Câmara (Francisco Gonçalves da)
Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara, natural son of the third captain-donatary of Funchal, governed the captaincy in the absence of his nephew and is remembered for the weak defence against the French attack of 1566. Gaspar Frutuoso praised his valour, while the annotator of the Saudades da Terra called him cowardly.
Life, the 1566 attack and conflicting judgements
He was the natural son of the third captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) of Funchal, Simão Gonçalves da Câmara. In the absence of his nephew Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, fifth donatary of this island, who lived at court most of the time, Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara governed the captaincy. His name remains tied to the weak defence and resistance he put up against the French attack on this island in 1566.
The author of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) refers to him in the following laudatory terms: ‘he is a man most skilful in all his exercises of war, very temperate, of great virtue and little given to softness: he was brought up in hardship, away from the pleasures of his brethren, for which reason he endures toil well, and is a most valiant knight, as he showed when the French entered the city of Funchal, where, serving as Captain-General (as he then served and serves now) in the absence, and later upon the death, of his nephew, he most honourably wounded the French captain the Viscount of Pompador at the entrance to the Fortress, where he showed the spirit of a valiant captain; and for this the king gave him the habit with a certain pension (tença), and exempted him for eight years from paying the fifth and the tithe on his estate, a good part of which he holds in the termo (municipal jurisdictional district, a subdivision of the comarca) of Funchal, in sugars and wines. The learned annotator of the Saudades does not share Gaspar Frutuoso’s opinion, stating that Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara, ‘in whose charge was the government of the island of Madeira, far from attacking, did not even know how to defend it from the aggressors: there was only, at the entrance to the city of Funchal and at the gate of the fortress of São Lourenço (‘St Lawrence’), a clash of desperate defence and some illustrious feats of individual valour, which redeemed the good name of Madeira...’ The same annotator further adds that there were ‘rewards for the faint-hearted captain Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara, who, in the moment of danger, went to take refuge among the women...’ Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara owned the quinta (country estate) now called Quinta das Cruzes, and lived there ‘in great and sumptuous halls’, in the words of Frutuoso.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 01-
French Huguenot corsairs under Montluc, guided by Gaspar Caldeira, landed at Praia Formosa and sacked Funchal, storming the fortress of São Lourenço, profaning the cathedral and the Santa Clara convent, whose nuns fled to the Curral; Gaspar de Braga died resisting them. The attack, during the captaincy of Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara, prompted new coastal fortifications.
Place
Places mentioned · 03
- Fortress of São Lourenço
Funchal. Fortress at whose gate fighting took place during the 1566 attack.
The São Lourenço fortress in Funchal was begun as a simple bastion under the fourth and fifth captains-donatary and completed by the reign of D. Sebastião; its main entrance faces the Largo da Restauração. It later served as a palace and housed the Funchal meteorological station, and the republican flag was raised there on 6 and 7 October 1910. The Elucidário also records its heraldic emblems, a 1635 inscription, an old chapel of São Lourenço and the loss of its statue of the saint in 1911.
- Funchal
Seat of the captaincy he governed and city attacked by the French in 1566.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Quinta das Cruzes
Funchal. Estate he owned and lived on in grand residences.
The Quinta das Cruzes is a historic estate in Funchal, identified as the final residence of Zargo, where he died and where his sword was kept. A former Lomelino property later owned by Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara, it has a 1690s chapel with a marble ossuary said to contain Urbano Lomelino's bones. The Junta Geral chose it to house a museum of ancient art based on a collector's donation.
People
People mentioned · 04-
Natural son of the third captain-donatary of Funchal who governed the captaincy for his absent nephew during the French attack of 1566.
- Gaspar Frutuoso1522–1591
Author of the Saudades da Terra, who praised Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara's courage in 1566.
- Simão Gonçalves da Câmara1579–1580
Third captain-donatary of Funchal and father of Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara.
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French captain in the 1566 attack whom, according to Frutuoso, Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara wounded at the fortress entrance.