Vicente Sodré (c. 1465 – 30 April 1503) was a 16th-century Anglo Portuguese knight of Order of Christ and the captain of the first Portuguese naval patrol in the Indian Ocean. He was an uncle of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama.
Background
Vicente Sodré was the son of João Sodré (also known as João de Resende) and Isabel Serrão. The Sodrés were a well-connected family of English origin, said to have been descended from Frederick Sudley from Gloucestershire, who accompanied the Earl of Cambridge to Portugal in 1381, and subsequently settled down there. Sometime in the 1470s, Vicente Sodré entered the service of D. Diogo, Duke of Viseu, the grand master of the Order of Christ. Sodré joined the Order of Christ himself, and rose to the rank of commendador, holding the commenda of Maninhos in Idanha around 1493. In 1494, he was dispatched by the order's new grand master, Manuel, Duke of Beja, to the order-owned island of Madeira to audit the repairs of the defenses of the town of Funchal.
After Manuel, Duke of Beja succeeded to the throne as King Manuel I of Portugal in 1495, Vicente Sodré, became a knight of the royal household. Around 1501, Vicente Sodré succeeded his powerful relative Duarte Sodré as alcaide-mor of Tomar, that is governor of the town and great Templar citadel, the spiritual home of the Order of Christ.
Vicente Sodré's siblings include his brother Brás Sodré and his sister Isabel Sodré, who married Estêvão da Gama and became the mother of Vasco da Gama. Unlike the Sodrés, the Gamas were attached to the Order of Santiago, perennial rivals of the Order of Christ.
Expedition to India (1502)
In 1501, the 2nd Armada of Pedro Álvares Cabral finally returned from India, and preparations immediately began for the assembly of a new India armada (the 4th), to be sent out in 1502, again under Cabral. Vicente Sodré was appointed by King Manuel I of Portugal as the first Capitão-mor do Mar da Índia ('Captain-major of the Indian Sea'), i.e. commander of the first Portuguese naval patrol in the Indian Ocean. Sodré was given a royal regimento, instructing him to patrol and prey on Arab shipping at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Vicente Sodré's patrol was designated to go to India as a distinct squadron of the 4th Armada of 1502, and to remain behind on patrol. However, Sodré insisted that his regimento be independent - that is, that the 4th armada's admiral, Pedro Álvares Cabral, have absolutely no authority over his (Sodré's) squadron for the duration of the voyage. King Manuel I of Portugal, who had strong doubts about Cabral's competence, agreed. Cabral found this condition humiliating and withdrew his name in a huff. Vicente Sodré helped secure the appointment of his nephew, Vasco da Gama, to replace Cabral as admiral of the 4th Armada. In the new regimento, Vasco da Gama would remain in command of Sodré's squadron only until India, after which the new separate regimento would apply.
The 4th India Armada under Vasco da Gama sailed out of Lisbon in February 1502, with Vicente Sodré in command of a squadron of five ships. After making stops in Mozambique Island and Kilwa, the armada arrived in India in September, engaging in various actions along the Indian coast in late 1502. Vicente Sodré is credited for rescuing Vasco da Gama from an ambush in Calicut harbor, and he took a leading role in the defeat of the large fleet of the Zamorin of Calicut at a naval battle before Calicut harbor in December.
Vicente Sodré was responsible for a notorious incident (reported by chronicler Gaspar Correia (p. 307)) with a wealthy and well-connected Egyptian merchant in Cannanore, who was about to leave port without paying customs duties to the Cannanore port authorities. Sodré fetched him from his boat and marched him to the customs house. When the annoyed merchant, after paying his bill, muttered a curse about the Kolathiri Raja of Cannanore (a Portuguese ally), Vicente Sodré grabbed the merchant and, in full view of the customers officers and port crowds, stripped him naked, tied him to a post and had him beaten with clubs (the merchant being a fat man, Sodré ordered them to aim their clubs at his stomach). Taken down from the post half-dead, Sodré ordered the battered merchant tied up and then proceeded to fill his mouth with dirt and pieces of bacon (the merchant offered Sodré 10,000 gold pieces to forego this final humiliation, but he rejected it). The merchant would go on to Cairo, and report his mistreatment in the court of Mameluke Sultan al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri. Correia suggests the Egyptian merchant's testimony was critical in rousing the sultan into taking more active steps against the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean.
Indian Ocean Patrol (1503)