Vicente Sodré
Encyclopedia
Vicente Sodré was a 16th C. Portuguese
knight of Order of Christ
and the captain of the first Portuguese naval patrol in the Indian Ocean
. He was an uncle of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama
.
origin, said to have been descended from Frederick Sudley, of Gloucestershire, who accompanied the Earl of Cambridge
to Portugal in 1381, and subsequently settled down there.
Sometime in the 1470s, Vicente Sodré entered the service of D. Diogo, Duke of Viseu
, the grand master of the Order of Christ
. Sodré joined the Order of Christ himself, and rose to the rank of commendador, holding the commenda of Maninhos in Idanha around 1493. In 1494, he was dispatched by the order's new grand master, Manuel, Duke of Beja
, to the order-owned island of Madeira
to audit the repairs of the defenses of the town of Funchal
.
After Manuel, Duke of Beja succeeded to the throne as King Manuel I of Portugal
in 1495, Vicente Sodré, became a knight of the royal household. Around 1501, Vicente Sodré succeeded his powerful relative Duarte Sodré as alcaide-mor
of Tomar
, that is governor of the town and great Templar citadel, the spiritual home of the Order of Christ
.
Vicente Sodré's siblings include his brother Brás Sodré and his sister Isabel Sodré, who married Estêvão da Gama
and became the mother of Vasco da Gama
. Unlike the Sodrés, the Gamas were attached to the Order of Santiago, perennial rivals of the Order of Christ.
of Pedro Álvares Cabral
finally returned from India, and preparations immediately began for the assembly of a new India armada (the 4th), to be sent out in 1502, again under Cabral. Vicente Sodré was appointed by King Manuel I of Portugal
as the first Capitão-mor do Mar da Índia ('Captain-major of the Indian Sea'), i.e. commander of the first Portuguese naval patrol in the Indian Ocean. Sodré was given a royal regimento, instructing him to patrol and prey on Arab shipping at the mouth of the Red Sea
.
Vicente Sodré's patrol was designated to go to India as a distinct squadron of the 4th Armada
of 1502, and to remain behind on patrol. However, Sodré insisted that his regimento be independent - that is, that the 4th armada's admiral, Pedro Álvares Cabral
, have absolutely no authority over his (Sodré's) squadron for the duration of the voyage. King Manuel I of Portugal
, who had strong doubts about Cabral's competence, agreed. Cabral found this condition humiliating and withdrew his name in a huff. Vicente Sodré helped secure the appointment of his nephew, Vasco da Gama
, to replace Cabral as admiral of the 4th Armada. In the new regimento, Vasco da Gama would remain in command of Sodré's squadron only until India, after which the new separate regimento would apply.
The 4th India Armada
under Vasco da Gama sailed out of Lisbon in February 1502, with Vicente Sodré in command of a squadron of five ships. After making stops in Mozambique Island and Kilwa
, the armada arrived in India in September, engaging in various actions along the Indian coast in late 1502. Vicente Sodré is credited for rescuing Vasco da Gama from an ambush in Calicut harbor, and he took a leading role in the defeat of the large fleet of the Zamorin of Calicut at a naval battle before Calicut harbor in December.
Vicente Sodré was responsible for a notorious incident (reported by chronicler Gaspar Correia (p. 307)) with a wealthy and well-connected Egyptian merchant in Cannanore
, who was about to leave port without paying customs duties to the Cannanore port authorities. Sodré fetched him from his boat and marched him to the customs house. When the annoyed merchant, after paying his bill, muttered a curse about the Kolathiri
Raja of Cannanore (a Portuguese ally), Vicente Sodré grabbed the merchant and, in full view of the customers officers and port crowds, stripped him naked, tied him to a post and had him beaten with clubs (the merchant being a fat man, Sodré ordered them to aim their clubs at his stomach). Taken down from the post half-dead, Sodré ordered the battered merchant tied up and then proceeded to fill his mouth with dirt and pieces of bacon (the merchant offered Sodré 10,000 gold pieces to forego this final humiliation, but he rejected it). The merchant would go on to Cairo
, and report his mistreatment in the court of Mameluke Sultan
al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri
. Correia suggests the Egyptian merchant's testimony was critical in rousing the sultan into taking more active steps against the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean.
of India, to protect the Portuguese-allied cities of Cochin and Cannanore
from any vengeful attacks by the Zamorin of Calicut.
