![[Flag of the Order of Christ]](../images/p/pt_ocri1.gif)
by António Martins
Last modified: 2005-11-19 by joe mcmillan
Keywords: cross: christ knights | armillary sphere | dutch east india company |
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Would you be kind enough to translate the following statement? "...1320,
da Ordem de Cristo 1ª hasteada em solo brasileiro." The
1320 here apparently refers to a year, as all the other flags have dates
of use listed. If that is so, how could this flag have been in Brazil at
that time when, if I recall correctly, Portugal first arrived in Brazil
in 1500? If I understand correctly, and please comment if you have
other thoughts, the web site is trying to state that the "Order of Christ"
flag [which was adopted in the year of 1320] was the first flag of Portugal
raised over Brazil in the 1500s. That being the case, I could understand
that the Order of Christ banner that was 180 years old at the time Brazil
was colonized became the first flag in Brazil. Secondly, the flag
shown is a red Order of Christ and to my memory all (or most) first flags
of Brazil have been golden Order of Christ. Just by reference to
later flags of Brazil, the Order of Christ is red, and I believe red is
correct. However, there seem to be many golden flags shown in books.
C. Eugene Baldwin, 20 October 1998
The inscription indeed means "1320, of the Order of Christ. [adding a period, without which this makes no sense] First to be hoisted on Brazilian soil." I think there is some confusion here: Portugal only arrived in Brazil in 1500, but the Order of Christ was founded in 1320 (or something like that). So 1320 doesn't refer to the first time the flag was hoisted in Brazil, but when it was adopted.
The Order of Christ was the main financer and "pusher" of the Portuguese discoveries, the man behind them, Infante Dom Henrique [Prince Henry the Navigator] being a member of the order. Most if not all the ships that sailed to find new lands had members of the order in the crew and sailed under the flag of the order. In fact, the various banners of the order that are mentioned by António Martins were, at the time, nearly the equivalent of what would today be called naval flags or ensigns of Portugal. Therefore, as the British did with their ensigns, it was the banner of the order that was hoisted in the territories claimed for the Portuguese crown. This happened not only in Brazil, but also in the other territories in Africa and Asia. The usual thing, as far as I know, was for the captain of the ship to claim the territory for the King of Portugal and for Christianity--Christianity, naturally, being represented by the Order of Christ. The monuments the Portuguese left in the lands where they landed (called padrões) are a good example of this: they were topped by a cube containing four Portuguese escutcheons with the bezants (quinas) and atop the cube a cross of the Order of Christ.
As far as I know, there is no proper color to the Cross of Christ, but it
is usually represented in red.
Jorge Candeias, 21 October 1998
by
André Pires Godinho
From 1624 to 1661, part of northwest Brazil was Dutch Brazil.
With the Spanish occupation of Portugal, the Netherlands, traditional
commercial partner of Portugal but enemy of Spain, and with interests in
Brazilian sugar cane, occupied the provinces of Pernambuco,
Paraíba, Ceará,
Alagoas, and, in the year 1641, Maranhão.
The government of Dutch Brazil was administed by the Dutch West India
Company (GWC). The flag used as the local flag of this period was the flag of
the company (with the monogram). Today we can seen some Dutch descendants in the
Northwest, which is in general a mixed Dutch and Indian people. The presence is
noticeable in Paraíba and Ceará.
André Pires Godinho, 13 June 2003
I am quite curious where you found this image; it differs quite a lot
from the flag normally attributed to the
Dutch West India Company.
Jarig Bakker, 14 June 2003
The Flag of the GWC was used during the Dutch occupation as the flag of Dutch Brazil and is
shown in Clóvis Ribeiro's Bandeiras e Brasões as
well as in various Brazilian history books as the "Dutch Brazilian flag."
André Pires Godinho, 15 June 2003
In Vexilla Nostra of March 1973, Karl Fachinger writes that the monogram
might stand for CDIM (Companhia das Indias Meridionais), the Portuguese
name for the Dutch VOC (East India Company), although he clearly states it
isn't more then just a guess. In Vexilla Nostra of October 1973 an anonymous
article contends that the monogram could show IMNCVD for Iohan Maurits van Nassau
Catzelnbogen Vianden en Dietz. Johan Maurits van Nassau was governor-general of Dutch
Brazil (also known as Nieuw Holland) and nicknamed "the Brazilian." Personally I
find both guesses not very convincing.
Mark Sensen, 15 June 2003
Most histories that I have read give the dates of Dutch control as 1630-1654.
See for example this
very comprehensive account. (I think the flag image shown on that page is intended
only as a generic West India Company flag and not as necessarily depicting what was
flown in Brazil.)
Ned Smith, 14 June 2003
1624 is the year Salvador was taken by the Dutch, but the occupation lasted
only one year. In 1630 the Dutch came back and conquered the coastal area of Pernambuco.
The colony now lasted langer, until 1654 when Recife was taken by the
Portuguese without a shot.
In 1661 the Dutch rights were sold to Portugal for 8 million guilders.
