The “Entail of the Month” initiative presents this November the bond of Maria Afonso, established in the church of Santa Cruz do Castelo, Lisbon, in 1362. The church of Santa Cruz, built in the fortress of the city of Lisbon, was chosen by close relatives of Maria Afonso as a space for the perpetuation of family memory and the suffrage of their souls. The founder belonged to an Olisiponense family whose members, throughout the 14th century, sought to ascend socially through their integration into the royal officialdom and the high clergy of the kingdom. His father, Afonso Esteves, was a member of the Desembargo of Afonso IV, having also held positions such as super judge and ombudsman and was part of the royal Council from 1338 onwards. The wealthy judge sought to reinforce his web of solidarity in the Desembargo and the Council royals marrying his daughter to master Gonçalo das Leis and another daughter, Constança Afonso, to João Peres, better known as master João das Leis. The chapel came to be administered by representatives of the Nogueiras, then by the Britos Nogueira. From the 16th century onwards, it was another of the ties accumulated by the viscounts of Vila Nova de Cerveira who held it until the 19th century. The maintenance of Maria Afonso’s relationship with the respective responsibilities in the hands of the viscounts, elevated to Marquis of Ponte de Lima in the last decade of the 18th century, dictated the conservation of documents relating to the relationship in the registry office they held at Palácio da Rosa, in Lisbon. Although this documentation disappeared in the 1970s, when the building was sold to Lisbon City Council, part of it was recovered years later, at auction, by a descendant. This private collection was temporarily deposited at the National Archives of Torre do Tombo.

To find out more about this entail, visit the page with all the information about this month’s entail. You can also find out about the other links available in the meantime, here.

You can also participate in this initiative by leaving your suggestions for future links for the month and other information about links you have. To do this, you can contact the project at the email address: vinculum@fcsh.unl.pt.

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