The “Entail of the Month” initiative for May considers a Lisbon chapel established during the 14th century. On November 8 1320, Estêvão da Guarda and Sancha Domingues, his wife, established the chapel in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, in Lisbon.

Estêvão da Guarda, born c. 1280, was a multifaceted man for his time. He performed various important functions for different monarchs throughout his life and to which can be added the writing of troubadour poetry. As a resident of Alcáçova, his inclusion in the oligarchic networks of Lisbon allowed him to create influential relationships with the administrative bodies, with clearly advantageous consequences for his personal affairs. From 1312, Estêvão da Guarda adopted a policy of acquiring the properties of heretics, which was reinforced by donations, especially royal gifts, and inheritances.

The institution of the bond with his wife took place a few years later. Despite the precepts then defined and rectified two years later, the chapel remained in the lineage for only two generations. The testators’ great-grandson, Diogo Álvares, was dismissed by sentence of King João I, which seems to indicate some scenario of irregularities practised by their successors. During the reign of King Manuel I, the Lisbon Senate Chamber was encharged by the king with the task of appointing and dismissing the trustees of this chapel.

The works undertaken in the Monastery of S. Vicente by order of Filipe I ended up completely destroying the Chapel of Estevão da Guarda and Sancha Domingues. However, the memory of the entailment bond and its founders survived the physical destruction of the chapel, remaining alive 700 years after its institution.

To find out more details about this entail, go to this page with all the Entail of the Month information. You can also know the other entails made available in the meantime, here.

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.