Governors General

With Philippine rule (Spanish Habsburg rule over Portugal, 1580–1640) the government of the captain-donataries came to an end (see Donataries), and this archipelago came to be administered by Governors General, appointed directly by the Spanish government. The administration of the Governors General lasted throughout the whole period of Castilian rule. They were:

• João Leitão (1581), Dom Agostinho Herrera (1582), João Leitão (1583), Tristão Vaz da Veiga (1585), António Pereira de Barredo (1590), Diogo de Azambuja e Melo (1594), Cristóvão Falcão de Sousa (1600), João Fogaça de Eça (1603), Dom Manuel Pereira Coutinho (1609), Jorge da Câmara (1614), Pedro da Silva (1618), Dom Francisco Henriques (1622), Fernão de Saldanha (1625), Dom Francisco de Sousa (1627), Dom João de Meneses (1632) and Luís de Miranda Henriques Pinto (1635).

The governors and captains-general (capitão-general, military governor of Madeira), and after them the first civil governors, took office in the session hall of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal), in the presence of the assembled councillors. Such was the respect that the former captain-lieutenants inspired that, when they went out, all men stopped and doffed their hats as they approached, and horsemen had to dismount as they passed. On 3 September 1803 a certain Henrique Correia, of noble family, was committed to the prison of the islet because he had not dismounted as the governor Dom José Manuel da Câmara passed, and had answered this authority somewhat rudely when admonished for his discourtesy. The late holder of the entail (morgado) António João da Silva Betencourt Favila was likewise arrested on one occasion for failing to salute a governor and captain-general! Quantum matatus ab illo!

Dr Damião Peres, a distinguished professor at the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra) and former rector of the Funchal lyceum (state secondary school), whose name is linked to valuable works on the history of our country, published in 1924 and 1925 two interesting pamphlets entitled O Desembargador João Leitão Governador Geral da Madeira and O Problema dos Governadores Gerais da Madeira. In them he set out to show that there was no basis for the generic title of governors-general given by Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo, the learned commentator on ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra), to the highest authorities of this archipelago during Castilian rule, and that they were entitled only to the name of captains-general, as can be read in some official documents of the period. The co-author of this Elucidário, C. A. de Meneses, in a series of articles published in the Diário da Madeira (‘Madeira Daily’) in September 1925, explains and justifies the title used by Dr A. R. de Azevedo, putting forward weighty arguments that invalidate Dr Damião Peres’s assertion. It is worth noting that this is a matter of secondary importance, of no great interest to the history of this island.