Editing Afonso de Albuquerque (section)

== Administration and diplomacy, 1512–1515==
===Ethiopian embassy, 1512===
[[File:Attempted Escalade of Aden.jpg|thumb|Attempted Portuguese scaling of the walls of Aden]]

In December 1512 an envoy from Ethiopia arrived at Goa. [[Mateus (Ethiopia)|Mateus]] was sent by the regent queen [[Eleni of Ethiopia|Eleni]], following the arrival of the Portuguese from Socotra in 1507, as an ambassador for the king of Portugal in search of a coalition to help face growing Muslim influence. He was received in Goa with great honour by Afonso, as a long-sought "[[Prester John]]" envoy. His arrival was announced by King Manuel to [[Pope Leo X]] in 1513. Although Mateus faced the distrust of Afonso's rivals, who tried to prove he was some impostor or Muslim spy, Afonso sent him to Portugal.<ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|1962|p=[https://archive.org/details/questforeasternc0000roge/page/n102 1]}}</ref> The king is described as having wept with joy at their report.

In February 1513, while Mateus was in Portugal, Afonso sailed to the Red Sea with a force of about 1000 Portuguese and 400 Malabaris. He was under orders to secure that channel for Portugal. Socotra had proved ineffective to control the Red Sea entrance and was abandoned, and Afonso's hint that [[Massawa]] could be a good Portuguese base might have been influenced by Mateus' reports.<ref name="Foundations" />

===Campaign in the Red Sea, 1513===
Knowing that the Mamluks were preparing a second fleet at [[Suez]], he wanted to advance before reinforcements arrived in [[Aden]], and accordingly [[Siege of Aden|laid siege to the city]].<ref>{{harvnb|Newitt|2005|p=87}}</ref> Aden was a fortified city, but although he had scaling ladders they broke during the chaotic attack. After half a day of fierce battle, Afonso was forced to retreat. He cruised the Red Sea inside the [[Bab al-Mandab]], with the first European fleet to have sailed this route. He attempted to reach [[Jeddah]], but the winds were unfavourable and so he sheltered at [[Kamaran]] island in May, until sickness among the men and lack of fresh water forced him to retreat. In August 1513, after a second attempt to reach Aden, he returned to India with no substantial results. In order to destroy the power of Egypt, he wrote to King Manuel of the idea of diverting the course of the [[Nile]] river to render the whole country barren.<ref name=Chisholm /> He also intended to steal the body of the Islamic prophet, [[Muhammad]], and hold it for ransom until all Muslims had left the [[Holy Land]].<ref>{{harvnb|McGregor|2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/militaryhistoryo00andr/page/20 20]}}</ref>

[[File:Afonso de Albuquerque (Sloane).jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Afonso de Albuquerque, governor of Portuguese Indies (1509–1515), from Pedro Barretto de Resende's Livro de Estado da India Oriental]]
Although Albuquerque's expedition failed to reach Suez, such an incursion into the Red Sea by a Christian fleet for the first time in history stunned the Muslim world, and panic spread in Cairo.<ref>{{harvnb|Crowley|2015|page=335}}</ref>

===Submission of Calicut===
{{See also|First Luso-Malabarese War}}
[[File:Portuguese fort at Calicut (cropped).jpg|thumb|The Portuguese fort at Calicut]]
Albuquerque achieved during his term a favourable end to hostilities between the Portuguese and the Zamorin of Calicut, which had lasted since the massacre of the Portuguese in Calicut in 1502. As naval trade faltered and vassals defected, with no foreseeable solutions to the conflict with the Portuguese, the court of the Zamorin fell to in-fighting. The ruling Zamorin was assassinated and replaced by a rival, under the instigation of Albuquerque, permitting peace talks to commence. The Portuguese were allowed to build a fortress in Calicut itself, and acquired rights to obtain as much pepper and ginger as they wished, at stipulated prices, and half the [[customs duties]] of Calicut as yearly tribute.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Elaine|last1=Sanceau|year=1936|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VyYbAAAAIAAJ&q=inauthor%3A%22Elaine%20Sanceau%22|title=Indies Adventure: The Amazing Career of Afonso de Albuquerque, Captain-general and Governor of India (1509–1515)|page=227}}</ref> Construction of the fortress began immediately, under the supervision of chief architect Tomás Fernandes.

