Duke of Aveiro
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Duke of Aveiro was an aristocratic Portuguese title with the level of Royal Dukedom, that is, associated with the Portuguese Royal House, created in 1535, by King John III of Portugal. The family name associated with the Ducal House of Aveiro is Lencastre or Lancastre, derived from the wife of King John I of Portugal, Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and founder of the House of Lancaster.
Its holders were:
- John, Prince of Portugal, youngest son to John I of Portugal
- João de Lencastre (1501—1571), son of George, Duke of Coimbra (therefore grandson of King John II of Portugal) and Beatriz de Vilhena, married to Juliana de Lara.
- Jorge de Lencastre (1548—1578, in Alcazarquivir), married to Madalena Tellez Giron.
- Álvaro de Lencastre (1540-1626), cousin of Jorge de Lencastre (and also grandson of George, Duke of Coimbra), married with its niece, Juliana de Lencastre (1560-1636), daughter of Jorge de Lencastre.
- Jorge de Lencastre, Duke of Torres Novas (1594-1632), married to Ana Maria de Cárdenas y Manrique de Lara.
- Raimundo de Lencastre (1620—1666), married with Luísa Clara, Princess of Ligne.
- Pedro de Lencastre (1608—1673), son of Álvaro de Lencastre and Juliana de Lencastre.
- Maria de Guadalupe de Lancastre y Cardenas Manrique (1630— 1715), sister of Raimundo de Lencastre, married Manuel Ponce de León, Duke of Arcos.
- Gabriel Ponce de León de Lencastre (1667-1745), without issue.
- José de Mascarenhas da Silva e Lencastre (1708—1759), collateral line, descendant of Álvaro de Lencastre and Juliana de Lencastre through their daughter Maria de Lancastre (married to Manrique da Silva, Marquis of Gouveia). Was executed by the Marquis of Pombal under orders of Joseph I of Portugal due to his participation in the Távora affair, a conspiracy against the King.
As a result all the possessions of the Ducal House of Aveiro were confiscated, their coat-of-arms destroyed from the public places, their houses demolished and the land they stood on salted.
The Aveiros's palace in Lisbon, demolished and salted, gave place to a stone memorial in order to perpetuate the memory of the shame of the Aveiro House. In it the following text can be read (in Portuguese): Aqui foram arrasadas e salgadas as casas de José Mascarenhas, exautorado das honras de Duque de Aveiro e outras condemnado por sentença proferida na Suprema Juncta de Inconfidencia em 12 de Janeiro de 1759. Justiçado como um dos chefes do barbaro e execrando desacato que na noite de 3 de Septembro de 1758 se havia commetido contra a real e sagrada pessoa de D.José I. Neste terreno infame se não poderá edificar em tempo algum. Which translates as: In this place were put to the ground and salted the houses of José Mascarenhas, stripped of the honours of Duque de Aveiro and others, convicted by sentence proclaimed in the Supreme Court of Inconfidences on the 12th of January 1759. Put to Justice as one of the leaders of the most barbarious and execrable upheaval that, on the night of the 3rd of September 1758, was committed against the most royal and sacred person of the Lord Joseph I. In this infamous land nothing may be built for all time.
After 1759 the title was extinct. However, in 1939, Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza, authorized the use of the personal title of Duke of Aveiro to Caetano Henriques Pereira Faria Saldanha de Lancastre, Count of Alcáçovas, who did not use the prerogative.
