Fernandes Vieira (João)

Francisco de Ornelas Moniz Júnior – who later changed his name to João Fernandes Vieira – was born in the captaincy of Machico in 1613, in a time of oppression and poverty under Castilian rule.

His father, Francisco de Ornelas Moniz, was a great-grandson of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, the first donatary of Machico, and a grandson of Lançarote Teixeira, the great horseman; his mother, Antónia Mendes, was a great-grandson of Pedro Vieira, the great holder of the entail (morgado) of Ribeira de Machico (‘Machico stream’). Among his great-grandparents was António Fernandes, a sesmeiro (holder of a land grant, or sesmaria) at Covas do Faial (‘hollows of Faial’), in the north of the island.

It was from the Fernandes branch, linked to the Vieira line, that the young Francisco de Ornelas Moniz took an assumed name when he joined the stream of emigrants to Brazil. He wished to work as an unknown man so as not to sully the ancestral honours of the Teixeiras, Ornelas, Monizes, Saavedras, Mendonças and Vasconcelos, at a time when work was a disgrace and the oppressive burden of the lower classes. The nobility of Machico was among the proudest: it was starving, yet still flaunting its coats of arms.

Philippine rule (Spanish Habsburg rule over Portugal, 1580–1640), which abolished certain prerogatives of the donataries in the captaincies, ordered a review of entailed estates and dissolved many of them as unsustainable and absurd. At that time, in the populous jurisdiction of Machico, there was hardly anyone who could comfortably keep a horse, except two or three people, as the historian of the islands puts it. Then came crises in the crops, and the holders of entails, dreaming of grandeur and lolling in idleness, fell little by little into ruin and into the colonia contract (Madeiran sharecropping tenancy; produce divided, improvements owned by the tenant), under which they handed their lands over to tenants and received from them a half-share (demidia) of the produce.

In this way the eldest sons of the entail holders still managed to get by, living on their rents. Their younger brethren, however, starving and resentful of their lot, would submit to work only in a foreign land, and even then only after exchanging their noble name for another. This can be seen in various Madeiran genealogies, in the entries for families of the 16th and 17th centuries, some of whose members went to Brazil.

Once sugar had declined in Madeira, the lands discovered by Pedro Álvares Cabral produced it in abundance from canes imported there, and some men skilled in growing and making Madeira’s sweet products had already gone there in the time of Martim Afonso de Sousa, the governor of Portuguese America. Those who had stayed behind in poverty heard of the good results obtained and of the lands being lavishly distributed under the broad system of sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation). So they began to leave for Brazil on a promising adventure – hence a great stream of emigration – to try their fortune far from their oppressed homeland, free of alien prejudices.

João Fernandes Vieira, the descendant of the discoverer and 1st donatary, was a clerk in Pernambuco when the Dutch invaded the province in 1630.

Having taken Olinda, the enemy marched on Recife, which was poorly defended on the landward side and lacked the strength for effective resistance, its defence having been entrusted to hastily raised territorial militia (ordenanças). Undisciplined, these abandoned their position, leaving garrisons only in the forts of São Francisco and São Jorge.

It was in the latter that the young hero began his career, performing prodigies of valour. He wrapped himself in the Portuguese flag so that it should not fall into the hands of the enemy, who granted an honourable capitulation.

With the sea open to them, the Dutch poured continual reinforcements into Recife. They lacked no resources and strove to extend their dominion, while the Portuguese, in difficult circumstances, struggled to bar their way.

The young Fernandes Vieira, chivalrous and adventurous, commanded the scouts in the field when the enemy attacked the camp in 1634. Matias de Albuquerque, the Portuguese governor, would not risk battle, because he knew well the nature of his forces. He abandoned the fortress, losing the fruit of four years of relentless labour on the long line of entrenchments around Pernambuco. Vieira shut himself in the fortress, determined, fearless as he was, to defend it, but he was taken prisoner and ransomed himself for a weight of gold.

