The “Entail of the Month” initiative this November presents the Chapel of Beatriz de Meneses, 2nd Countess of Loulé and 4th Countess of Marialva, established in 1535 in the Convent of Santo António de Ferreirim, in Lamego. The House of Marialva and Loulé, unified in 1496 through the marriage of Beatriz de Meneses to Francisco Coutinho, maintained its upwards status along the paths of social mobility in the service of the Avis dynasty. However, there was a harsh setback when the heirs of the household passed away prematurely in 1534, shortly after Francisco’s death. Thus, in May 1535, “orphaned [of] hopes and widowed by the death of all of them“, as Beatriz set out in the first lines of her will before then endowing a Chapel in the Convent of St. Anthony in Lamego that the couple had previously founded (1525).

Faced with the impossibility of a family based succession, Beatriz turned the bond administration over to her servant, Francisco Gouveia, stipulating that her successors should henceforth be chosen by a method of election controlled by the Dean of the Cathedral of Lamego and an ordinary judge of the said city. The Countess also stipulated that future administrators could not belong to the nobility, with the exception of Francisco Gouveia, himself a nobleman, or his descendants.

Of the properties bound over, Quinta do Ferro, located in Trancoso, stands out in keeping with the multi-secular family presence of the named grantors who resided there. During the Inquisition, its owners were subject to successive condemnations, which led to the revenues being seized – a decision later reversed through the actions of António de Gouveia Coutinho, who, in 1666, recovered the Estate for the Convent’s chapel.

This Entail of the Month has benefited from the collaboration of Dr. Alexandre de Quevedo Freemon, owner of Quinta do Ferro and its archive. To find out more 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 entails 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.