ALBUQUERQUE, AFFONSO DE, TIIE GREAT (1453-1515). Viceroy of the Portuguese Indies. lie was born at .Alhandra, a town near Lisbon, and is known in the national epics as "the Por tuguese Mars" and as "the Portuguese Camsar." Albuquerque spent his youth in attendance at the palace of King Alfonso V. Ile took part in the expedition against the Turks. which ter initiated in the victory of the Christians at Otranto in 1481. In 1489 he became chief equerry to King .1ohn 11. He was assigned to duty on the Indian fleet of 1503, and acquitted himself with such discretion that Icing Emanuel appointed him viceroy of the Portuguese posses sions in the East in 1506. llis predecessor. Francisco de Almeida (q.v.), refused to give up his office, however, and sent Albuquerque as a prisoner to Canano•e. In October, 1509, he was released, and took over the authority of the vice roy. Albuquerque captured the fortress of Goa, February 16, 1510, but was forced to evacuate it and retire to Panjim,where he awaited reiinforce meats from Europe, with whose help, on Norml ber 26, 1510, he recaptured the city, which has ever since been the chief scat of Portuguese power and commerce in the East. He gradually com pleted the conquest of Malaba•, Ceylon, the Sun da Isles, the peninsula of and (in 1515) the island of Ormuz, at the entrance of the Per sian Gulf. He made the Portuguese name respect ed in the East, and manyof the princes.especially
the kings of Siam and Pegu, sought his alliance and protection. He maintained strict military dis cipline, was active, humane, respected, feared by his neighbors, and beloved by his subjects. Not withstanding his valuable services, Albuquerque did not escape the envy of the courtiers and the suspicions of King Emanuel, who appointed Lopez Soarez, a personal enemy of Albuquerque, to supersede him as viceroy. This ingratitude affected him deeply. lshmaa the Shah of Per sia, offered his assistance to resist the arbitrary decree of the Portuguese court, but Albuquerque would not violate his allegiance. A few days afterward, commending his son to the king in a short letter, he died at sea near Goa, December 16, 1515. Emanuel honored his memory and raised his son to the highest dignities in the State. This son, whose name, Bras, or Blasius, was altered 'to Affonso after his father's death, compiled from the official dispatches and private letters of the viceroy the Commentarios do Grande Alfonso d'ilboquerque (printed in Lis bon in 1557: reprinted in 1576 and 1774). A translation, edited by W. de G. Birch, published by the Haklnyt Society of London,,in four vol umes. 1875-84. is the standard authority for this period of Indian history.