However, as soon as Gama left, Vicente Sodré invoked his regimento and ordered the patrol to leave India and follow him to the Red Sea
. The Portuguese factors in Cochin and Cannanore protested, citing evidence of imminent preparations for an attack by the Zamorin. It said that two of the patrol captains refused to go along, and resigned the commands of their ships. Vicente Sodré dismissed the rumors and took the patrol with him.
As expected, in March 1503, the Zamorin of Calicut arrived before Cochin with an army of 50,000, and seized and burned down the city. The Portuguese factors, along the Cochin's ruler, managed to escape to the nearby island of Vypin
. They continued to hold out until August, when the next armada
arrived.
During the siege of Cochin, Vicente Sodré's patrol was nowhere to be seen. It had gone first north to Gujarat, where it captured a great merchant ship off Chaul
. The patrol then sailed west into the Gulf of Aden
, at the mouth of the Red Sea
, to catch more prizes.
Vicente Sodré's patrol captured around five Arab merchant ships at the mouth of the Red Sea. But the partition of the spoils left a lot to be desired - the Sodré brothers set about claiming the lion's share of the plunder for themselves, and leaving little for the others or even the crown(Brás Sodré, in particular, was accused of embezzling the royal fifth
due to the crown). Already unhappy at abandoning their brethren in India, the patrol captains quarreled with the Sodrés and nearly mutinied.
Around April 20, 1503, the patrol anchored in at Kuria Muria islands (off the coast of Oman). The local inhabitants warned them that a seasonal tempest was forming and that they had better move their ships to a safer shelter on the southern side of the island. Four patrol captains moved their ships accordingly, but Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré refused (the ongoing quarrel over the spoils may have been a factor in this separation.) As the locals predicted, the tempest came on April 30, and sunk the exposed ships of Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré. In the aftermath, the four remaining ships of the Indian Ocean patrol, now under the command of Pêro de Ataíde
, elected to return at once to India.
Ataíde would later (in February, 1504) compose a letter to the king, with an account of the travails of the Indian Ocean patrol. He carefully excused Vicente Sodré's actions, laying most of the blame on the bad counsel and decisions of Brás Sodré (who really comes out as the villain of the story). Although it is significant that Ataíde, in that same letter, asked the king to grant him Vicente Sodré's old position of alcalde-mor of Tomar
(Ataide, alas, died shortly after in Mozambique).
Ataíde wrote that Vicente Sodré sunk and died immediately in the tempest at Kuria Muria, but that Brás Sodré actually survived the wreck. However, once ashore, Brás Sodré decided to blame his Muslim pilots and executed them on the spot. Ataíde refrains from saying exactly what happened to Brás Sodré after that, only that 'many things transpired' before his death.
, the new Portuguese patrol captain Duarte Pacheco Pereira
had a hard time persuading the Cochinese that he would not abandon them, as Sodré had done. In King Manuel of Portugal
's regimento to Diogo Lopes de Sequeira
in 1508, the king himself explicitly cites Vicente Sodré's carelessness and cost to the crown.
Chronicler Gaspar Correia
perhaps goes furthest in vilification, portraying Vicente Sodré as a brutish, greedy and petty tyrant. "A man of strong condition and lustful for money, with no other intention but to enrich himself" Correia cites Vicente Sodré's mistreatment of a well-connected Cairo merchant in Cannanore
as the spark which set off the assembly of an Egyptian-led fleet to dislodge the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean in 1507.
Vicente Sodré was the subject of an 1894 historical romance by Manuel Pinheiro Chagas.
Vicente Sodré had two sons - João Sodré and a natural son, Fernão Sodré, born of the unmarried Isabel Fernandes, who was legitimized by special letter from the king and went on to have a career of note as governor of Hormuz
. Simão Sodré, later a captain in the Indies, was the only son of Brás Sodré.
It is sometimes thought that the Lisbon railway station of Cais do Sodré
(Sodré's Wharf) was named after Vicente Sodré. In fact it was named after Duarte Sodré, his relative and predecessor in Tomar, who owned a couple of estates in the area.
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....
knight of Order of Christ
Order of Christ (Portugal)
The Military Order of Christ previously the Royal Order of the Knights of Our Lord Jesus Christ was the heritage of the Knights Templar in Portugal, after the suppression of the Templars in 1312...
and the captain of the first Portuguese naval patrol in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. He was an uncle of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
.
