Duarte Coelho - Lisboa, Portugal - Coats of Arms on Waymarking.com

Duarte Coelho´s coat of arms is composed by a ampant lion in the centre os fthe shield surrounded by 7 rabbits (Coelho is Rabbit in Portuguese).
The coat of arms is placed in a magestic fountain in Belem (Fonte Luminosa)in front of Jerónimos Monastery together with 49 other coat of arms of important personalities from the time of Portuguese Discoveries. The fountain was designed by Cottinelli Telmo and built in 1940 for the Portuguese World Exhibition. There´s very little information about the fountain and the Coat of Arms and most available information refers to a total of 32 Coat of arms of Portuguese inland and Overseas provinces wich is wrong. These coat of arms can be seen in the gardens around the fountain designed with flowers and bushes.



Duarte Coelho (c. 1485 – August 7, 1554) was a nobleman, military leader, and Portuguese colonial administrator. He was the first grantee of the captaincy of Pernambuco and founder of Olinda.

He was the bastard son of old family Coelho, the landed nobility of Entre-Douro e Minho. Without having an organized home, he would have been raised by a maternal aunt who was prioress of the Monastery of Vila Nova de Gaia. His father was Gonçalo Coelho, Register of the Royal Treasury and commander of the Portuguese expedition that went to Brazil in 1503, which accompanied Duarte. His mother was Catarina Anes Duarte, a commoner. In 1506, he went to India in the fleet of D. Fernando Coutinho. Between 1516 and 1517 and was ambassador to Siam visited China, in 1521 built the church of Our Lady of Oiteiro in Malacca, he returned to Portugal in 1527. In 1531 he was again sent to India. In 1532, he received command of the fleet to push the French off the Brazilian coast. For his service he received on March 10, 1534, the donation of 60 miles of coastline in Brazil, in the current states of Pernambuco and Alagoas, the captaincy of Pernambuco, or New Lusitania.

Arriving at the factory of Pernambuco on March 9, 1535, was accompanied by his wife, Dona Brites de Albuquerque, her brother Jerónimo de Albuquerque, courageous and relatives, aside from families of northern Portugal. They came to try his luck in the development of the sugarcane industry.

The story says that they landed on the shores of Santa Cruz Canal, where there was a nucleus of settlement in the Porto dos Marcos. He advanced to the mouth of the river Igaraçu, where he founded the village of the same name and fought battles with the Indians. He built the Igreja dos Santos Cosme e Damião, the first in Brazil, giving the administration of the village to Afonso Gonçalves, and headed south.

With the help of Vasco Fernandes Lucena, who lived with tabajaras in 1537 amounted to a town the village of Olinda, which appeared in 1535 in place of the native village of Caetés Marim. The beauty of the location was great, especially the top, with a broad view of the ocean. Legend has it that the grantee would have exclaimed: "O beautiful situation to found a village." The village was elevated to village, receiving this name, on March 12, 1537.

The tribe of Marim Caeté was the most bellicose of the region, therefore Duarte Coelho teamed up with them. Enslaved in their place the tribes of the region of Sergipe. He managed to consolidate the captaincy, cultivating sugar cane, installing the first sugar plantations, tobacco and cotton.

Many were the fights between Indians and Duarte Coelho's settlers . After the marriage of his brother-in-law Jerónimo de Albuquerque with the daughter of the chieftain of the Tabajaras, named Maria do Espírito Santo, the Indians were quiet and content. Having achieved peace with the natives, there remained the concern with the French, which led Duarte Coelho to send ships along the coast and begin the exploration of the São Francisco River.

It was up to his deployment, in a systematic way, the foundations of the sugar industry. For it brought new techniques to manufacture the product, as the accompanying specialized masters of the island of Madeira. And above all, assured the Jewish capital and Protestant Netherlands, derived from the slave trade, to finance the venture. Good organizer, he tried to fix the colonists creating plantations, importing slaves from Guinea, mastering the rebellious tribes and protecting her friends. Under his guidance Pernambuco prospered economically, based on bourgeois families and the gentry in the North of Portugal.

Since 1549, Brazil was run by a Governor-General. The grantees had to pay her bills, as representative of the King, The headquarters of the General Government was Salvador, Bahia. On November 24, 1550, however, Duarte Coelho was exempted from the jurisdiction of the first Governor-General Sousa.

In 1554, Duarte returned sick to Portugal, where he died, leaving the command to his wife Dona Brites. He had managed his captaincy for almost 20 years. At the time of his death two of his children attended in Portugal and did not come immediately to Brazil. When they arrived, a little help in managing the property. D. Brites, then the government had to assume the captaincy, with the help of his brother-in-law, Jerónimo de Albuquerque.

After all, from 1560, Duarte Coelho was succeeded by his two sons Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque and Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho. However, Jorge returned to Portugal in 1565, and Duarte, 1572. Both were incorporated into the army of King Sebastian, who was advancing on northern Africa. Both were seriously injured after the Battle of Ksar El Kebir on August 4, 1578, and never returned to Brazil. The last grantee of the captaincy will be Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque (1591–1658), son of Jorge.
(From wikipedia)

Bearer of Coat of Arms: Noble (aristocratic) family Full name of the bearer: Duarte Coelho Pereira Where is Coat of Arms installed (short description) ?: Fonte Luminosa @ Praça do Império (Fountain) Material / Design: Stone Blazon (heraldic description): See above Address: Praça do Império Web page about the structure where is Coat of Arms installed (if exists): [Web Link] Web page about the bearer of Coat of Arms (if exists): [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   11/19/2019 Castor007 visited it