‘Very Pleased and Very Amazed with the Grandness and Royalness of this House of Aveiro’: The Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Torres Novas (Setúbal, 1618)

Abstract

This article examines the marriage of Jorge de Lencastre and Ana Doria Colona, the first duke and duchess of Torres Novas, by focusing on its context, negotiations and celebration. It recalls the family strategy of the duke and duchess of Aveiro to contextualize the matrimony that their firstborn son celebrated in the early seventeenth century. It also examines the negotiations leading up to this union to enquire whether the Crown intervened in this border-crossing marriage and to identify the benefits it produced for the House of Aveiro. The article pays attention to the ceremonial dimension of the event through a close analysis of a manuscript description of the festivities. In approaching the marriage from those perspectives, the intention is to evaluate the several layers of meaning for this marriage celebrated at a time when Portugal was incorporated into the Hispanic monarchy. Aside from its dynastic and material significance, the article discusses the political and identity discourses performed in the wedding celebrations and reproduced in the written report. Despite being short-lived, the marriage (and its related festivities) did achieve multiple goals, from serving the interests of the Habsburgs and earning valuable benefits in return for the family, to evoking the ‘grandness and royalness’ of the House of Aveiro.

Notes

1 Much of this is drawn from my recently completed doctoral thesis, ‘A Casa de Aveiro na constelação dos poderes senhoriais: estruturas de domínio e redes clientelares’, PhD diss., University of Coimbra (Coimbra, 2019).

2 Cristóvão Mata, ‘Disciplina familiar e estratégias matrimoniais da Casa de Aveiro (Séculos XVI–XVII)’, Revista Portuguesa de História 47 (2016), pp. 175-94.

3 The English literature concerning early modern Portuguese nobility and aristocracy is quite limited. The most relevant contributions are from Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro, ‘Nobility and Aristocracy in Ancien Régime Portugal (Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries)’, in H. M. Scott (ed.), The European Nobilities in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. I: Western and Southern Europe (London, 2007), pp. 256-84; and idem, ‘The Aristocratic Estates in Portugal and their Management, 1600–1834’, in Bartolomé Yun Casalilla and Paul Janssens (eds), European Aristocracies and Colonial Elites: Patrimonial Management and Economic Development, 15^th–18^th Centuries (London, 2005), pp. 99-114. See also Roderick J. Barman, ‘King, Court and Nobility in Portugal under the Braganzas, 1640–1834’, The Court Historian 18-1 (2013), pp. 1-21; and Mafalda Soares da Cunha and Igor Knezevic, ‘Iberian Society’, in Fernando Bouza, Pedro Cardim and Antonio Feros (eds), The Iberian World, 1450–1820 (London, 2019), pp. 142-65.

4 Liesbeth Geevers and Mirella Marini, ‘Introduction: Aristocracy, Dynasty and Identity in Early Modern Europe, 1520–1700’, in Liesbeth Geevers and Mirella Marini (eds), Dynastic Identity in Early Modern Europe: Rulers, Aristocrats and the Formation of Identities (New York, 2015), pp. 1-22.

5 Jonathan Dewald, The European Nobility, 1400–1800 (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 21-2; Henry Kamen, Early Modern European Society (New York, 2000), pp. 69-94; Hamish Scott, ‘Dynastic Monarchy and the Consolidation of Aristocracy during Europe’s Long Seventeenth Century’, in Robert von Friedeburg and John Morrill (eds), Monarchy Transformed: Princes and Their Elites in Early Modern Western Europe (Cambridge, 2017), pp. 44-86.

6 Mafalda Soares da Cunha and Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro, ‘Aristocracia, família e poder em Portugal, séculos XV–XVIII’, in Mafalda Soares da Cunha and Juan Hernández Franco (eds), Sociedade, família e poder na Península Ibérica: elementos para uma História Comparativa (Évora, 2010), pp. 47-75.

7 Luis Salas Almela, ‘The Wedding Processions of the Dukes of Braganza (1633) and Medina Sidonia (1640): Power and Fiesta in Portugal and Spain’, Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies 40-3 (2015), Article 3.

8 Biblioteca da Ajuda [henceforth BA], 51-IX-8, fols 165-73v.

9 Antonio-Paulo Ubieto Artur, ‘Aportações à biografia de João Baptista Lavanha’, Revista da Universidade de Coimbra 36 (1991), pp. 395-408.

