Gomes da Costa - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa, GOTE

Order of the Tower and Sword

The Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit is a Portuguese order of knighthood and the pinnacle of the Portuguese honours system. It was created by King Afonso V in 1459....

, GCA

Order of Aviz

The Military Order of Aviz , previously to 1910 Royal Military Order of Aviz , previously to 1789 Order of Saint Benedict of Aviz , previously Knights of St. Benedict of Aviz or Friars of Santa Maria of Évora, is a Portuguese Order of Chivalry...

, commonly known as Manuel Gomes da Costa (mɐnuˈɛɫ ˈɣomɨʒ ðɐ ˈkɔʃtɐ), or just Gomes da Costa (Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, January 14, 1863 – Lisbon

Lisbon

, December 17, 1929), son of Carlos Dias da Costa (b. Soure, Soure, Cotas) and wife Madalena de Oliveira and older brother of Lucrécia and Amália, was a Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

army

Army

An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...

officer

Officer (armed forces)

An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, the tenth President of the Portuguese Republic

President of Portugal

Portugal has been a republic since 1910, and since that time the head of state has been the president, whose official title is President of the Portuguese Republic ....

and the second of the Ditadura Nacional

Ditadura Nacional

The Ditadura Nacional was the name of the Portuguese regime initiated by the election of President Óscar Carmona in 1928 that lasted until the adoption of the new constitution in 1933, when the régime changed its name to Estado Novo...

.

He began his military career by studying at the Colégio Militar

Colégio Militar

Colégio Militar is a military school in Lisbon, Portugal. It was founded by General António Teixeira Rebelo in 1803. Its initial location was S. Julião da Barra Fort, in Oeiras...

at age 10. On May 15, 1885 in Penamacor

Penamacor

Penamacor is a municipality in Portugal with an area of 563.9 km² and a population of 6,160 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 12 parishes and is located in the district of Castelo Branco....

he married Henriqueta Júlia de Mira Godinho (Lagos

Lagos

Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...

, Santa Maria, July 30, 1863 - February 22, 1936), by whom he had three children. As a soldier he stood out in pacification campaigns in the Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n and Indian

Portuguese India

The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...

colonies, and also during the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

(See: Portugal in the Great War
Portugal in the Great War
Despite its old alliance with Britain started with the Treaty of Windsor in 1386 , Portugal did not initially form part of the system of alliances involved in World War I and thus initially kept its neutrality...

). As a politician he was the person chosen by the right-wing revolutionaries to lead the 28 May 1926 coup d'état in Braga

Braga

Braga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and the third major city of the country. Braga is the oldest Portuguese city and one of the oldest Christian cities in the World...

(after the death of General Alves Roçadas, their previous choice).
After the success of the revolution he did not assume power at first, entrusting the posts of President of the Republic and President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) to José Mendes Cabeçadas

José Mendes Cabeçadas

José Mendes Cabeçadas Júnior, OTE, ComA , commonly known as Mendes Cabeçadas , was a Portuguese Marine officer, free mason and republican, having a major role in the preparation of the revolutionary movements that created and ended the Portuguese First Republic: the 5 October revolution in 1910 and...

, the leader of the revolution in Lisbon

Lisbon

. Soon the revolutionaries disliked Mendes Cabeçadas' attitude (which tried an approach similar to that of the late Portuguese First Republic

Portuguese First Republic

The Portuguese First Republic spans a complex 16 year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926...

) and he was replaced by Gomes da Costa in both posts in a meeting in Sacavém

Sacavém

Sacavém is a Portuguese civil parish , in the municipality of Loures, just a few kilometers northeast of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The parish covers an area of , with a population of 17,659 inhabitants...

on June 17, 1926. However, his government lasted nearly as little as Cabeçadas' because on July 9 of the same year a new revolution led by Óscar Carmona

Óscar Carmona

António Óscar Fragoso Carmona, ComC, GCA, ComSE, was the 11th President of Portugal , having been Minister of War in 1923.-Political Origin:...

overthrew Gomes da Costa, incapable of governing.

Carmona, already President of the Republic and of the Council of Ministers, sent him to exile

Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...

in the Azores Islands, and made him a Marshal

Marshal

Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...

of the Portuguese Army

Portuguese Army

The Portuguese Army is the ground branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in co-operation with other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the defence of Portugal...

. In September 1927, he returned to mainland Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, very ill.

He was the father in law of Pedro Francisco Massano de Amorim, Governor of Gaza, Angola, Mozambique and India.

See also