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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1999-02 > 0917951932


From: Francisco Antonio Doria< >
Subject: Re: Origin of the Meneses family in Portugal and Spain
Date: 2 Feb 1999 02:38:52 -0800


The obscurity of the Meneses' family origins is as surprising as their sudden ascent. They were so proud and arrogant; their coat of arms is, simply - or, a golden shield, with nothing on it. We have documented Meneses' titled grandees a couple of generations after this mysterious Pero Bernardes, and they soon intermarry with the Portuguese royal house. D. Pedro de Meneses, count of Viana left as many bastards as any royal person in the 15th century; lots of distinguished family lines are traceable to him, such as the Dias de Meneses (agnatic ancestry originates in a converted Jew, Damião Dias, who served King D. João III of Portugal and was given for wife a Meneses bastard lady) or the Moniz Barreto de Meneses, in Portugal and Brazil, also from bastard lines. Actually there are as many bastard lines, almost, from the Meneses as from the royal house.

The Meneses were so important that the duke of Caminha who was beheaded for high treason in 1641 adopted the Meneses name instead of his agnatic style Noronha (descended from the Castilian royal house). There were sayings like `to be as proud as a Meneses' and so on; many families adopted the Meneses name as a secondary name, even if they got it with several brisures in the male line (like a branch of my own, the Menezes Doria family of the - Brazilian title - baron of Loreto). So, their sudden ascent is sure very surprising.

Chico Doria

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