Carreira e governação no império português do século XVII: o governo do 1º Conde de Óbidos e 2º vice rei do Estado do Brasil (1663-1667)

Abstract

According to Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro ethos of the Portuguese aristocracy, its strategy of political and social action that guarantee legitimacy as a privileged group, rested on two pillars: the house and service to the king. Providing services to the crown became a means of obtaining rewards and "acrescentamento social" by granting titles and favors. From this perspective, Fernanda Olival pointed to the importance of "mercê" economy as a link in the interaction between the subjects and the crown. Given this situation, we propose a study on the trajectory of services provided by the first Count of Óbidos, D. Vasco Mascarenhas. Our goal is to trace the social profile of the Count of Óbidos, identifying the crafts he held and the importance of these, placing it in the lusitanian nobility hierarchy until the time of his appointment to serve as viceroy in the State of Brazil in 1663. The concept of pluricontinental monarchy has gained prominence in historiographical debates about the Portuguese overseas empire, especially by embrace issues like self government in the conquests, the role of government networks in the overseas empire, the social dynamics of communication and negotiation of the privileges. We intent to punctuate some questions about the relationship between the political regime of pluricontinental monarchy and the concept of “government” in the Ancien Regime, noting that in the political organization of the State of Brazil. In a monarchy corporate and polissinodal like the Portuguese, concurrent powers cohabited the same political-administrative space. In this sense, the delimitation of the jurisdiction and the use of the regiments acted as important ordering instruments of governance. In this dissertatio we will, from the analysis of the government of the Count of Óbidos, demonstrate how he used the jurisdiction of the regiment to resolve conflicts, maintain order and balance of competing forces in the State of Brazil. Our goal is to contribute to the current debate about the history of Brazil as part of the Portuguese empire.