After this fresh setback João Fernandes Vieira appears to have settled down. He fell in love with Dona Maria César, daughter of his fellow countryman Francisco Berenguer de Andrade, who was also committed to the same cause of defending Portugal’s patrimony, and married her, now turning to commerce with a view to growing rich.

The news of the revolution of 1 December 1640 resounded through Brazil, and a year later that of John IV’s treaty with the Netherlands, a policy of alliance with the enemies of Castile, which heartened the defenders of Brazil. The Dutch, however, unscrupulously and on frivolous pretexts, went on with their work of conquest.

João Fernandes Vieira had a sudden resolve: he would restore Pernambuco, using the same cunning tactics as the enemy. The Dutch called him into their service, and he accepted the posts of business agent of the Company and member of its supreme council, thereby learning all their schemes and resources. He wrote to John IV asking leave to rescue the country from the hands of the usurpers, and the monarch refused!

The Dutch discovered his intentions and dissembled in turn, seeking to lure him to Recife, but Vieira outwitted them and took the field, raising the banner of Liberty in Pernambuco. From estate to estate, from sugar mill (engenho) to sugar mill, he stirred up the Revolution.

The Dutch issued a public proclamation (bando) promising an amnesty to rebels who surrendered within a set time. Vieira declared traitors all who did not follow his cause. The council of Pernambuco put a price on his head. Vieira put a price on the heads of the members of the Council of Pernambuco!

His lucky star protected him at Tabocas and Guararapes. This last battle is compared to Aljubarrota, for it decided the independence of the country.

He triumphed. Favours were heaped upon him. Such is the law of fortune. He was governor of Paraíba and then of Angola, nobleman of the Royal Household (fidalgo da Casa Real), alcaide-mor (royal governor of a castle and town) of the town (vila) of Pinhel and commander of many commanderies, of the kind that yielded good money.

João Fernandes Vieira died in Olinda on 10 January 1681, aged 85, leaving a curious will.

Anyone wanting fuller information about this distinguished Madeiran should read the weighty volume by Friar Rafael de Jesus, the Castrioto Luzitano, or the lighter French edition of 1842; O Valoroso Lucideno by Manuel Calado; the memoir by Lima Felner presented to the Academy of Sciences in 1873; and the monograph Ascendência, naturalidade & mudança de nome de João Fernandes Vieira by the author of this article. S.

Issue no. 152 of the Correio da Madeira (‘Madeira Courier’), in September 1922, published an interesting document taken from a copy of Book I of Baptisms and Marriages of the parish of Faial, which reads as follows: ‘On the twenty-ninth day of the month of June of . . . I [baptised] in this Church Fran[cisco], son of Francisco dor Nellas and of Ant[óni]a Mendes, and the godparents were Braz P[erei]ra and … of Beatriz oriz, and thus the godparents with the baptised are parishioners of this Church of N[ossa] S[enhora]... I made this termo (municipal jurisdictional district, a subdivision of the comarca) this day, month, year as above—Sebastião Gonsalves=and Braz P[erei]ra’. Since this record lies between two others from the year 1596, it seems evident that it was made in that year. There are also strong reasons to believe that the individual to whom the record refers is the celebrated João Fernandes Vieira, whose real name was Francisco de Ornelas Moniz and whose parents were Francisco de Ornelas Moniz and Antónia Mendes. If Fernandes Vieira was born on 29 June 1596, he died short of his 85th birthday, and not at 68, as was stated in the 1st edition of this work.

The copy of Book I of Baptisms and Marriages of the parish of Faial was made in 1766 because the original book was in very poor condition. The work was ordered by the Bishop of the diocese in June of that year, as certified by the present vicar of the parish (freguesia), the Revd Dr Francisco Fulgêncio de Andrade. (1921).

On the initiative of Dr Abel Capitolino Baptista, a modest monument to the memory of João Fernandes Vieira was erected on Avenida Manuel de Arriaga. It was solemnly inaugurated on 11 May 1924 and in 1933 was moved to the Jardim Municipal (‘municipal garden’).