Source (in Dutch):
www.landenweb.com
Mark Sensen, 15 June 2003
Some history of the Dutch occupation of Brazil; the source is the Almanaque
Abril 2001, pp. 310-12. The Dutch Government and private investments created the
Dutch West India Company (GWC), a commercial, military, and colonizing enterprise, to occupy
the sugar cane plantations, control the production of sugar, and recover the
business with the America and Africa, very affected by the Iberian union since
the Netherlands and Spain were enemies. With the Iberian Union the Dutch lost their privileges
in the sugar cane trade and were banned from Portuguese America (Brazil).
In 1624 the Dutch (through the GWC) invades Salvador (Bahia). In the next year,
Spanish troops expelled them from the city. The Dutch tried again in 1627
without success. In 1630 was the beginning of the the longer occupation of northwest
Brazil; 56 warships invaded Pernambuco and Olinda and
Recife were occupied. The
local population, under the command of Governor Mathias de Albuquerque,
organized resistance in Alagoas. In 1632, with the help of the
Pernambucan Domingos Calabar, the Dutch conquered the interior of the
provinces and Mathias de Albuquerque was exiled to Bahia.
In 1637 the Dutch occupied Angola, the source of slaves for Brazil, so the
Brazilian farmers had to turn to the the Dutch to get slaves. Support for the
Dutch increased with the government of Mauritius Van Nassau, who turned a
blind eye to local politics and religion and stimulated the
local economy. Recife was urbanized and since then has been known as the "Brazilian
Venice" because of the system of canals that cross the city. Under this government
the occupation was extended from Ceará to the São Francisco river. In 1641, Maranhão
was occupied. When Mauritius van Nassau returned to Europe, the credits extended by the GWC to the
sugar cane plantations were reduced and the local farmers started the Pernambucan
revolution to expel the Dutch. In the begining Portugal didn't support
the revolution, hoping to get Dutch support in the Portuguese fight for independence from
Spain. In 1649, the troops of Maranhão and Bahia defeated the Dutch troops in the
Battle of Guararapes. The revolution ended when the
Dutch, weakened by their war against England retired from the Northwest in
1654. Portuguese sovereignty over Ceará, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba
and Alagoas was reconized by the Dutch government by the Hague Treaty of
1661.
André Pires Godinho, 15 June 2003
by André Pires Godinho
While Dom João IV was the King of Portugal, his son Teodósio [but see below--ed.], the
heir to the throne, received the title of Prince of Brazil. So after
1645, every heir to the Portuguese throne was called "Prince of
Brazil" (like the Prince of Wales in the United Kingdom). Thus
Brazil became a principality and had its own flag. This flag can be interpreted
as a personal ensign of the prince, but nevertheless it is a flag to represent the Brazilian Principality.
André Pires Godinho, 26 April 2003
it seems to me that this is really a Portuguese flag, not a Brazilian one.
F. Pereira Lessa points out in Bandeiras Históricas do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Gráfica Guarany,
1940) on page 45 that this was essentially a personal flag of the heir apparent to the Portuguese throne,
not a flag to represent Brazil itself--just as the flag of the Spanish Prince of the
Asturias is not the Asturian flag and the standard of the Prince of Wales is not the Welsh flag. In addition, as
I understand it, designating Brazil a principality did not change the way it was governed, and it
would seem this flag probably never flew there.
Joseph McMillan, 3 May 2003
There is maybe a mistake here. João IV's son and successor was Afonso VI
(possibly the worst king Portugal ever had), who was deposed in 1668 in
favour of his younger brother Pedro, who became Pedro II. This Pedro was João IV's third
son indeed, and his father was also named Teodósio (who was not king of Portugal as João IV was the first
king after the spanish occupation of 1580-1640), but I could find no
trace of a Teodósio, son of João IV.
António Martins, 3 May 2003
by António Martins
This flag was used in 1816-1822. The Portuguese royal familiy came to Brazil and the city of Rio de Janeiro became the capital of Portugal (1808). Brazil and Portugal
became a United Kingdom in 1815 and in 1816 a law created the flag of the three kingdoms (Brazil,
Portugal and Algarve).
André Godinho, 23 April 2003
Not quite. Let's say that in 1816 (thanks to Napoleon), Portugal became
an United Kingdom, with the territory of Brazil being raised from a mere
colony to a co-kingdom (to mask the fact that the Royal Family had
indeed fled the capital). There were not three kingdoms, just one.
António Martins Tuválkin, 3 June 2003
by André Pires Godinho
The law included a flag for Brazil:
"D. João by the grace of God King of Portugal, Brazil, Algarve and oversea Africa, lord of Guinea, and of the conquest, trading and shipping of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India, etc (...)The flag with the armillary sphere on a blue field was the Brazilian flag from that time, while the flag of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves (pt-1816 in FOTW) was a "union jack" of the Portuguese Empire.
I - That the Brazilian Kingdom have a like ensign, a gold armillary sphere in a blue field
(...)
III - That all of these new ensigns be used in...flags."
This is interesting. I had never heard about this flag: white (though
not mentioned by André Godinho) with an armillary sphere on blue, but no shield from the
coat of arms. And what was the difference between this flag and the one with
the shield? Anyway I guess that the usual depiction is not "gold armillary sphere on
a blue field" but something like "gold armillary sphere filled blue."
António Martins Tuválkin, 3 June 2003