10 Ibid.

11 Cristóbal Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía Madrileña, Parte Segunda (Madrid, 1906), p. 319.

12 Fernanda Olival, D. Filipe II: De cognome o Pio (Rio de Mouro, 2008), pp. 170-1.

13 Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía, p. 315.

14 Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía, p. 316.

15 BA, 51-IX-8, fols 170, 172.

16 João Baptista Lavanha, Viagem da Catholica Magestade del Rey D. Filipe II. N. S. ao Reyno de Portugal e Rellação do Solene Recebimento que nele se lhe fez (Madrid, 1622).

17 Edward Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1997), p. 5.

18 Olival, D. Filipe II, pp. 277-317.

19 Félix Labrador Arroyo, ‘La casa real portuguesa de Felipe II y Felipe III: la articulación del reino a través de la integración de las elites de poder (1580–1621)’, PhD diss. Universidade Autónoma de Madrid (Madrid, 2006).

20 Diogo Ramada Curto, A cultura política no tempo dos Filipes, 1580–1649 (Lisboa, 2011), p. 240.

21 José Antonio Maravall, La cultura del Barroco: análisis de una estructura histórica (Madrid, 1975), pp. 482-93.

22 António Caetano de Sousa, Historia Genealogica da Casa Real Portugueza, vol. XI (Lisbon, 1745), pp. 83-91.

23 Sousa, Historia, p. 92. Lordships and noble titles were considered crown assets and therefore were granted under the Lei Mental (Mental Law), which meant that such resources had to be regranted each generation and that preference in succession was given to legitimate first-born sons. Although the duchy of Coimbra-Aveiro was exempted from this piece of legislation, the original grant made by King Manuel on 27 May 1500 established that male descendants would always have preference over women. Álvaro was thus in a favourable position to succeed Jorge II not only because of his cousin’s last will, but also because of those clauses.

24 Fernando de Castro da Silva Canedo, A descendência portuguesa de El-Rei D. João II (Lisbon, 1945).

25 According to the Royal Chronicler Damião de Góis, this surname proceeded from the kings of England, implying that it was brought to Portugal by Phillipa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt and consort to King John I of Portugal. Góis would add that such a link was distant and that it would be more appropriate for Jorge’s progeny to wear the patronymic Joane, as he was John II’s son (Damião de Góis, Chronica do principe Dom Joam, rei que foi destes regnos segundo do nome (Coimbra, 1905), p. 271).

26 Jean Aubin, ‘D. João II devant sa succession’, Arquivos do Centro Cultural Português 27 (1991), pp. 101-40.

27 Sousa, Provas da Historia Genealogica da Casa Real Portuguesa, vol. VI (Lisbon, 1748), pp. 1-9.

28 Cristóvão Mata, ‘As rendas e o rendimento da Casa de Aveiro nos séculos XVI e XVII’, in Bruno Lopes and Roger Pessoa de Jesus (eds), Finanças, economia e instituições no Portugal Moderno: Séculos XVI–XVIII (Coimbra, 2019), pp. 59-87.

29 Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro, D. José I: na sombra de Pombal (Lisbon, 2008), pp. 131-66.

30 Sousa, Provas, pp. 77-8.

31 Academia das Ciências de Lisboa [hereafter ACL], Série Azul, MSS. 289, fol. 463.

32 Arquivo Distrital de Setúbal [hereafter ADS], Paróquia de S. Lourenço, Registos Mistos (1589–1604), fol. 22.

33 Nicolau de Oliveira, Livro das Grandezas de Lisboa (Lisboa, 1620), p. 88.

34 Lavanha, Viagem, pp. 72-4v

35 Mafalda Soares da Cunha and Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro, ‘As grandes casas’, in José Mattoso (ed.), História da Vida Privada em Portugal, vol. II (Lisboa, 2011), pp. 207-11.

36 Jorge Borges de Macedo, ‘Nobreza na Época Moderna’, in Joel Serrão (ed.), Dicionário de História de Portugal, vol. IV (Porto, 1975), p. 388; Fernando Bouza Álvarez, Portugal en la Monarquía Hispánica (1580–1640): Felipe II, las Cortes de Tomar y la génesis del Portugal Católico, vol. I (Madrid, 1987), pp. 517-22.