=== Goa, 1514===
[[File:Codice Casanatense Portuguese Nobleman and Christian Indian.jpg|thumb|Christian maidens of Goa, meeting with a Portuguese nobleman seeking a wife (depicted in the [[Códice Casanatense]], {{c.|1540|lk=no}})]]
With peace concluded, in 1514 Afonso devoted himself to governing Goa and receiving embassies from Indian governors, strengthening the city and encouraging marriages of Portuguese men and local women. At that time, Portuguese women were barred from traveling overseas in order to maintain discipline among the men on board the ships. In 1511 under a policy which Afonso promulgated, the Portuguese government encouraged their explorers to marry local women. To promote settlement, the King of Portugal granted freeman status and exemption from Crown taxes to Portuguese men (known as ''casados'', or "married men") who ventured overseas and married local women. With Afonso's encouragement, mixed marriages flourished, giving birth to Portuguese-Indians or ''[[Mestiço#Mestiço communities in Portuguese India and Portuguese Ceylon|mestiços]]''. He appointed local people for positions in the Portuguese administration and did not interfere with local traditions (except "[[Sati (practice)|sati]]", the practice of immolating widows, which he banned).

In March 1514 King Manuel sent to [[Pope Leo X]] a huge and exotic embassy led by [[Tristão da Cunha]], who toured the streets of Rome in an extravagant procession of animals from the colonies and wealth from the Indies. His reputation reached its peak, laying foundations of the Portuguese Empire in the East.

[[File:Dürer's Rhinoceros, 1515.jpg|thumb|[[Dürer's Rhinoceros]], [[woodcut]] (1515)]]In early 1514, Afonso sent ambassadors to [[Gujarat Sultanate|Gujarat's Sultan]] [[Muzaffar Shah II]], ruler of [[Cambay]], to seek permission to build a fort on [[Diu, India]]. The mission returned without an agreement, but diplomatic gifts were exchanged, including an [[Indian rhinoceros]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bedini|1997|p=112}}</ref> Afonso sent the rhino to King Manuel, making it the first living example of a rhinoceros seen in Europe since the Roman Empire.<ref>{{harvnb|Crowley|2015|pp=319–320}}</ref> King Manuel named the rhino Genda after the Gujarat word for ball, and later gifted it to Pope Leo X, but before completing its journey to Italy the boat carrying the rhino sank and the animal drowned. In 1515, German artist [[Albrecht Dürer]] created his famous woodcut known as [[Dürer's Rhinoceros]], based on a description from a letter and a brief sketch made by an unknown artist who had seen the actual animal. Dürer's interpretation of the rhino cemented the idea of how a rhino should look like in people's mindsets up until the late-eighteenth century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Legacy of Dürer's Rhinoceros |url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-legacy-of-durers-rhinoceros.html |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=www.nhm.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref>

===Conquest of Ormuz and Illness===
[[File:Afonso de Albuquerque (Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu).jpg|thumb|Portrait of Afonso de Albuquerque, from the ''Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu'' ({{c.|1565|lk=no}})]]In 1513, at Cannanore, Afonso was visited by a Persian ambassador from Shah [[Ismail I]], who had sent ambassadors to Gujarat, [[Ormuz]] and Bijapur. The shah's ambassador to Bijapur invited Afonso to send back an envoy to Persia. Miguel Ferreira was sent via Ormuz to [[Tabriz]], where he had several interviews with the shah about common goals of defeating the Mamluk sultan.

At the same time, Albuquerque decided to conclude the effective conquest of Hormuz. He had learned that after the Portuguese retreat in 1507, a young king was reigning under the influence of a powerful Persian [[vizier]], Reis Hamed, whom the king greatly feared. At Ormuz in March 1515, Afonso met the king and asked the vizier to be present. He then had him immediately stabbed and killed by his entourage, thus "freeing" the terrified king, so the island in the Persian Gulf yielded to him without resistance and remained a vassal state of the Portuguese Empire. Ormuz itself would not be Persian territory for another century, until an English-Persian alliance finally expelled the Portuguese in 1622.<ref name="intlhistory.blogspot.com.au">{{cite web|url=http://intlhistory.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/alfonso-de-albuquerque-history-figure.html|title=Afonso de Albuquerque: History Figure of the Month|website=International History Blog|date=July 2012|last1=Toorani|first1=Mohamed}}</ref> At Ormuz, Afonso met with Miguel Ferreira, returning with rich presents and an ambassador, carrying a letter from the Persian potentate Shah Ismael, inviting Afonso to become a leading lord in Persia.<ref>{{cite book|first1=John Holland|last1=Rose |first2=Ernest Alfred|last2=Benians |first3=Arthur Percival|last3=Newton |title=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-08AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA12|year=1928|publisher=CUP Archive|page=12}}</ref> There he remained, engaging in diplomatic efforts, receiving envoys and overseeing the construction of the new fortress, while becoming increasingly ill. His illness was reported as early as September 1515.<ref name="Early">{{harvnb|Muchembled|Monter|2007|page=238}}</ref> In November 1515, he embarked on a journey back to Goa.

