Captain-major


Captain-major is the English rendering of the Portuguese Capitão-mor, or the Capitães dos Donatários, the colonial officials, placed in charge of a Captaincy, deemed not important enough to have its own colonial Governor.
The term also applied as the rank title of the field officer that was in charge of a captaincy of the Ordenanças, the Portuguese territorial militia that existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Captaincy system

Due to the impossibility of exercising direct control and sovereignty over overseas territories, the captain-major was the channel by which the monarch could delegate his powers, with certain restrictions, under the responsibility of peoples he felt he could confide. The Donatário could administer, in the sovereign's name, the lands for which he was assigned, with all the regalia, rights and obligations, with the exception of certain limits, including military authority over soldiers and detachments of the crown, or the administration of justice.
The Captains were agents named by the Dontário, and after 1495, by the Crown, to a lifetime title that was passed down by the "legitimate male heirs". As administrators, the Captains enjoyed various judicial and economic privileges that provided an incentive to settle and develop their captaincies. They had the authority to administer sentences, with the exception of those involving penalties of death or mutilation. Economically, they had the exclusive authority to mill, bake bread and sell salt, in addition to their entitlement to receive rent paid to the King for lands, fees and taxes due. In addition, they could receive a tithe paid to the captaincy directly. In addition to the regalia of office, the captains-major would hold title to the best parcels of lands and be able to contract renters to the donatárias, in the name of the crown. Many of the donatários were hereditary, with a few exceptions, referred in the Salic Laws of the time; these laws regulated all aspects of life, including crime, taxation, indemnity, and female inheritance. The Captains were less restricted to these conditions.
Yet, many of these captains were selected as part of a consolidation of relationships between the Donatários and their vassals. This subjective process usually involved close associations with the royal family or confidants of the Crown: a feudal meritocracy of vassals. This could result from rendering service during the overseas expansion or resulting from some heroism which may have been rewarded with a title. The monarch surrounded himself with "trustworthy" men who were existed within a web of relationships, forming a restricted circle of individuals. In some cases precedents were superseded in favour of people they could trust, including setting aside the laws of male inheritance in favour of a daughter, for example. Yet, most had to prove themselves, as was the case with Álvaro de Ornelas, who lost his captaincy due to "inefficiency" in its settlement.
The captaincy system was built on confidence and good faith between the captain and donatário, owing to the distance between each. This weakened the Donatário's control over the officials, resulting in a disparity between actual and perceived function. Some were either incompetent in their roles, power-hungry or just absent. In some cases the inhabitants of certain possessions were often subject to irregularities resulting from judicial or fiscal issues. Some captains appointed overseers, ouvidores to represent them who were unqualified to respond to the issues of their masters.

Captaincies

The following is an incomplete list of some of the captaincies and their first Donatary-Captains:

Madeira

There were three captaincies in the archipelago of Madeira, associated with the three principal discoverers of the islands:
Following their discovery, Gonçalo Velho Cabral became the first Donatary-Captain of the islands, beginning with the island of Santa Maria, but later including the island of São Miguel when it was discovered. This captaincy, which lasted from 1439 to 1461, was described in 1460 by Henry the Navigator in a letter to Cabral as Capitão por mim em minhas ilhas de Santa Maria e São Miguel dos Açores. The progressive discovery of the islands of the archipelago resulted in new captaincies; in total, there have been thirteen unique captaincies in Azores since their discovery:
Such was the case in the following places:
:

Colonial captaincies in Africa