37 Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo [hereafter ANTT], Ordem de Santiago e Convento de Palmela, Maço 7, N.° 522A, fol. 12v.

38 Mafalda Soares da Cunha, A Casa de Bragança, 1560–1640: práticas senhoriais e redes clientelares (Lisbon, 2000).

39 ANTT, Chancelaria de D. Filipe II, Livro 43, fols 234-5.

40 Rafael Bluteau, Vocabulario Latino e Portuguez, vol. II (Coimbra, 1713), pp. 172-4.

41 Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra [hereafter BGUC], MSS. 502, fols. 122-7v.

42 John H. Elliot, ‘A Europe of Composite Monarchies’, Past & Present 137 (1992), p. 62.

43 Kimberly Schutte, Women, Rank, and Marriage in the British Aristocracy, 1485–2000: An Open Elite? (London, 2017), pp. 59-68.

44 Enrique Soria Mesa, La nobleza en la España Moderna: cambio y continuidad (Madrid, 2007), p. 175.

45 Mafalda Soares da Cunha, ‘Títulos portugueses y matrimonios mixtos en la Monarquía Católica’, in Bartolomé Yun Casalilla (ed.), Las redes del império: élites sociales en la articulación de la Monarquía Hispánica, 1492–1714 (Madrid, 2019), pp. 205-31; Fernando Bouza, ‘En la corte y en la aldea de D. Duarte de Braganza: Libros y pinturas del Marqués de Frechilla y Malagón’, Península, Revista de Estudos Ibéricos 0 (2003), pp. 261-288.

46 Mata, ‘Disciplina Familiar’, pp. 175-94.

47 Biblioteca Nacional de España [hereafter BNE], MSS. 9390, fols 175-6.

48 Rute Pardal, ‘Serviço político e ascensão social: o percurso dos Castro ao tempo da dominação filipina (1580–1640)’, Anales del VII Congreso de la Associación de Demografía Histórica (Granada, 2004), pp. 5-18.

49 Anselmo Braamcamp Freire, Brasões da sala de Sintra, vol. II (Lisbon, 1927), pp. 29-32.

50 Fernanda Olival, ‘Los virreys y gobernadores de Lisboa (1583–1640): características generales’, in Pedro Cardim and Juan-Luis Palos (eds), El mundo de los virreys en las monarquías de España y Portugal (Madrid/Frankfurt, 2012), pp. 287-316.

51 ADS, Paróquia de S. Lourenço, Registos Mistos (1604–30), fl. 129v; Registos Mistos (1630–53), fol. 86.

52 James L. Boone, ‘Parental Investment and Elite Family Structure in Preindustrial States: A Case Study of Late Medieval-Early Modern Portuguese Genealogies’, American Anthropologist, New Series, vol. 88, 4 (1986), pp. 859-78.

53 Cunha and Monteiro, ‘Aristocracia, Família e Poder’, p. 54.

54 António de Oliveira, Capítulos de História de Portugal, vol. III (Coimbra, 2015), pp. 1363-6.

55 Sousa, Provas da Historia, p. 79-89.

56 Soria Mesa, La Nobleza en la España Moderna, pp. 183-5.

57 Thomas Kirk, ‘The Apogee of the Hispano-Genoese Bond, 1576–1627’, Hispania, LXV/1, N.° 219 (2005), pp. 53-4.

58 Archivo General de Simancas [hereafter AGS], EST, LEG, 1435, 193.

59 AGS, EST, LEG, 1435, 193.

60 José Justiniano de Andrade e Silva, Collecção Chronologica da Legislação Portugueza, vol. II (Lisbon, 1855), p. 107.

61 Archivo Histórico de la Nobleza [hereafter AHN], OSUNA, C.533, D.29.

62 BA, 51-IX-8, fol. 165.

63 AHN, OSUNA, C.533, D.29, fol. 2v.

64 BA, 51-IX-8, fol. 172v.

65 The Spanish ducado and the Portuguese cruzado were worth the same, 400 réis (Memorias de la Real Academia de la Historia, vol. VI (Madrid,1821), p. 534; Oliveira, Capítulos, vol. I, p. 296).

