The “Entail of the Month” initiative this April presents the entailment trust of Álvaro da Costa, known as “Queimado”, founded in Lisbon in 1603.

Álvaro da Costa, born in 1527, was the longed-for first-born son to a family of great importance in the royal courts of Manuel I and João III due to the personal skills of its members. Even before his birth, much was expected of Álvaro, important at the time and very much desired within the framework of the family’s social affirmation: to perpetuate, consolidate and enhance the path embarked on by his paternal grandfather and continued by his father.

Álvaro’s childhood would be carefree and happy, as any child in the court nobility until, at the age of six, there was an accident that would inexorably change the course of his life. His father was drying some gunpowder at home, while playing, Álvaro and some friends set fire to the gunpowder, which then exploded. Two children died with others injured. In Álvaro’s case, the fire left significant burns across his face, chest and hands. Besides the physical suffering, he was indelibly marked with the stigma that physical disabilities held at that time, especially at the symbolic level of the image of the entire family lineage. An even deeper blow came with the dramatic decision of his parents to have him take up an ecclesiastical career. This accident resulted in the nickname “Queimado” (Burnt), with which he would go down in history as a distinguishing feature to stand out from the many other Álvaro da Costa(s).

After being ordained a priest, Álvaro pursued an ecclesiastical career of some repute, achieving the status of Dean of Guarda Cathedral. In 1603, at the age of seventy-six, Álvaro da Costa certainly felt his health was failing him and acted to ensure the necessary provisions for the peace of his soul, establishing the adequate provisions for the correct application of his property and crowning a strategy that had undergone development throughout his life in keeping with the religious principles he professed. The document establishing the foundation of his estate trust, his last will and testament, constitutes an impressive text, analysed in detail in this Entail of the Month.

To find out more details about this entail, go to this page with all the Entail of the Month information. Here, you may also find out about the other entails made available in the meantime, at: https://www.vinculum.fcsh.unl.pt/entail-of-the-month

You can also contribute to this initiative by making suggestions for future entail of the month and any details you may be able to provide. To this end, please contact the project at: vinculum@fcsh.unl.pt.

The VINCULUM project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and led by Maria de Lurdes Rosa, Professor of NOVA FCSH and researcher at the Institute of Medieval Studies, awarded the first ERC Consolidator Grant to a Portuguese researcher in the field of History.