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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1999-06 > 0928224772


From: Francisco Antonio Doria <>
Subject: Re: Queen Charlotte of Great-Britain
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 99 08:12:52 -0000


>Another citation: "Queen
>Charlotte was dircetly descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a black
>branch of the Portugese Royal House".

In a nutshell: there are two branches of the Sousa family. They all derive from King Afonso III (late 13th century) thru two bastards, Afonso Denis and Martim Afonso `Chichorro,' (the small). Afonso Denis originated the smaller branch of the Sousas de Arronches, now represented in the female line by the dukes of Lafões (Braganças), dukes of Palmela (Sousa e Holstein-Beck), marquesses of Castelo Melhor (Vasconcellos e Sousa) and Belas (Castelo Branco). Martim Afonso originated the Sousas do Prado, with a huge descent, several lines of which still keep the agnatic origin.

Due to the racial mix-up, first in Portugal and then in Brazil, the chances are that most Portuguese nobility has at least a few drops of Negro blood, but I don't see any evident such line in any of the two Sousa branches (I'm not saying it doesn't exist; I'm just saying that I don't know where it might possibly come from).

Chico

Francisco Antonio Doria

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