Background
Vicente Sodré was the son of João Sodré (also known as João de Resende) and Isabel Serrão. The Sodrés were a well-connected family of EnglishEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
origin, said to have been descended from Frederick Sudley, of Gloucestershire, who accompanied the Earl of Cambridge
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, 1st Earl of Cambridge, KG was a younger son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, the fourth of the five sons who lived to adulthood, of this Royal couple. Like so many medieval princes, Edmund gained his identifying nickname from his...
to Portugal in 1381, and subsequently settled down there.
Sometime in the 1470s, Vicente Sodré entered the service of D. Diogo, Duke of Viseu
Diogo, Duke of Viseu
Infante Diogo of Viseu was the second son of Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu, and his wife Beatriz of Portugal.In 1472, when his older brother John, Duke of Viseu, died without issue, Diogo inherited his titles and estates as 4th Duke of Viseu and 3rd Duke of Beja.Diogo was a popular personality...
, the grand master of the Order of Christ
Order of Christ (Portugal)
The Military Order of Christ previously the Royal Order of the Knights of Our Lord Jesus Christ was the heritage of the Knights Templar in Portugal, after the suppression of the Templars in 1312...
. Sodré joined the Order of Christ himself, and rose to the rank of commendador, holding the commenda of Maninhos in Idanha around 1493. In 1494, he was dispatched by the order's new grand master, Manuel, Duke of Beja
Duke of Beja
Duke of Beja was an aristocratic Portuguese title with the level of Royal Dukedom, associated with the Portuguese Royal House, created in 1453, by King Afonso V of Portugal for his younger brother Infante Ferdinand of Portugal.Infante Ferdinand younger son, became King of Portugal as Manuel I and,...
, to the order-owned island of Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
to audit the repairs of the defenses of the town of Funchal
Funchal
Funchal is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira. The city has a population of 112,015 and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries.-Etymology:...
.
After Manuel, Duke of Beja succeeded to the throne as King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
in 1495, Vicente Sodré, became a knight of the royal household. Around 1501, Vicente Sodré succeeded his powerful relative Duarte Sodré as alcaide-mor
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...
of Tomar
Tomar
Tomar Municipality has a total area of 351.0 km² and a total population of 43,007 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 16 parishes, and is located in Santarém District...
, that is governor of the town and great Templar citadel, the spiritual home of the Order of Christ
Order of Christ
Order of Christ may refer to:* Order of Christ – former Knights Templar Order awarded initially by the kings of Portugal, now by the Portuguese state...
.
Vicente Sodré's siblings include his brother Brás Sodré and his sister Isabel Sodré, who married Estêvão da Gama
Estêvão da Gama (15th century)
Estêvão da Gama was a wealthy Portuguese knight of the fifteenth century, best known as the father of explorer Vasco da Gama....
and became the mother of Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
. Unlike the Sodrés, the Gamas were attached to the Order of Santiago, perennial rivals of the Order of Christ.
Expedition to India (1502)
In 1501, the 2nd Armada2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500)
The Second Portuguese India Armada was assembled in 1500 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral. Cabral's armada famously discovered Brazil for the Portuguese crown along the way...
of Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
finally returned from India, and preparations immediately began for the assembly of a new India armada (the 4th), to be sent out in 1502, again under Cabral. Vicente Sodré was appointed by King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
as the first Capitão-mor do Mar da Índia ('Captain-major of the Indian Sea'), i.e. commander of the first Portuguese naval patrol in the Indian Ocean. Sodré was given a royal regimento, instructing him to patrol and prey on Arab shipping at the mouth of the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
.
Vicente Sodré's patrol was designated to go to India as a distinct squadron of the 4th Armada
4th Portuguese India Armada (Gama, 1502)
The Fourth India Armada was assembled in 1502 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of D. Vasco da Gama. It was Gama's second trip to India...
of 1502, and to remain behind on patrol. However, Sodré insisted that his regimento be independent - that is, that the 4th armada's admiral, Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
, have absolutely no authority over his (Sodré's) squadron for the duration of the voyage. King Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
, who had strong doubts about Cabral's competence, agreed. Cabral found this condition humiliating and withdrew his name in a huff. Vicente Sodré helped secure the appointment of his nephew, Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
, to replace Cabral as admiral of the 4th Armada. In the new regimento, Vasco da Gama would remain in command of Sodré's squadron only until India, after which the new separate regimento would apply.
