noble houses, ending up with the house of Azevedo in 1485 and the house of Castro ( Counts of Resende) after 1660.

References

Bibliography

* *Diffie, Bailey (1977), Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580, p. 210, University of Minnesota Press. *FERREIRA, João Pedro Rosa. Manuel Pessanha. in: ALBUQUERQUE, Luís de (dir.); DOMINGUES, Francisco Contente (coord). ''Dicionário de História dos Descobrimentos Portugueses (v. II).'' Lisboa: Editorial Caminho, 1994. pp. 896–898. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pessanha, Manuel Portuguese Navy Portuguese admirals 14th-century Genoese people Maritime history of Portugal People of the Reconquista Portuguese people of Italian descent 14th-century Portuguese people

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References

Bibliography