Pedro de Menezes Portocarrero, (1370 – Ceuta, 22 September 1437) was a 15th-century Portuguese nobleman and military figure. Pedro de Menezes (sometimes modernized as 'de Meneses') was the 2nd Count of Viana do Alentejo, 1st Count of Vila Real and the first Portuguese governor of Ceuta.
Pedro de Menezes was the grandson of the powerful 14th-century nobleman João Afonso Telo, 1st Count of Ourém and 4th Count of Barcelos, and his wife Guiomar Lopes Pacheco. Pedro was the cousin of Leonor Teles, the scandalous but powerful consort of King Ferdinand I of Portugal.
During the 1383–1385 Crisis, Pedro's father, also called João Afonso Telo like his father, had supported Beatrice of Portugal against the pretender John, Master of Aviz (the future John I). Nonetheless, unlike many other nobles, Pedro de Menezes had been allowed to inherit his father's title of Count of Viana do Alentejo and proved himself a faithful loyalist of the usurper king John I. He also inherited the Castilian lordships of Ayllón and Aguilar from relatives, but these titles were not recognized in Portugal.
Legend
While John I of Portugal was canvassing for governors, the young Pedro was nearby, distractedly playing choca (a kind of Medieval hockey) with a stick of zambujeiro or aleo (wild olive tree). Hearing all the high nobles making excuses to avoid the job, the young Pedro de Menezes stepped forward and approached the king with his gaming stick (aleo) in hand and told him that, with only that stick, he could defend Ceuta from all the power of Morocco. As a result of this story, all future Portuguese governors of Ceuta would be presented with a zambujeiro staff as a symbol of their office upon their investiture. The aleo that was used by Pedro is kept in the Church of Santa María de África in Ceuta, the statue of Mary holds the aleo.
First Governor of Ceuta
Pedro de Menezes participated and distinguished himself in the 1415 Conquest of Ceuta, and, in the aftermath, was appointed by King John I of Portugal as the first Portuguese governor of Ceuta. Allegedly, he was the only Portuguese noble willing to remain in charge of the Portuguese garrison, which was sure to be attacked by the full force of Marinid Morocco in due time. Pedro de Menezes was left with a garrison of 1600 soldiers. In 1416, Prince Henry the Navigator was placed in charge of supplying provisions to the Ceuta garrison from Portugal.
In 1418 (or 1419), the armies of the Marinid rulers of Morocco, assisted by auxiliary forces from the Nasrid Emirate of Granada, finally gathered and laid siege to the citadel. Pedro de Menezes managed the defenses of the citadel, while princes Henry the Navigator and John of Reguengos were dispatched with a relief fleet from Portugal. According to the chroniclers, the relief fleet turned out to be quite unnecessary. In a bold gambit, Pedro de Menezes led the Portuguese garrison in a sally against the Marinid siege camp and forced the lifting of the siege before the relief fleet even arrived.
Blamed for losing Ceuta, the Marinid sultan was assassinated in a coup in Fez in 1420, leaving only a child as his heir. Morocco descended into anarchic chaos, as rival pretenders vied for the throne and local governors carved out regional fiefs for themselves, selling their support to the highest bidder. The political crisis in Morocco released the pressure on Ceuta for the next few years, leaving Pedro de Menezes and the Portuguese garrison with little to do, but entrench themselves in the largely empty fortress-citadel. They were only occasionally pestered by small parties of Moroccan nobles, who came to challenge Portuguese knights to feats of arms and personal combat, or scrappy columns of Sufi-inspired religious radicals looking for Holy War. Although the Portuguese crown was losing substantial amounts of money maintaining the expensive garrison, Pedro de Menezes is said to have accumulated a small personal fortune from ransoming Moroccan knights captured in skirmishes and from kickbacks from the corsairs he allowed to operate out of Ceuta. He is said to have lent substantial sums to the perennially-indebted Henry the Navigator.