The 4th India Armada
4th Portuguese India Armada (Gama, 1502)
The Fourth India Armada was assembled in 1502 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of D. Vasco da Gama. It was Gama's second trip to India...
under Vasco da Gama sailed out of Lisbon in February 1502, with Vicente Sodré in command of a squadron of five ships. After making stops in Mozambique Island and Kilwa
Kilwa Kisiwani
Kilwa Kisiwani is a community on an island off the coast of East Africa, in present day Tanzania.- History :A document written around AD 1200 called al-Maqama al Kilwiyya discovered in Oman, gives details of a mission to reconvert Kilwa to Ibadism, as it had recently been effected by the Ghurabiyya...
, the armada arrived in India in September, engaging in various actions along the Indian coast in late 1502. Vicente Sodré is credited for rescuing Vasco da Gama from an ambush in Calicut harbor, and he took a leading role in the defeat of the large fleet of the Zamorin of Calicut at a naval battle before Calicut harbor in December.
Vicente Sodré was responsible for a notorious incident (reported by chronicler Gaspar Correia (p. 307)) with a wealthy and well-connected Egyptian merchant in Cannanore
Kannur
Kannur , also known as Cannanore, is a city in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the District of Kannur and 518km north of state capital Trivandrum. During British rule in India, Kannur was known by its old name Cannanore, which is still in...
, who was about to leave port without paying customs duties to the Cannanore port authorities. Sodré fetched him from his boat and marched him to the customs house. When the annoyed merchant, after paying his bill, muttered a curse about the Kolathiri
Kolathiri
Kolathiri or Kolathiri Rājā was the title by which the senior most male along the matilinial line of the Mushika or Kolathunādu Royal Family was styled...
Raja of Cannanore (a Portuguese ally), Vicente Sodré grabbed the merchant and, in full view of the customers officers and port crowds, stripped him naked, tied him to a post and had him beaten with clubs (the merchant being a fat man, Sodré ordered them to aim their clubs at his stomach). Taken down from the post half-dead, Sodré ordered the battered merchant tied up and then proceeded to fill his mouth with dirt and pieces of bacon (the merchant offered Sodré 10,000 gold pieces to forego this final humiliation, but he rejected it). The merchant would go on to Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, and report his mistreatment in the court of Mameluke Sultan
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was the final independent Egyptian state prior to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1805. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, Arabised...
al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri
Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri
Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri was the second last of the Mamluk Sultans. One of the last of the Burji dynasty, he reigned from 1501 to 1516.On the disappearance of Sultan Al-Adil Sayf ad-Din Tuman bay I, it was not till after some days that the choice of the Emirs and Mamluks fell upon Al-Ashraf...
. Correia suggests the Egyptian merchant's testimony was critical in rousing the sultan into taking more active steps against the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean.
Indian Ocean Patrol (1503)
In February 1503, Vasco da Gama returned with the 4th Armada to Lisbon, leaving Vicente Sodré behind in the command of the Indian Ocean patrol (five or six ships, one of which was under the command of his own brother, Brás Sodré). However, before his departure, Vasco da Gama ordered his uncles to keep the patrol near the Malabar CoastMalabar Coast
The Malabar Coast is a long and narrow coastline on the south-western shore line of the mainland Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing mountain...
of India, to protect the Portuguese-allied cities of Cochin and Cannanore
Kannur
Kannur , also known as Cannanore, is a city in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the District of Kannur and 518km north of state capital Trivandrum. During British rule in India, Kannur was known by its old name Cannanore, which is still in...
from any vengeful attacks by the Zamorin of Calicut.
However, as soon as Gama left, Vicente Sodré invoked his regimento and ordered the patrol to leave India and follow him to the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
. The Portuguese factors in Cochin and Cannanore protested, citing evidence of imminent preparations for an attack by the Zamorin. It said that two of the patrol captains refused to go along, and resigned the commands of their ships. Vicente Sodré dismissed the rumors and took the patrol with him.
As expected, in March 1503, the Zamorin of Calicut arrived before Cochin with an army of 50,000, and seized and burned down the city. The Portuguese factors, along the Cochin's ruler, managed to escape to the nearby island of Vypin
Vypin
Vypin or Vypeen is one among a group of islands, that form part of the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, India. The island is about 27 km long...
. They continued to hold out until August, when the next armada
5th Portuguese India Armada (Albuquerque, 1503)
The Fifth India Armada was assembled in 1503 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque. It was Albuquerque's first trip to India. It was not a particularly successful armada - navigational mistakes scattered the fleet on the outward journey...
arrived.
