Francisco de Vasconcelos da Cunha

Francisco de Vasconcelos da Cunha (c.1590 – c. mid 17th century) was a Portuguese colonial administrator. He was also the 1st Count of Porto Santo of Portugal's Madeira Islands.

Biography

He was born around 1590.

He was the 11th colonial governor of Cape Verde from 1624 to 1528.^[1][2][3] He succeeded Manuel Afonso de Guerra who was also the Bishop of Santiago de Cabo Verde. He was succeeded by João Pereira Corte-Real. Later on 4 September 1635, he became the captain-general of the Captaincy-General of the Kingdom of Angola succeeding Manuel Pereira Coutinho, he was succeeded on 18 October 1639 by Pedro César de Meneses.^[4][5][3]

Later in 1640, he was the first count of Porto Santo of the Madeira Islands, it was created by Philip III of Spain in 1640 during the final years of the Philippine dynasty, the Habsburg control of Portugal and its empire.

He died somewhere in the mid 17th century or later. The title of the Count of Porto Santo was eliminated for over one and a half century, its next and only successor was António de Saldanha da Gama. As de Saldanha da Gama never inherited the title, Francisco de Vasconcelos da Cunha was the only noble who inherited the Count of Porto Santo

de Vasconcelos da Cunha is considered to be the only two nobles of any place in the Madeira Islands, the Count of Porto Santo was the only count in the Madeira Islands.

See also

• List of colonial governors of Cape Verde
• List of colonial governors of Angola

Notes