Camões family

The Camões family were descendants of the 14th-century Portuguese nobleman Vasco Pires de Camões.

Origins

It seems that this surname had its origin from the Palace of Camauda, of which makes mention Gonzalo Argote de Molina, which is in the Kingdom of Navarre in land of the Basques, corrupted from Camanda to Camoens, from where they passed to Galicia and then to Portugal. Some say this surname came from a bird named Camão, others from the Castle of Camoens, old in the Kingdom of Galicia, next to Cape Finisterre.

The first one that can be found with this surname and from whom there is any notice was Vasco Pires de Camões (mentioned at the Chronicle of Dom João I by Fernão Lopes, C. II, C. 43). He followed the partiality of King Peter of Castile against his brother Henry II of Castile, and for that reason passed to Portugal, at the time of King Ferdinand I of Portugal, also for following in Galicia, from where he held, his side in the pretension he had for the Crown of Castile against Henry II, the Bastard. King Ferdinand gave him in the Kingdom of Portugal for his services the Alcaidarias-Móres of Alenquer and Portalegre, the Villages of Sardoal, Punhete, Mação, Amêndoa and the Council of Gestaçô, and the estate farms and lands that Infanta Beatriz or Brites, his sister, had at Estremoz and Avis, and made him one of the first Noblemen of his Council, which he later all lost. Vasco Pires de Camões followed the party of Beatrice of Portugal and Castile at the time of King John I of Portugal and against him, and was arrested at the Battle of Aljubarrota, and Aires Pires de Camões, his cousin, for what he lost the lands he had in the Kingdom of Portugal, remaining only the lands he had at Estremoz and other assets he had at Alenquer and Lisbon, from which his descendants made some Majorats, mostly at Avis and at the City of Évora, where they possessed many rent, retaining the patronymic Vaz. Gandara, in Armas y Triunfos de Galicia, Chapter 27, fl. 297 / p. 584, says that the Camões descend from Vasco Rodríguez de Caamaño, son of Fernán García de Caamaño, for Vasco Peres de Camões is thought to be the same he calls Vasco Fernández de Caamaño, second son of Fernán García de Caamaño and his wife Constanza Suárez de Figueroa, whose ancestry, with the de Caamaño surname, can be seen at the book said.

Aires Peres de Camões, following the party of King John I of Portugal, was a Captain of a galley of the fleet that left from Porto against the coast of Galicia, from where the General was the Count de Trastamara.

The coat of arms they bear is in a green field a serpent neck and head in gold that leaves from between two rocks in silver, touched in red, and for Timber the same serpent of the shield, or its head. It seems to have allusion to the serpent of Cadmus or to the animal they call caiman, which is a lizard (see Orozco in Thezouro).

Lineage

Vasco Peres de Camões married Maria Tenreiro. Maria was the daughter of Gonçalo Tenreiro (b. Pontevedra, Galicia), Captain-Major of the Fleets of Portugal - who supported the Crown of Castile, and bore the title Master of Christ - and his wife Maria Fernandes; and paternal granddaughter of Garcia Tenreiro (b. Pontevedra, Galicia) and his wife. Vasco Peres and Maria had three children: Gonçalo Vaz de Camões, João Vaz de Camões, and Constança Pires de Camões.

Gonçalo Vaz de Camões

Gonçalo Vaz de Camões was a rich nobleman, who lived at Avis and succeeded in name of his wife at the Majorat of the Fonsecas and married Constança da Fonseca, Lady of the Majorat of the Fonsecas (instituted by Lourenço da Fonseca on August 13, 1521), daughter of Afonso Vasques da Fonseca, Alcaide-Mór of Moreira and Marialva, and wife Mécia Lopes Pacheco (both descendants among others from Alfonso IX of León and she also from Sancho IV of Castile), and had an only son:

João Vaz de Camões

João Vaz de Camões or João de Camões, the second son, lived and lies buried at the Cloister of the See of Coimbra, in a particular Chapel, and has a grave risen up in marble, with half relief figures, with an epitaph of the services he had done to King Afonso V of Portugal, whose Vassal he was, and served the same King at the Wars of Africa and Castile, and was a Corregidor of the Comarca (District) of the Beira, married firstly to Inês Gomes da Silva, natural daughter of Jorge da Silva by an unknown woman and older sister of Brites da Silva and Catarina da Silva (and whose paternal grandfather was a bastard son of Gonçalo Gomes da Silva, Alcaide-Mór of Soure, son of the 1st Lords da Chamusca and a descendant among others from Juan Manuel, Lord of Villena's marriage and from Afonso III of Portugal), and secondly to Catarina Pires, without issue, and had:

Constança Pires de Camões

Constança Pires de Camões was married to Pedro or Pero Severim, called as a nickname "o Baralha", a French nobleman from the Bishopric of Senlis, who came to the Kingdom of Portugal to Lisbon at the time and serving King John I of Portugal and found himself with him at the taken of Ceuta, after what he came back to the Kingdom, where he married, and had issue, the Severim Family of Portugal.

References

Notes

  1. This shipwreck is very resemblant to the one mentioned in Os Lusíadas by Luís Vaz de Camões, which also shipwrecked at the delta of the Mekong River whil travelling East to make his living, and sho survived saving his masterpiece in one hand and swimmin with the other.
  2. He was the responsible for his nephew Luís Vaz de Camões' studies at the University of Coimbra, by the King John III of Portugal.
  3. See Crónica dos Regrantes, Liv. 7, Cap. 14 and Liv. 10, Nr. 9.
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