66 Arras were the counterpart given by the groom’s family in a marriage contract. It was intended to secure the bride’s dowry in case of dissolution of the marriage and could not exceed a third of its value (Pascoal José de Melo Freire, Instituições do Direito Civil Português, vol. II (Lisboa, 1967), pp. 98-103).

67 Oliveira, Capítulos, vol. II, p. 755.

68 AGS, EST, LEG, 1933, 431.

69 AGS, EST, LEG, 1933, 480-1.

70 AGS, EST, LEG, 1934, 157.

71 AGS, EST, LEG, 1934, 162.

72 ADS, Paróquia de São Julião, Livro de Registo de Casamentos (1608–1644), fol. 68v.

73 BA, 51-IX-8, fols. 165-173v.

74 BA, 51-IX-8, fol. 166v.

75 Paul Ricoeur, Tempo e narrativa (Campinas, 2007).

76 Cristóvão Mata, ‘As armas da Casa de Aveiro como representação da sua identidade narrativa’, in Maria do Rosário Barbosa Morujão and Manuel Joaquín Salamanca López (eds), A investigação sobre heráldica e sigilografia na Península Ibérica: entre a tradição e a inovação (Coimbra, 2018), pp. 319-34.

77 Mafalda Soares da Cunha, ‘“La grandeza de la Casa de Bragança”: disputas de primazia e precedências nos séculos XVI e XVII’, Calipole: Revista de Cultura 22 (2015), pp. 73-82.

78 The fusta was a ‘long, narrow, small draft vessel’ powered by oars and a single sail' (Humberto Leitão and J. Vicente Lopes, Dicionário de linguagem de marinha antiga e actual (Lisbon, 1999), pp. 279-80).

79 Cunha, A Casa de Bragança, pp. 149-200.

80 José Eloy Hortal Muñoz, ‘Las guardas palatino-personales de los monarcas Austrias hispanos’, Sitios Reales: Revista del Patrimonio Nacional 179 (2009), pp. 4-21; António Dâmaso de Castro e Sousa, Origem da guarda real dos alabardeiros hoje archeiros no paço (Lisboa, 1849), p. 10.

81 Mata, ‘Disciplina familiar’, p. 184.

82 Jogo das canas was a chivalrous game popular in the Iberian Peninsula that consisted of groups of knights throwing sticks at each other (de Oliveira, Capítulos, vol. 2, pp. 980-982). Since the report refers to ‘flaming canes’, the thrown objects were probably on fire.

83 Fernando Bouza, Palabra, imagen y mirada en la corte del Siglo de Oro: historia cultural de las prácticas orales y visuales de la nobleza (Madrid, 2020), pp. 61-86.

84 ADS, Cartório Notarial de Setúbal, Primeiro Ofício, Livro de Notas (1618–1619), fols 172v-75v.

85 ANTT, Desembargo do Paço, Livro 4, fol. 104; Livro 5, fol. 225.

86 Merridee L. Bailey and Katie Barclay, ‘Emotion, Ritual and Power: From Family to Nation’, in Merridee L. Bailey and Katie Barclay (eds), Emotion, Ritual and Power in Europe, 1200–1920 (London, 2017), pp. 1-20, p. 10.

87 Fernando Ampudia de Haro, O processo civilizacional da tourada: guerreiros, cortesãos, profissionais … e bárbaros? (Lisbon, 2020), pp. 53-9.

88 Maravall, La cultura del Barroco, p. 493.

89 Illana Krausman Ben-Amos, The Culture of Giving: Informal Support and Gift Exchange in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 205-14.

90 Sousa, Provas, vol.VI, pp. 64-7; ACL, Série Azul, MSS. 289, fols. 454-65.

91 Francisco Ribeiro da Silva, ‘A viagem de Filipe III a Portugal: itinerários e problemática’, Revista de Ciências Históricas 2 (1987), pp. 286-7.

92 Lavanha, Viagem, pp. 72.

93 Lavanha, Viagem, pp. 72-4.

94 Silva, ‘A viagem’, p. 287.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cristóvão Mata

Cristóvão Mata

Cristóvão Mata is a researcher at the Centre for the History of Society and Culture in the University of Coimbra and holds a PhD in early modern history. His research interests focus primarily on the early modern Portuguese aristocracy and its relationship with royal and local institutions, as well as on local government and elites. Both these subjects were at the core of the doctoral thesis that he presented in 2019 and of other recent publications and presentations.