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From: Francisco Antonio Doria< >
Subject: A few questions.
Date: 1 Mar 1998 14:00:05 -0800

Here are a few conundrums I've been dealing with. They all deal with
14th-15th century Portugal.

1) The Sa' Colonna connection. All lineage books trace the Sa' family to
the late 14th century marriage between Rodrigo Annes de Sa' and Caecilia
Colonna, whose ancestry is variously given in different sources. Sousa
Lara wrote an article where he shows that Rodrigo Annes de Sa' married in
fact Mecia Rodrigues do Avellar. What about the Colonna connection? Well,
cardinal Agabito Colonna was papal nuntius to Portugal in 1370-80, and
could have left a couple of bastards.

Certainly the main Sa' ancestor, Joa~o Rodrigues de Sa' `o das gale's'
was never a son of Cecilia Colonna - but Rodrigo Annes could have married
the Colonna girl in his late years (he died around 1380).

2) Isabel Moniz, Columbus' mother-in-law. That's a really bad case.
Isabel Moniz seems to have been a kind of common-law wife to Bartolomeu
Perestrelo, lord (donatario) of Porto Santo. Left several children by
him: Bartolomeu Moniz (later Bartolomeu Perestrelo), Cristovao Moniz,
Briolanja, who married a Bardi of Florence and then Miguel Muylaert, and
Filipa Moniz, who married Columbus in the Madeira c. 1479-80 (she
probably died of childbirth).

Braancamp Freire, following Columbus' son, said that Isabel Moniz was the
sister of Vasco Gil Moniz (who married Leonor de Lusignan c. 1425-30).
That's impossible due to the chronology. My own guess is that Isabel
Moniz was the *sister* of Vasco Martins Moniz, who went to the Madeira.
That Moniz family was of recent nobility, and would accept the
`unofficial' marriage of Isabel with the lord of Porto Santo, himself a
minor nobleman too.

I emphasize the `unofficial' character of the relationship - which was
otherwise a stable one - because there was a fight for the succession in
the lordship, Bartolomeu Moniz being at first disinherited. As he first
used his mother's name (later he changed to Perestrelo), that might point
at an illegitimate birth.

More to follow.

Chico Doria

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• A few questions. by Francisco Antonio Doria< >