João de Castro

Dom João de Castro (February 7, 1500 - June 6, 1548) was a Portuguese naval officer and fourth viceroy of Portuguese India. He was called "Castro Forte" ("Strong Castro") by poet Luís de Camões. Castro was the son of Álvaro de Castro, civil governor of Lisbon. His wife was Leonor de Coutinho.

A younger son, and destined therefore for the church, he became at an early age a brilliant humanist, and studied mathematics under Pedro Nunes, in company with Louis, Duke of Beja, son of king Manuel I of Portugal, with whom he contracted a life-long friendship. At eighteen he went to Tangier, where he was dubbed knight by Duarte de Menezes the governor, and there he remained several years. In 1535 he accompanied Dom Louis to the siege of Tunis, where he had the honor of refusing knighthood and reward at the hands of the great emperor Charles V. Returning to Lisbon, he received from the king the small commandership of São Paulo de Salvaterra in 1538.

Soon after this he left for India in company with his uncle Garcia de Noronha, and on his arrival at Goa went off for the relief of Diu. In 1540 he served on an expedition under Estêvão da Gama (the son of Vasco da Gama and them viceroy of Portuguese India), by whom his son, Álvaro de Castro, a child of thirteen, was knighted, out of compliment to him.

Returning to Portugal, João de Castro was named commander of a fleet, in 1543, to clear the Atlantic European seas of pirates; and in 1545 he was sent, with six sail, to India, to assist Martim de Sousa, who had been dismissed of the viceroyalty. Seconded by his sons (one of whom, Fernão, was killed before Diu) and by João Mascarenhas, João de Castro achieved such popularity by the overthrow of Mahmud, king of Gujarat, by the relief of Diu, and by the defeat of the great army of the Adil Khan, that he could contract a very large loan with the Goa merchants. These deeds were followed by the capture of Broach, by the complete subjugation of Malacca, and by the passage of António Moniz into Ceylon; and, in 1547, by the appointement as viceroy by king John III of Portugal. He did not live long to fill this charge, dying in the arms of his friend, Saint Francis Xavier, on 6 June 1548. He was buried at Goa, but his remains were afterwards exhumed and conveyed to Portugal, to be reinterred under a splendid monument in the convent of Benfica.

References

*Jacinto Freire de Andrade, "Vida de D. João de Castro", Lisbon, 1651 (English translation by Sir Peter Wyche in 1664).
*Diogo de Couto, "Décadas da Ásia, VI".
*The "Roteiros", or logbooks of Castro's voyages in the East (Lisbon, 1833, 1843 and 1872) are of great interest.
*1911