page_title: Matias de Albuquerque, Count of Alegrete
section_title: Fighting the Dutch
hierarchical_section_title: Matias de Albuquerque, Count of Alegrete / Career / Fighting the Dutch
caption_attribution_description: Português: Mathias D'Albuquerque
context_page_description: Matias de Albuquerque, the first and only Count of Alegrete, was a Brazilian colonial administrator and soldier. He was nicknamed "Hero of Two Continents" for his performance, beginning in 1624, against the Dutch invaders of colonial Brazil and for his role, beginning in 1641, as a general in Portugal, fighting for João IV during the Portuguese Restoration War, where he won the battle of Montijo over the Spaniards. For this victory he was rewarded by the King with the title of Count of Alegrete.
  The youngest son of Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho, Matias was baptized as Paulo de Albuquerque, but he changed his name to Matias to honor his relative and godfather, Matias de Albuquerque, who was the Viceroy of India.
context_section_description: When the first invasions of the colony of Brazil occurred in 1624 and 1625, the Dutch immediately seized Salvador (also known as Bahia), the capital of the State of Brazil, and, in the process, they captured the governor-general, Diogo de Mendonça Furtado. When news reached the colonial authorities elsewhere in the capitanias of Brazil that Mendonça had been deported to the Netherlands and imprisoned, they met at Vitória in the capitania of Espírito Santo and appointed Albuquerque to temporarily fill the post of governor-general of Brazil.
  Once Bahia had fallen, Portuguese resistance was first reorganized under the self-appointed leader of the provisional government, Bishop Marcos Teixeira, who recruited about two thousand men, and, later, under the captain of nearby Recôncavo, Francisco Rolim de Moura. Due to their initiative, the Dutch were subjected to continual harassment, and they were contained, for the most part, within the boundaries of the capital, Bahia.
  When he first received word of his appointment, Albuquerque's first instinct was to marshal his forces and march to the relief of occupied Bahia, but he was cautioned to bide his time. From his base at Olinda, at the end of 1624, he sent troops to reinforce the Portuguese guerillas based at Arraial do Rio Vermelho and at Recôncavo. The following year, an experienced hand, Diogo Luis de Oliveira, was found to assume the role of permanent governor-general.
  Bahia did not stay long in the possession of the Dutch Republic. (This was during the period, 1580 to 1640, when Spain and Portugal were both ruled by a single Habsburg king.) The Spaniards were aware of the capture of Bahia a whole month earlier than the Dutch. A relief force was assembled and sent as quickly as possible. The West India Company was well aware of the Spanish relief force, but, due to bad weather, a Dutch fleet could not be sent to aid Bahia. It was also believed that the Dutch would be able to hold out until help could be sent: they were wrong. The armada, a Spanish-Portuguese fleet of 52 ships under the command of Don Fadrique de Toledo, arrived on 30 March 1625 in the bay of Salvador (Bahia de Salvador). After a siege lasting a whole month, the Dutch were forced to surrender the city on 30 April 1625. The Spanish-Portuguese allowed the Dutch occupation force and their ships to leave Bahia.
  Albuquerque was called to Madrid for consultations with the king's ministers. There, rumors of a major new Dutch invasion of Brazil were in the air. As a partial response, Albuquerque was appointed superintendent of fortifications and inspector-general of the northern captaincies in the State of Brazil. However, Spain was embroiled in the Thirty Years' War, and, while the Dutch threat to Brazil was considered credible, resources were more likely to be devoted to military operations on the European continent and to shore up the defenses of the gold- and silver-producing colonies that fed the Caribbean treasure fleets. Albuquerque returned to South America in 1629 with the meager resources the King's treasury could spare for the defense of Brazil, – a bit of money, in silver coin, and twenty-seven Portuguese soldiers.
caption: Matias de Albuquerque.
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