Jerónimo de Azevedo

Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo (Estate of Barbosa,[1] Portugal, circa 1560 – Lisbon, 1625) was a Portuguese fidalgo, Governor (captain-general) of Portuguese Ceylon and viceroy of Portuguese India.

Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo
Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo in Ásia Portuguesa of Manuel de Faria e Sousa
Viceroy of Portuguese India
In office 1612–1617
Preceded by	Rui Lourenço de Távora
Succeeded by	João Coutinho
2nd Governor of Portuguese Ceylon
In office 1594–1612
Monarch	Philip I of Portugal Philip II of Portugal
Preceded by	Pedro Lopes de Sousa
Succeeded by	Francisco de Meneses
Personal details
Born	Jerónimo de Azevedo de Ataíde Malafaya 1560 (?) Estate of Barbosa, Kingdom of Portugal
Died	1625 Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal
Resting place	Igreja de São Roque, Lisbon
Citizenship	Portuguese
Nationality	Portuguese
Military service
Battles/wars	Invasion of Kandy (1603)

Early life

He was born Jerónimo de Azevedo de Ataíde e Malafaya, one of the thirteen children of Dom Manuel de Azevedo,[2] Comendador of the monastery of São João de Alpendurada. He was thus half-brother of the Jesuit martyr, Blessed Inácio de Azevedo.[3]

Not being the firstborn son, he did not inherit his father's estate, that included the lordship of the ancient honras of Barbosa and Ataíde, each with an estimated annual income of 100 thousand reais,[2] a considerable sum in 16th century Portugal. Dom Jerónimo was thus compelled to follow the example of many second sons of the Portuguese nobility of that era, by emigrating at a young age to the most important of Portugal's overseas possessions, the Estado da Índia, where he made his career.

He entered royal service on 25 March 1577, as a page (moço fidalgo) of King Sebastian's household (this was a posting usually reserved for very young members of the nobility, suggesting he was born sometime around 1560 - and not 1540 as referred in some sources). The appointment was made with his going to the East already in view and some time later, he sailed to India.[4]

Governorship of Ceylon

Azevedo was Captain-Major of the Malabar coast for a period of 15 years,[5] before being nominated Captain-General of Ceylon in the year 1594. He stayed in charge in Ceylon for a period of 18 years (from Christmas 1594 until November 1612),[6] an unusual long period for holding one office in the Estado da Índia.[4] He was a key figure[7] in the late 16th-century and early 17th-century Portuguese attempts to take full control over the whole territory of present-day Sri Lanka.

The touchstone of Portuguese ambitions in Ceylon by the end of the 16th century was the bequest by King Dharmapala of Kotte in 1580 of his entire realm to the king of Portugal. Dharmapala was a Christian convert and his bequest was unacceptable to many of his Buddhist subjects and to the ruler of the neighboring kingdom of Kandy. The takeover was therefore resisted, and the Portuguese had to subjugate Kotte by force.

Military campaigns in Kotte

Azevedo arrived in Colombo with fresh troops on 24 December 1594,[8] barely three months after his predecessor, Pedro Lopes de Sousa died at the battle of Danture (9 October 1594). The Portuguese army had been annihilated by the Kandyan forces in that battle and Azevedo found a kingdom of Kotte in full rebellion. On the first of January 1595 he held a review of the armed forces at his disposal, with king Dharmapala (the source of legitimacy for Portuguese rule in Kotte) at his side. He mustered 900 Portuguese and 2,000 Lascarin soldiers.[8] He sized up the situation and decided he had to pacify the lowlands of Kotte before he could retaliate against Kandy. A difficult, ruthless and prolonged campaign to crush the revolts in the lowlands was thus started and it would concentrate most of Azevedo's attention until it was successfully concluded in 1602.[8] By the end of 1601 the king of Portugal was already writing to the viceroy in Goa, promising to remember Azevedo's many services to the crown.[4]

Malvana Convention and opening of Ceylon to the Jesuits

His governorship in Kotte is also noted for his dealing with complex political issues, which he partly addressed by summoning the Convention of Malvana after the death of king Dharmapala in 1597. Azevedo convened representatives of all the districts of the kingdom and accepted - after two days of deliberations - that the native inhabitants of Kotte would keep their laws and customs, though they had to pledge allegiance to the king of Portugal. This convention is mentioned (some 40 years after it was allegedly convened) in a letter of grievance written by Sinhalese leaders to the captain-general, Diogo de Melo e Castro (1636 - 1638).[9]

Another issue to which Azevedo dedicated his attention was missionary activity. In 1554, the Portugueses crown had decided that its possessions in Ceylon would be an exclusive preserve of the Franciscans, and it reaffirmed this decision in 1593.[4] Under Azevedo, however, this policy changed.

