Editing Afonso de Albuquerque (section)

====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]].