Militia

When Madeira was discovered and settled, says Dr Azevedo, the feudal period of the people’s militia was still under way, though already in transition: a period ‘in which arms were the privilege of few and the subjection of almost all’. ‘Each donatary (donatário), the same author continues, was in his captaincy the chieftain, the captain; subordinate to him were the noblemen who had received lands from him as sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation); and subordinate to the noblemen, or lords, were the lesser settlers, who in peace were their tenants, almost bound to the land, and in the host were obliged to serve as men-at-arms.’

The feudal period was followed by what Dr Azevedo calls the monarchical period, in which the king, claiming for himself the right to demand military service from his able-bodied vassals, ‘broke with the martial pre-eminence of the donataries and noblemen, leaving them only the burdens’.

The first document in which the king directly demanded this service, from both the nobility and the people of Madeira, so that they would accompany him on an expedition to Africa, is dated 25 March 1500. However, the donatary João Gonçalves da Câmara respectfully protested against these orders from the central power, invoking ancient rights that could not be set aside. In the same year another letter appeared, revoking the earlier one in so far as it concerned this island and ordering its inhabitants not to leave it ‘unaccompanied’, so that they could guard and defend it in case of need.

The monarch temporised with the donatary, perhaps because he did not consider himself strong enough to consolidate royal power on this island. This did not last long, however, for on 12 May 1509 the king ordered, by a letter sent from Évora, that the noblemen, knights, squires, good men (homens bons, local notables eligible for municipal office) and people of the city of Funchal should provide themselves with arms and horses, since their services might become necessary at any moment.

The creation of the modern Madeiran militia cannot be traced to this document, since it merely ordered the people to arm themselves without giving them any military organisation. We can, however, date from its publication the subordination to royal power of the forces this island could contribute to the defence of the country.

The watch-posts, kept by the people in small fortified houses built specifically to face the sea and prevent surprise attacks, were in the view of Dr Álvaro de Azevedo more than the prelude to the militia later known as the territorial militia (ordenanças). They were, he held, the ordenanças themselves, with little difference, and their institution therefore marks the boundary between the feudal and the monarchical periods in the history of the Madeiran militia.

The watch-posts received regulations (regimento) in 1567, issued by King Sebastian, and long before that, in 1515, there were bombardiers here, who were then granted privileges. In 1532 an anadel-mor (chief commander of the musketeers or crossbowmen) of musketeers was appointed for this island, and he was later authorised to appoint musketeers for the towns and villages. The royal decree (alvará) of 2 March 1497 shows that even before that date Madeira had an armoury where weapons were made.

Under the regulations (regimento) of 10 December 1570, the territorial militia (ordenanças) was divided into companies, grouped into capitanias-mores. ‘Each capitania-mor,’ says Dr Azevedo, ‘had a capitão-mor, who was the commander; a sergeant-major (sargento-mor, a field officer ranking as major), his second-in-command; and, later, an adjutant. Each captaincy had a captain and a second lieutenant, without royal commission, a sergeant, a bailiff (meirinho), a clerk (escrivão) and ten corporals. The donataries, or the alcaides-mores in the lands that had them, were capitães-mores by birthright; in other lands they were elected in the Council, as were the other officers, in all lands, until this privilege of election was reduced, for those lands that had no donatary, to a mere recommendation by the royal decree (alvará) of 18 October 1701. It was the king, or the donataries in their own lands, who granted the commissions, but only the former could withdraw them.’

We do not know whether all the posts that, according to the regulations, the companies of the territorial militia were supposed to have actually existed in Madeira, but several documents show that there were captains and sergeants-major here, as well as adjutants to the capitães-mores. The territorial militia must already have existed on the island in 1575, since there is a document of that time granting an increase in pay to the sergeant-major of Funchal. Dr Azevedo thinks that the watches we referred to earlier eventually merged into the territorial militia.

Besides the fourteen capitanias-mores mentioned above, at the beginning of the 19th century the archipelago had a first-line artillery battalion with six companies and 727 men, an auxiliary artillery battalion with fifteen companies and 2,171 men, and three militia regiments – those of Calheta, Funchal and São Vicente – each with ten companies and about 800 men. All these forces, except the first-line artillery battalion, were militia: the auxiliary artillery and the three militia regiments made up the second-line troops (segunda linha, reserve militia), and the territorial militia the third line of Madeira's troops.

Of the militia forces in the archipelago, Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’) had only an artillery corps of four companies, created in 1805.

The territorial militia (ordenanças) was abolished by Philip II at the request of the Cortes of Tomar and restored in 1623. It seems, however, that the decree abolishing it was never applied to Madeira, where the territorial militia continued to exist until the decree and law (carta de lei) of 22 August 1821 came into force, dissolving it once again together with the militia. Both were restored by the law of 13 July 1823, and were finally abolished only by the decrees of 14 and 20 July 1832, which were not put into effect on this island until after the proclamation of the liberal government in 1834.

A report submitted to the Government in 1754 by the captain-general (capitão-general, military governor of Madeira) Manuel Saldanha de Albuquerque, together with what has been published on the part played by the militia when the Miguelists seized Madeira in 1828, shows that in those periods these troops were commendable neither for discipline nor for military valour. Yet these were the very qualities that had so distinguished the militias which, in the time of the donataries, went to the aid of our strongholds in Africa when they were threatened by the Moors, and also those which in earlier times had several times defended the island against attacks by its foreign enemies.

Despite the show of organisation with which the militias of the 18th and 19th centuries were invested, all that reached the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo from that institution, says Dr Azevedo, was ‘the caricature and the abuses of power, ending in the swarm of gentlemen captains, lieutenants and second lieutenants whose commissions are still, in the rural settlements, vain memories and respected pretexts for distinction and esteem’.

In the first quarter of the 19th century the captain-major (capitão-mor, commander of the local militia) and the sergeant-major (sargento-mor, a field officer ranking as major), the principal commanders of the territorial militia, were appointed in the Council, being chosen ‘from among the persons of the governance (pessoas da governança, notables eligible for municipal office) and the nobility, well endowed with property and of sound Christian faith’. Luís Teixeira Doria, holder of an entail (morgado), was the last captain-major, and Aires de Ornelas Cisneiros, likewise holder of an entail, the last sergeant-major in the captaincy of Funchal; both were appointed in 1828.

Captains and sergeants-major were exempt from holding the offices of the governing body (governança, the notables eligible for municipal office), that is, from serving as councillors (vereadores), market inspectors (almotacés), etc., etc.