In January 1597 the Bishop of Cochin, D. André de Santa Maria, wrote to the King of Portugal,[4] suggesting that it allow the Jesuits to engage in missionary activity in Ceylon, since the resources available to the Franciscans were allegedly "insufficient" for achieving the evangelizing objectives of Portugal. Later in that year, the Portuguese crown received specific proposals - based on the initial suggestions of the bishop of Cochin, fully supported by Azevedo, whose brother Inácio was a Jesuit martyr - on how to divide missionary activity in the island between the two Religious Orders. After much debate, these proposals were adopted by the crown and in April 1602 the first four Jesuits arrived in Colombo, backed by a patent issued by Viceroy Aires de Saldanha, on 27 February 1602.[4]

Military campaigns against Kandy

Azevedo was less successful in his attempts to subdue Kandy. He invaded the kingdom in 1603 in a carefully planned operation with a total force of about 1,100 Portuguese and 12,000 Sinhalese,[8] but despite initial successes he was forced to withdraw after a rebellion erupted among the Lascarins, the indigenous troops who fought alongside the Portuguese forces. In contrast to his predecessor Pedro Lopes de Sousa, who lost his life and his troops in a previous invasion, he did manage to prevent the annihilation of the Portuguese forces and showed exceptional military capabilities[4] during this retreat that thus came to be known as a famosa retirada[8].

After this setback, Azevedo brought innovations to the formulation of Portuguese military strategy in Ceylon. He decided to abandon the traditional approach of trying to subdue Kandy with a single, decisive military offensive and adopted instead a new strategy based on economic warfare. Every year the Portuguese would engage in smaller but highly destructive biannual forays and raids deep inside Kandyan territory, burning crops and villages and driving off the cattle. This greatly weakened Kandy - in the words of a Portuguese chronicler, the Jesuit Fernão de Queiroz,[10] the kingdom "never in our time recovered its former opulence and size". However, this strategy aimed at the economic strangulation of the kingdom of Kandy did not produce all the effects expected by Azevedo, because Portuguese traders in Indian port cities such as São Tomé de Meliapor, with the support of the Hindu king at Jaffna, refused to abandon their highly lucrative trades with Kandy.[11]

Political map of Ceylon in the early 17th century. Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo invaded Kandy in 1603, but was forced to retreat after a rebellion erupted among his Lascarin auxiliaries.

When he finally left Ceylon for Goa, Azevedo issued directives to his successor, insisting that his new strategy should continue to be followed until Kandy accepted a status of vassalage to the kingdom of Portugal[8]

The Fort of São Jerónimo in Daman. Azevedo ordered its building in the year 1615, while viceroy in Goa.

Viceroy of Portuguese India

Azevedo was appointed 20th viceroy of Portuguese India on 24 November 1611, and left Colombo for Goa where he assumed his new duties on 16 December 1612.[4] In 1615 he backed an audacious expedition to Pegu to loot the Moon imperial treasures in Mrauk-U, an enterprise that ultimately did not succeed. However, the fact that it was supported at such a high official level showed how plunder was considered a legitimate policy objective in 16th-century Portuguese-ruled Asia.[12] Also in 1615 Azevedo led a huge fleet that tried to drive English East India Company ships under the command of Nicholas Downton off Surat, but after a series of engagements (including a clash in which the viceroy's brother, Dom Manuel de Azevedo, captain of Chaul[7] and Diu, sank a couple of English merchant vessels) he failed to achieve the strategic objective of dislodging the East India Company from the Indian Ocean trade routes – an incident which demonstrated that Portuguese Goa had lost the capacity to protect its monopoly of commerce on the Western coast of India.[13]

