Nuno da Cunha ( – 5 March 1539) was a Portuguese admiral who was governor of Portuguese possessions in India from 1529 to 1538. He was the governor of Portuguese Asia that ruled for more time in the sixteenth century in a total of nine years. He was the son of Antónia Pais and Tristão da Cunha, the famous Portuguese navigator, admiral and ambassador to

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X (; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political and banking Med ...

. Nuno da Cunha proved his mettle in battles at Oja and Brava, and at the capture of Panane, under the viceroy

Francisco de Almeida '' Dom'' Francisco de Almeida (; c. 1450 – 1 March 1510), was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Gran ...

. Named by João III ninth governor of Portuguese possessions in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, he served from April 1529 to 1538. He was named to end the government of governor Lopo Vaz de Sampaio (1526–1529) and brought orders, by King

John III of Portugal John III ( ; 6 June 1502 – 11 June 1557), nicknamed The Pious ( Portuguese: ''o Piedoso''), was the King of Portugal and the Algarve from 1521 until he died in 1557. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the third daughter of ...

, to send Sampaio in chains for Portugal. This delicate mission by the King was justified by their close connection ever since the king was still a prince. On his passage to

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

, he subdued the pirates at Mombasa who had been harassing the coast of

Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique () or Portuguese East Africa () were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese overseas province. Portuguese Mozambique originally constituted a str ...

. Mozambique had been brought within the Portuguese trading orbit and provided watering stations essential to Portugal's lifeline to the west coast of India. Nuno's brothers Pero Vaz da Cunha and Simão da Cunha were expected to serve under him as second and third in command, a form of

nepotism Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...

that was expected in the Portuguese ''Estado da Índia.'' However, they died on the voyage, and Nuno was forced to rely upon local networks of clientage in

during his long rule. In 1529, Nuno sent an expedition that sacked and burned the city of

Damão Daman is a city and the administrative capital of the Indian territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is a municipal council situated in the Daman district of the union territory. The Daman Ganga River divides Daman into: Na ...

on the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

at the mouth of the Damão River, about 100 miles north of

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

in the Muslim state of

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. Forces under his control captured Baxay (now Vasai, often mistaken for Basra in Iraq) from the Muslim ruler of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, on 20 January 1533. The next year, renamed Bassein, the city became the capital of the Portuguese province of the North, and the great citadel of black basalt, still standing, was begun. (It was completed in 1548.) Forced to return to Portugal as a result of court intrigues, he was shipwrecked at the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

and drowned. His first marriage was to Maria da Cunha, and his second marriage was to Isabel da Silveira. The main source for Nuno da Cunha's career is the Portuguese historian

João de Barros João de Barros (; 1496 – 20 October 1570), nicknamed the "Portuguese Livy", is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his (''Decades of Asia''), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa. Early y ...

(1496–1570), famous for his history of the Portuguese in their overseas territories. The work, is full of lively detail, with incidents described like the king of Viantana's killing of the Portuguese ambassadors to

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

with boiling water and their bodies thrown to dogs.

Gallery

File:NunoCunhaDiu.jpg, Statue of D. Nuno da Cunha in Diu. File:Map of Bassein from Portuguese Atlas (1630).jpg, Map of Bassein (c. 1539).

External links

''Portugal: Dicionario Historico'' Andreia Martins de Carvalho, "Family networks and clientelism: impact on the political structure and decision making of the “Estado da Índia”": abstract
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunha, Nuno Da Governors-general of Portuguese India 1480s births 1539 deaths Deaths by drowning 16th-century Portuguese explorers

Gallery

See also

External links