====Death====
At this time, his political enemies at the Portuguese court were planning his downfall. They had lost no opportunity in stirring up the jealousy of King Manuel against him, insinuating that Afonso intended to usurp power in Portuguese India.<ref name="Albuquerque">Albuquerque, Brás de (1774). ''Commentarios do grande Afonso Dalboquerque, parte IV'', pp. 200–206</ref> While on his return voyage from Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, near the harbor of [[Chaul]], he received news of a Portuguese fleet arriving from Europe, bearing dispatches announcing that he was to be replaced by his personal foe, [[Lopo Soares de Albergaria]]. Realizing the plot that his enemies had moved against him, profoundly disillusioned, he voiced his bitterness: "Grave must be my sins before the King, for I am in ill favor with the King for love of the men, and with the men for love of the King."<ref>{{harvnb|Correia|1860|p=458}}</ref>

Feeling himself near death, he donned the surcoat of the [[Military Order of Saint James of the Sword|Order of Santiago]], of which he was a knight, and drew up his will, appointed the captain and senior officials of Ormuz, and organized a final council with his captains to decide the main matters affecting the Portuguese State of India.<ref name="Early" /> He wrote a brief letter to King Manuel, asking him to confer onto his natural son "all of the high honors and rewards" that Afonso had received, and assuring Manuel of his loyalty.<ref name="intlhistory.blogspot.com.au" /><ref>{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Rinehart|title=Portugal | chapter= Chapter 2B. The Expansion of Portugal|series=Countries of the World|publisher=Bureau Development, Inc.|year=1991}}</ref>

On 16 December 1515, Afonso de Albuquerque died within sight of Goa. As his death was known, in the city "great wailing arose",<ref name=Corr459>{{harvnb|Correia|1860|p=459}}</ref> and many took to the streets to witness his body carried on a chair by his main captains, in a procession lit by torches amidst the crowd.<ref>{{harvnb|Correia|1860|p=460}}</ref> Afonso's body was buried in Goa, according to his will, in the Church of Nossa Senhora da Serra (Our Lady of the Hill), which he had been built in 1513 to thank the Madonna for his escape from [[Kamaran]] island.{{efn|This Church was later demolished between 1811 and 1842.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Manoel José Gabriel|last1=Saldanha|title=História de Goa: (Política e arqueológica)|year=1990|page=145|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=81-206-0590-X|language=pt}}</ref>}} That night, the population of Goa, both Hindu and Portuguese, gathered to mourn his death.<ref name=Corr459 />

In Portugal, King Manuel's zigzagging policies continued, still trapped by the constraints of real-time medieval communication between Lisbon and India and unaware that Afonso was dead. Hearing rumours that the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk Sultan of Egypt]] was preparing a magnificent army at Suez to prevent the conquest of Ormuz, he repented of having replaced Afonso, and in March 1516 urgently wrote to Albergaria to return the command of all operations to Afonso and provide him with resources to face the Egyptian threat. He organized a new Portuguese navy in Asia, with orders that Afonso (if he was still in India), be made commander-in-chief against the Sultan of Cairo's armies. Manuel would afterwards learn that Afonso had died many months earlier, and that his reversed decision had been delivered many months too late.<ref name="Early" /><ref name="Albuquerque" />

After 51 years, in 1566, his body was moved to Nossa Senhora da Graça church in Lisbon,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barbosa Machado |first=Diogo |title=Bibliotheca Lusitana |year=1741 |volume=1 |page=23 |language=pt}}</ref> which was ruined and rebuilt after the [[1755 Lisbon earthquake|1755 Great Lisbon earthquake]].