Cardoso (Simão Nunes)
Original title: Cardoso. (Simão Nunes)
Sixteenth-century author of an unpublished account of the 1566 French sack of Madeira, probably used by later chroniclers.
The annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) says the following of him: ‘Simão Nunes Cardoso, who was surely of the family of the Cardosos of Gaula, in the captaincy of Machico, since there were no others of that surname, was alive in 1566, for he wrote the Relação do saco que os franceses fizeram na ilha da Madeira (Account of the sack the French made of the island of Madeira), which took place in that year. This account was never printed; but probably from it','
Jerónimo Dias Leite copied the narrative of the event for his Historia da Madeira, and from this it would have passed into chapters XLIV–XLVI of ‘Longing for the Homeland’. We are persuaded of this because there is no record of any other account of the event, and because those found in the Saudades are plainly inspired by the rivalry between the captaincy of Machico and that of Funchal, and to the discredit of the latter.’
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
- Captaincy of Funchal
Funchal. Rival captaincy disparaged in the account.
The Capitania do Funchal was one of Madeira's two captaincies; its boundary with Machico was marked by the Ponta do Tristão. Its rivalry with Machico coloured Simão Nunes Cardoso's account.
- Captaincy of Machico
Machico. Captaincy whose rivalry with Funchal coloured the account.
The Capitania de Machico was one of Madeira's two captaincies; its boundary with Funchal was marked by the Ponta do Tristão. Porto da Cruz originally belonged to it, and its rivalry with Funchal coloured Simão Nunes Cardoso's account.
- Gaula
Santa Cruz. Home of the Cardoso family.
Gaula is a coastal parish in the municipality of Santa Cruz, Madeira, lying below Camacha and created in 1558; the origin of its name, including an alleged link with the romance Amadis de Gaula, is disputed. It contains the Pico dos Eirós, the Achada de Gaula and, on its coast, the Calhau e Porto da Aldonça. It was home to the Cardoso family, seat of their São João de Latrão entail, and associated with the Nunes and Madureira families and an entail of the Conde da Calçada.
People
People mentioned · 02-
Probably of the Cardoso family of Gaula; wrote an unprinted account of the French sack of 1566.
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Author of a Historia da Madeira who probably copied Cardoso's account.