During his government in Goa Azevedo also had to face the serious threat posed by the increasing pressure of Dutch fleets against the Portuguese possessions and trade routes in the Indian Ocean. His response was not only military, for one surprising byproduct of the Dutch challenge was galvanizing the Portuguese into undertaking new journeys of geographical exploration, seen as a sort of preemptive strike against the movements of Dutch and English fleets. Between 1613 and 1616 Dom Jerónimo ordered two such expeditions to the coasts of Madagascar[14] - known to the Portuguese as ilha de São Lourenço since the beginning of the 16th century - with the participation of Jesuit priests (the Jesuits were then very much engaged in such activity, including journeys to the interior of China and to Tibet). One of the aims of this project was evaluating the possibilities for conquest of the island.[5] The expeditions explored the region, prepared a roteiro of the coasts of Madagascar, produced new regional maps and compiled many scientific observations, in a concrete demonstration that the spirit of discovery was still present in the Estado da Índia in the first quarter of the seventeenth century.[15]

According to the historian A. R. Disney by the time of Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo's mandate as viceroy the influence of colonials in Goa, as distinct from metropolitan Portuguese, was steadily growing. These colonials had interests and an outlook that did not necessarily coincide with those of the metropolis. In practice, Azevedo – who had come to Asia as a young man and served for his entire career in the Portuguese Estado da Índia – was a colonial. This influence of colonials coincided with a period of resurgent Portuguese expansionism in South and Southeast Asia, that reached its peak when Azevedo took office in 1612 but was already weakening when he terminated his mandate as viceroy in 1617.[12]

On his return to Lisbon, Azevedo was held in custody and put on trial on several accusations, including embezzlement. One factor that probably contributed to his downfall in the Philippine court was the obstruction he made,[13] when viceroy in Goa, to the mission of the Castilian national García de Silva Figueroa, appointed by king Philip III of Spain (Filipe II of Portugal) as his envoy to the Shah of Persia. Figueiroa left Lisbon in April 1614, headed for a stopover in Goa, where he had strong disagreements with Azevedo,[16] that prevented him from reaching his final destination until the year 1617.

Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo died on 9 March 1625, in São Jorge Castle, before the conclusion of his trial.[3] He was buried in São Roque Church[17] in Lisbon, which was then the home church of the Jesuits in Portugal.

Legacy

Azevedo lived at a time when the Portuguese Empire in the East was already past its heyday and relatively weakened by the arrival to Asian waters of other European powers. But military successes in the 1590s against the Kingdoms of Sitawaka and Jaffna presented the Portuguese crown with a unique window of opportunity that led it to decide (in 1594) to attempt the conquest of the entire island of Ceylon.[4] The martial qualities of the governors were thus paramount, and this is the likely reason that explains Azevedo's long tenure in Colombo, followed by his promotion to viceroy in Goa in 1611.

Azevedo had attempted to resign from captain general of Ceylon in 1597[4] and later on, in February 1603, he was also the target of an inquiry ("devassa") conducted by the Archbishop of Goa, for alleged misappropriation of resources. However, as early as 15 March 1603, the king was already writing to the Archbishop to request the postponement of the inquiry, since in the meantime he had received favorable informations from the bishop of Cochin concerning Azevedo's military campaigns on the island. Clearly, the king did not want the good military results of governor to be undermined, and in the end he granted to D. Jerónimo a reward of 10,000 reais and a comenda in the Order of Christ.[4] By that time, Azevedo had already acquired in Ceylon the equivalent of the power and mystique of a viceroy.[15]

That Azevedo was more than a military chief, can be seen from the political initiatives (Malvana Convention) and missionary reforms (opening of Ceylon to the Jesuits) that he took while in Colombo, as well as in his support of geographical exploration and scientific activities during his tenure in Goa. On balance, it is likely that - more than the accusations of embezzlement (a quite common feature of many previous tenures of governors and viceroys of the Portuguese Empire) - it was his politically risky actions against a personal envoy of the king of Spain and Portugal that sealed his final fall from grace in the Habsburg court.

The Fort of São Jerónimo (Saint Jerome) in Nani Daman was started during his term as viceroy and is named in his honor.

Azevedo was also responsible for the rebuilding of the Idalcão or Adilshahi Palace in Panaji (Goa).