During the siege of Cochin, Vicente Sodré's patrol was nowhere to be seen. It had gone first north to Gujarat, where it captured a great merchant ship off Chaul
Chaul
Chaul is a former city of Portuguese India, now in ruins. It is located 60 km south of Mumbai, in Raigad District of Maharashtra state in western India....
. The patrol then sailed west into the Gulf of Aden
Gulf of Aden
The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is about 20 miles wide....
, at the mouth of the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, to catch more prizes.
Vicente Sodré's patrol captured around five Arab merchant ships at the mouth of the Red Sea. But the partition of the spoils left a lot to be desired - the Sodré brothers set about claiming the lion's share of the plunder for themselves, and leaving little for the others or even the crown(Brás Sodré, in particular, was accused of embezzling the royal fifth
Royal fifth
The royal fifth is an old royal tax that reserves to the monarch 20% of all precious metals and other commodities acquired by his subjects as war loot, found as treasure or extracted by mining...
due to the crown). Already unhappy at abandoning their brethren in India, the patrol captains quarreled with the Sodrés and nearly mutinied.
Around April 20, 1503, the patrol anchored in at Kuria Muria islands (off the coast of Oman). The local inhabitants warned them that a seasonal tempest was forming and that they had better move their ships to a safer shelter on the southern side of the island. Four patrol captains moved their ships accordingly, but Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré refused (the ongoing quarrel over the spoils may have been a factor in this separation.) As the locals predicted, the tempest came on April 30, and sunk the exposed ships of Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré. In the aftermath, the four remaining ships of the Indian Ocean patrol, now under the command of Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde
Pêro de Ataíde or Pedro d'Ataíde , nicknamed O Inferno , was a Portuguese sea captain in the Indian Ocean active in the early 1500s...
, elected to return at once to India.
Ataíde would later (in February, 1504) compose a letter to the king, with an account of the travails of the Indian Ocean patrol. He carefully excused Vicente Sodré's actions, laying most of the blame on the bad counsel and decisions of Brás Sodré (who really comes out as the villain of the story). Although it is significant that Ataíde, in that same letter, asked the king to grant him Vicente Sodré's old position of alcalde-mor of Tomar
Tomar
Tomar Municipality has a total area of 351.0 km² and a total population of 43,007 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 16 parishes, and is located in Santarém District...
(Ataide, alas, died shortly after in Mozambique).
Ataíde wrote that Vicente Sodré sunk and died immediately in the tempest at Kuria Muria, but that Brás Sodré actually survived the wreck. However, once ashore, Brás Sodré decided to blame his Muslim pilots and executed them on the spot. Ataíde refrains from saying exactly what happened to Brás Sodré after that, only that 'many things transpired' before his death.
Shipwrecks
The remains of the shipwrecks of Vicente and Bras Sodre′ were first discovered and investigated in 1998 by Blue Water Recoveries Ltd. With the permission of the Oman Government a number of artefacts were recovered from one of the wreck sites; including stone cannon balls of varying sizes, lead covered iron shot and sounding leads. These shipwrecks are quite possibly the oldest colonial vessels ever found.Reputation
Despite Ataíde's efforts at gentle treatment, Portuguese 16th C. chroniclers have usually presented Vicente Sodré in a negative light - principally because of his abandonment of Cochin to the assault of the Zamorin of Calicut. Sodré's greed for spoils is blamed for nearly costing the Portuguese their position in India and dishonoring their name before their Indian allies. At the Battle of Cochin (1504)Battle of Cochin (1504)
The Battle of Cochin sometimes referred as the Second Siege of Cochin was a series of confrontations, between March and July 1504, fought on land and sea, principally between the Portuguese garrison at Cochin, allied to the Trimumpara Raja, and the armies of the Zamorin of Calicut and vassal...
, the new Portuguese patrol captain Duarte Pacheco Pereira
Duarte Pacheco Pereira
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, called the Great, was a 15th century Portuguese sea captain, soldier, explorer and cartographer. He travelled particularly in the central Atlantic Ocean west of the Cape Verde islands, along the coast of West Africa and to India...
had a hard time persuading the Cochinese that he would not abandon them, as Sodré had done. In King Manuel of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
's regimento to Diogo Lopes de Sequeira
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira was a Portuguese fidalgo, sent to analyze the trade potential in Madagascar and Malacca, he arrived at Malacca on 11 September, 1509. He left the next year when he discovered that Sultan Mahmud Shah, the local leader, was devising his assassination...
in 1508, the king himself explicitly cites Vicente Sodré's carelessness and cost to the crown.
