Duarte de Lemos (c. 1480 – 27 June, 1558), 3rd Lord of Trofa, was a 16th century Portuguese nobleman, soldier and donatary. In Brazil, he was Lord of the island of Santo Antônio, the present-day island of Vitória, where the capital of the state of Espírito Santo was founded.
Biography
He was the eldest son of João Gomes de Lemos, 2nd Lord of Trofa, by his wife Violante de Sequeira; and elder brother of Fernão Gomes de Lemos, ambassador to Persia in 1515 and captain of Portuguese Ceylon from 1522 to 1524. He was also the first cousin of the 1st Marquis of Cenete and the 1st Count of Mélito, two of the most prominent grandees of Spain, sons of his aunt Mécia de Lemos and the famous Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza.
In India
Duarte de Lemos began his military career at the age of twenty and left Portugal for the first time in 1505, traveling to the Indian Ocean in the fleet of the 1st Viceroy of Portuguese India, Dom Francisco de Almeida.
In 1508, when he was about 30 years old, he returned to India as captain of one of the 13 ships in the fleet of his maternal uncle, Jorge de Aguiar. After his uncle died in a shipwreck, Duarte de Lemos succeeded him as captain-major of the Sea and Coast of Ethiopia and Arabia, that is, the western part of the Portuguese Empire in the Indian Ocean.
But his relationship with the 2nd governor of Portuguese India, Afonso de Albuquerque, quickly deteriorated, because Duarte de Lemos was a supporter of what historians now call the "commercial strategy" for the empire, also advocated from the very beginning by the first viceroy of India, Dom Francisco de Almeida, who opposed the more militarized imperial concept implemented by Albuquerque. Under pressure from the latter, Lemos returned to Portugal, having left in Portuguese India a solid reputation as "the most efficient tax collector that King Manuel I has ever sent to the East".
Back in Portugal
He likely arrived in Lisbon some time between 1510 and 1511. This can be inferred from a letter that Afonso de Albuquerque wrote from India to King Manuel I, dated October 19, 1510, where he informs the King that he is sending him, at the care of Duarte de Lemos, "some pieces (...) together with the pearls of the tribute of Hormuz".
In Portugal, he was confirmed as 3rd Lord of Trofa, on July 8, 1514, and he was granted the patronage of its Church on 30 October, 1520. He also succeeded his father as Lord of the Torre de Silva near Valença, the ancient Manor house that gave the name to the family and House of Silva (the Torre de Silva had come into the possession of the Lemos family through Duarte de Lemos's great-great-grandmother, Joana Gomes da Silva, who had inherited it as a marriage dowry).
In 1518, he became a member of the Council of King Manuel I, a position he kept under Manuel's successor, King João III, who made him captain-major of a rich armada.
Between 1518 and 1520, he was involved in a conflict with the Abbess of Lorvão Abbey, over a donation he had received from the Count of Faro and of Odemira (a close relative of the King), who was also Lord of Aveiro.
The Count had donated to Duarte de Lemos several islands and lands in the region of Aveiro. The Abbey, however, contested this donation, claiming that the lands belonged to it. The King ruled against Duarte de Lemos in February of 1520, stating that Lemos "being a powerful person, forced and pillaged the said islands, and took possession of them". The Abbess thus regained possession of those Estates.
Around year 1534, Duarte de Lemos ordered the building of the famous Pantheon of the Lemos family, in the vicinity of his residence in the municipality of Trofa, close to the city of Águeda.
In Brazil
The following year, he began to devote his attention to Brazil, from where he was already writing letters to Portugal on May 5, 1535.
On June 15, 1537, he received as a donation the island of Santo Antônio, where the city of Vitória was later built, from the donatary of the Captaincy of Espírito Santo, Vasco Fernandes Coutinho, under the following terms:
“To Senhor Duarte de Lemos, [I grant] the large island that is from the bar inwards, which is called Santo António, completely free and exempt for himself and his descendants, for the much I owe him and for coming to help me to sustain the land that without his help I could not.”
As Lord of Santo Antônio, Lemos donated lands to several residents in the island that would become the capital city of the Captaincy of Espírito Santo.