Afonso, Marquis of Valença

Alphonse of Braganza ('in Portuguese "Afonso") (1400-1460) was the older son of Afonso, 1st Duke of Braganza (natural son of King John I of Portugal) and of his wife, Beatriz Pereira Alvim (daughter of Nuno Álvares Pereira).

Through a formal document dated from April 4, 1422, his maternal grandfather, the Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira, donated him the County of Ourém, which had King Duarte’s royal confirmation only on November 24, 1433.

He was sent by the King as his special ambassador to the Council of Basel (1436) and to the Council of Florence (1439), visiting also Ferrara and Rome.

By a document issued on October 11, 1451, King Afonso V of Portugal granted him the title of Marquis of Valença. He was the first Marquis to exist among Portuguese nobility.

Still in October 1451, he escorted Infanta Leonor of Portugal (King Duarte’s daughter) in her trip from Lisbon to Livorno, where she met her groom, Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. They got married in Rome, where Pope Nicholas V blessed this marriage.

In 1458, he also took part in the Portuguese expedition to north Africa, which conquered the Moroccan city of Alcácer Ceguer (Al Qsar as-Seghir).

He had a natural son from "Dona" Beatriz de Sousa (some say they have secretly married): Afonso de Portugal. Afonso de Portugal, forced to be a clergyman by King John II of Portugal, was Bishop of Évora, and from him descends the Counts of Vimioso.

ee Also

*House of Braganza
*Duke of Braganza
*Marquis of Valença
*Count of Ourém
*List of Marquesses in Portugal
*List of Countships in Portugal

External Links

[http://www.geneall.net/P/per_page.php?id=1573 Genealogy of Afonso, 1st Marquis of Valença, in Portuguese]

Bibliography

”Nobreza de Portugal e do Brasil” – Vol. III, page 468. Published by Zairol Lda., Lisbon 1989.

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