Chronicler Gaspar Correia
Gaspar Correia
Gaspar Correia or Gaspar Corrêa was a Portuguese historian, author of "Lendas da Índia , one of the earliest and most important works about Portuguese rule in Asia, being referred to as a Portuguese Polybius.- Biography :There is little information about the life of the author...
perhaps goes furthest in vilification, portraying Vicente Sodré as a brutish, greedy and petty tyrant. "A man of strong condition and lustful for money, with no other intention but to enrich himself" Correia cites Vicente Sodré's mistreatment of a well-connected Cairo merchant in Cannanore
Kannur
Kannur , also known as Cannanore, is a city in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the District of Kannur and 518km north of state capital Trivandrum. During British rule in India, Kannur was known by its old name Cannanore, which is still in...
as the spark which set off the assembly of an Egyptian-led fleet to dislodge the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean in 1507.
Vicente Sodré was the subject of an 1894 historical romance by Manuel Pinheiro Chagas.
Vicente Sodré had two sons - João Sodré and a natural son, Fernão Sodré, born of the unmarried Isabel Fernandes, who was legitimized by special letter from the king and went on to have a career of note as governor of Hormuz
Ormus
The Kingdom of Ormus was a 10th to 17th century kingdom located within the Persian Gulf and extending as far as the Strait of Hormuz...
. Simão Sodré, later a captain in the Indies, was the only son of Brás Sodré.
It is sometimes thought that the Lisbon railway station of Cais do Sodré
Cais do Sodré
Cais do Sodré is the railway station in Lisbon, Portugal, serving westbound suburban route to Cascais resort. It is adjacent to the Lisbon Metro station of the same name which is the terminus for subway's Green Line...
(Sodré's Wharf) was named after Vicente Sodré. In fact it was named after Duarte Sodré, his relative and predecessor in Tomar, who owned a couple of estates in the area.
Sources
- Diogo Fernandes Corrêa "Carta de Diogo Fernandes Corrêa a Afonso de Albuquerque, Dezembro 25, 1503", in Bulhão Pato, R.A. editor, 1898, Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, seguidas de documentos que as elucidam. Lisbon: Academia Real de Sciencias, vol. 2 p.211-213.
- Pêro de AtaídePêro de AtaídePêro de Ataíde or Pedro d'Ataíde , nicknamed O Inferno , was a Portuguese sea captain in the Indian Ocean active in the early 1500s...
"Carta de Pero de Atayde a El-rei D. Manuel, Fevereiro 20, 1504", as published in Bulhão Pato, R.A. editor, 1898, Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, seguidas de documentos que as elucidam. Lisbon: Academia Real de Sciencias, vol. 2 p.262-268.
- João de BarrosJoão de BarrosJoão de Barros , called the Portuguese Livy, is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his Décadas da Ásia , a history of the Portuguese in India and Asia.-Early years:...
(1552–59) Décadas da Ásia: Dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista, dos mares, e terras do Oriente..
- Manuel Pinheiro Chagas (1894) O naufragio de Vicente Sodré
- Gaspar CorreiaGaspar CorreiaGaspar Correia or Gaspar Corrêa was a Portuguese historian, author of "Lendas da Índia , one of the earliest and most important works about Portuguese rule in Asia, being referred to as a Portuguese Polybius.- Biography :There is little information about the life of the author...
(c.1550s) Lendas da Índia, pub. 1858-64, Lisbon: Academia Real de Sciencias
- Manuel de Faria e SousaManuel de Faria e SousaManuel de Faria e Sousa was Portuguese historian and poet during the period of the Iberian Union, frequently writing in Spanish.right|thump|300px|Portrait of Manuel de Faria e Sousa in Ásia portuguesa...
(1666) Asia Portuguesa, Vol. 1.
- Damião de Goes (1566–67) Crónica do Felicíssimo Rei D. Manuel
- Jerónimo Osório (1586) De rebus Emmanuelis [trans. 1752 by J. Gibbs as The History of the Portuguese during the Reign of Emmanuel London: Millar]
- Subrahmanyam, S. (1997) The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Whiteway, R. S. (1899) The Rise of Portuguese Power in India, 1497-1550. Westminster: Constable.