References

1. Queiroz, Fernão de (1930). The temporal and spiritual conquest of Ceylon, Volume 2 (PDF). Colombo, Sri Lanka: A.C. Richards. p. 618.
2. Cardoso, Augusto-Pedro Lopes (July 2013). "Dom Manuel de Azevedo, Pai do Beato Inácio de Azevedo, sj". Brotéria Cristianismo e Cultura. 177: 41–51.
3. Costa, SJ, Manuel G. da (1946). Inácio de Azevedo, o Homem e o Mártir da Civilização do Brasil. Braga (Portugal): Livraria Cruz. pp. 28–29. OCLC 2305684.
4. Abeyasinghe, Tikiri (1966). Portuguese Rule in Ceylon. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Lake House Investments Ltd. Publishers. pp. 18, 18, 26, 196, 196, 197, 48, 18, 13, 224, 225.
5. Centro de Estudos de História Contemporânea - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. "e-Dicionário da Terra e do Território no Império Português - article Jerónimo de Azevedo". ISSN 2183-1408.
6. Cahoon, Ben. "Governors". Sri Lanka. Worldstatesmen. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
7. Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (1993). The Portuguese Empire in Asia 1500-1700. London and New York: Longman. pp. 131, 155. ISBN 0582050685.
8. Perera, C. Gaston (2007). Kandy Fights the Portuguese (A Military History of Kandyan Resistance). Sri Lanka: Vijitha Yapa Publications. pp. 204, 205, 217, 224, 201–233, 240. ISBN 978-9551266-77-6.
9. Abeysinghe, Tikiri (January–June 1964). "The Myth of the Malvana Convention" (PDF). The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies. 7 (1): 70.
10. Queiroz, SJ, Fernão de (1687). Conquista Temporal e Espiritual de Ceylão (PDF). Lisboa: Manuscript. pp. Chapters XX-XXIX.
11. Thomaz, Luís Filipe (2018). L'Expansion Portugaise dans le Monde. Paris: Chandeigne. p. 182. ISBN 9782367321752.
12. Disney, A. R. (2009). A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807 (Volume 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 154, 166, 167. ISBN 978-0521738224.
13. Cardoso, Augusto-Pedro Lopes (2018). "Um abade viajante do séc. XVI. Dom Manuel de Azevedo, senhor da honra de Barbosa". Armas e Troféus - Separata. IX Série - Tomo 20: 38 (449), 37 (448) Footnote 227 – via academia.edu.
14. Leitão, Humberto (1970). Os dois descobrimentos da Ilha de São Lourenço mandados fazer pelo Vice-Rei D. Jerónimo de Azevedo nos anos de 1613 a 1616. Lisboa: Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos. pp. passim.
15. Newitt, Malyn (2005). A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400-1668. New York: Routledge. pp. 209, 210. ISBN 978-0415239790.
16. Rubiés, Joan-Pau. "A dysfunctional Empire? The European context of Don García de Silva y Figueroa's embassy to Shah Abbas". Estudos Sobre Don García de Silva y Figueroa e Os "Comentarios" da Embaixada à Persia (1614-1624).
17. "Igreja e Museu de São Roque - Descrição Complementar - Capela do Presépio". SIPA - Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico, Forte de Sacavém. Retrieved 13 July 2019.

Bibliography

• Tikiri Abeyasinghe, Portuguese Rule in Ceylon, 1594 - 1612 Lake House Investments Ltd. Publishers, 1966 edition, Colombo, passim.
• Frederick Charles Danvers, The Portuguese in India: Being a History of the Rise and Decline of Their Eastern Empire: Volume 2, 1894 edition by W. H. Allen & Co., London, page 198
• A. R. Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807 (Volume 2) Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (13 April 2009), pages 154, 166–167, 168, 191 ISBN 0521738229
• C. Gaston Perera, Kandy Fights the Portuguese (A Military History of Kandyan Resistance), 2007, Vijith Yapa Publications, Sri Lanka, ISBN 9789551266776
• Fernão de Queiroz, The temporal and spiritual conquest of Ceylon (Volume 2), Colombo : A.C. Richards, 1930. (Originally written and published in Portuguese, 1688)
• John F. Riddick, The history of British India: a chronology, Preager Publishers, 2006.