Madeira under the Crown

The monarchs and governments of mainland Portugal, united in the same purpose, gradually restricted the original and almost discretionary powers of the first donataries of this archipelago, until they achieved a high degree of centralisation in public administration and in the collection of the various taxes and dues. We have already dealt with this point at some length in the articles Grants (vol. 1, p. 368) and Donataries (vol. I, pp. 373 and 374), recalling that the royal letter (carta régia) of 27 April 1497 (see Saudades, p. 479) was one of the first and principal blows struck against the privileges and exemptions of the old donataries. The captaincies, which had been regarded almost as the property of the donataries, gradually came to belong to the Crown and became true colonies of the central power. It should not be understood that Madeira became Crown land (realenga) in the sense of having been entirely withdrawn from the governing authority of the captains-donatary. Rather, the successive limits placed on the powers they enjoyed curtailed their privileges and reduced their prerogatives to such an extent that one may well say, with the author of the Saudades, that the archipelago passed into the possession of the State, whereas before it had been a fief and a lordship almost entirely enjoyed by the donataries.