Sancho de Tovar

Sancho de Tovar, 6th Lord of Cevico, Caracena and Boca de Huérgano (c. 1465 – 1547) was a Portuguese nobleman of Castilian birth, best known as a navigator and explorer during the Portuguese age of discoveries. He was the sub-captain of the fleet that discovered Brazil in 1500, and was later appointed Governor of the East African port-city of Sofala by king Manuel I. In this post, he conducted several exploratory missions in the interior regions of present-day Mozambique.

Early life

Sancho de Tovar was born in Cevico (now Cevico de la Torre), Castile, to an old noble house dating back to the first centuries of the Iberian Reconquista. He was the eldest son of Martín Fernandez de Tovar, 5th Lord of Cevico and Boca de Huérgano, and his wife Leonor de Vilhena, a Portuguese lady of the house of the counts of Olivenza [http://www.geneall.net/H/per_page.php?id=157907] . His father's open support for Afonso V of Portugal in his claim to the Castilian throne made him an enemy of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, and he was convicted of high treason and beheaded around 1480, after a long imprisonment. At the age of 20, Sancho avenged the memory of his father by riding to Burgos and stabbing (or, according to some records, mutilating) the judge who had sentenced him to death. He subsequently fled to Portugal, where he was well received by Afonso's successor, king John II. He lived in Lisbon and attended the royal court, where he stood out as a gifted musician and poet (Garcia de Resende collected a few of his songs in his famous "Cancioneiro Geral"). [http://purl.pt/12096/4/P303.html]

Departure from Lisbon and life as a navigator

).

Sancho's ship during this voyage was a "nao redonda", a large vessel of 200 tons with a crew of 160 men. These ships were so called because when viewed from the front or rear they appeared round on account of their wide beam and bulging sails (most of the other ships in Cabral's fleet were caravels, and considerably smaller) [http://books.google.pt/books?id=BwwqPJpqoX8C&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=sancho+de+tovar&source=web&ots=ORv3VstXaa&sig=qZp8N1BY7GmDZKefQ018kFcFJE4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result] .

In Brazil, Sancho's "fascination with the beauty of the land" and his "interest in the natives' way of life" became apparent to Pêro Vaz de Caminha, the fleet's secretary and chronicler, who recorded these impressions in his famous "Chronicle of the Discovery of Brazil". He also writes of Sancho's attempt to give wine to the natives, and of their negative reaction to the beverage, and mentions his gift of a boar's tusk to a young indian [http://www.cce.ufsc.br/~nupill/literatura/carta.html] . Curiously, Caminha's elder brother Afonso eventually married Sancho's sister Maria de Tovar, giving origin to the Tovar-Caminha family, a secondary branch of the house of Tovar.

As the fleet resumed its supposedly programmed route to India, Sancho de Tovar played an important role on the occupation of the important East African port of Sofala, where his ship eventually stranded. It was then set on fire, in order to prevent its contents from falling into the hands of muslim pirates. Upon his return to Lisbon, he was put in charge of that city and its surrounding region by the king, a duty that he only performed "de facto" after his return to Africa in 1515.During his stay in there, Sancho improved and expanded the Portuguese fortress of "Sao Caetano", which had been started by Pero de Anaia in 1505, and organized and led a great number of exploratory missions around the area of present-day Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Although these missions are poorly documented, he is supposed to have been one of the first Europeans ever to contemplate the ruins of Great Zimbabwe (then referred to by the Portuguese as Monomotapa).

He died in Lisbon around the age of 75, and was burried next to his wife in the church of the monastery of Xabregas.

Marriage and children

Sancho de Tovar married Guiomar da Silva, daughter of the "Alcaide-Mor" (Governor) of Porto de Mós, and had a son, Pedro de Tovar.

Pedro's eldest son, Sancho de Tovar e Silva (1540-1598), who became Lord of the Honour of Molelos by marriage, was also a navigator. The country's policy, however, had changed towards terrestrial expansion and he eventually embraced military life, having fought at the disastrous battle of Alcácer Quibir alongside king Sebastian I.

ee also

*Age of Discoveries
*Portuguese Empire
*Controversies about the European discovery of Brazil
*Pero Vaz de Caminha
*Pedro Álvares Cabral
*Juan de Tovar y Toledo
*Sancho de Tovar e Silva

References

* Townsend Miller. "The Castles and the Crown: Spain 1451-1555" (New York: Coward-McCann, New York, 1963)
* Greenlee, William Brooks, ed. and transl. (1938). "The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India". London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society.

External links

* [http://www.geneall.net/H/per_page.php?id=157907 Entry at Geneall.net]
* [http://www.cce.ufsc.br/~nupill/literatura/carta.html The Chronicle of the Discovery of Brazil by Pêro Vaz de Caminha (in Portuguese)]
* [http://books.google.pt/books?id=BwwqPJpqoX8C&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=sancho+de+tovar&source=web&ots=ORv3VstXaa&sig=qZp8N1BY7GmDZKefQ018kFcFJE4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result A brief discription of Sancho de Tovar's ship in William Brooks Greenlee's «Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral to Brazil And India».]