{{Short description|Portuguese colonial administrator in Brazil}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Brites de Albuquerque | image = | caption = | order = 2nd and 4th Governor of Pernambuco | lieutenant = Jeronimo de Albuquerque | term_start = 1553 | term_end = 1560 | monarch = Dom João III<br>Sebastian of Portugal | predecessor = Duarte Coelho | successor = Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque | term_start1 = 1572 | term_end1 = 1584 | monarch1 = Sebastian of Portugal<br>Henry, King of Portugal<br>Philip I | predecessor1 = Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque | successor1 = Jeronimo de Albuquerque | lieutenant1 = Jeronimo de Albuquerque | parents = Lopo de Albuquerque<br>Joana de Bulhão | birth_date = C. 1507 | birth_place = Kingdom of Portugal | death_date = c. 1584 | death_place = Captaincy of Pernambuco, Colonial Brazil | spouse = {{marriage|Duarte Coelho||1535}} | relatives = Jeronimo de Albuquerque (brother) }}
'''Brites de Albuquerque''', aka Beatriz de Albuquerque, (c. 1507–1584<ref name="Varnhagen">Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, ''História Geral do Brasil'', Melhormentos, São Paulo, v. 1</ref>) was a noble, a colonial administrator in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. She was the first woman to serve as governor in a colony in the New World.<ref name="Varnhagen" />
==Biography== Scion of the Albuquerques Dona Brites was daughter of Lopo de Albuquerque and Joana de Bulhão. a cousin of Afonso de Albuquerque and Garcia de Noronha both viceroys of India, and sister to Matias de Albuquerque, viceroy of India, all descendants of King Dom Dinis (1279–1325).<ref name="Dutra">Francis A. Dutra. "Duarte Coelho Pereira, First Lord-Proprietor of Pernambuco: The Beginnings of a Dynasty", ''The Americas'' 29:4 (April 1973), pp. 415–441.</ref> She married Duarte Coelho donatario (Lord Proprietor) of Pernambuco and with him settled in the New World in 1535.<ref name="Dutra" /><ref>C. R. Boxer, "Jorge d' Albuquerque Coelho: A Luso-Brazilian Hero of the Sea, 1539–1602", ''Luso-Brazilian Review''Vol. 6, No. 1 (Summer, 1969), p. 3</ref> Three children are known, Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque, second donatario, Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho, Third Donatario, and Inês de Moura.<ref name="Dutra" />
Dona Brites, assisted by her brother Jeronimo, governed Pernambuco three or four times, first during her husbands trip to Portugal in 1540–1541, again beginning during his final trip to Portugal in 1553, and continuing as governor and administrator of the estate during the minority and absence of their son Duarte, the heir, until 1560,<ref>David P. Henige, ''Colonial Governors from the Fifteenth Century to the Present'', 1970, p. 254</ref> again in 1572 (and 1573) as representative of her son Duarte, and probably continuously until 1582 but possibly once again from an unknown date until her death sometime before 1584.<ref>Francisco Augusto Pereira da Costa, "Capitães-móres governadores loco-tenentes dos donatários de Pernambuco". ''Revista do Instituto Archeológico e Geographico Pernambucano'', Recife, n. 50, 1897, pp. 59–61</ref><ref name="Dutra" /><ref name="Varnhagen" />
== References == {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Duarte Coelho}} {{s-ttl|title=Governor of Pernambuco |years=1553–1560}} {{s-aft|after=Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque}} |- {{s-bef|before=Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque}} {{s-ttl|title=Governor of Pernambuco |years=1572–1584}} {{s-aft|after=Jeronimo de Albuquerque}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brites de Albuquerque}} Category:1500s births Category:1580s deaths Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:Year of death uncertain Category:Portuguese colonial governors and administrators Category:16th-century Portuguese nobility Category:Women governors and heads of sub-national entities Category:Brazilian women in politics Category:Portuguese women in politics Category:16th-century Brazilian people Category:16th-century Brazilian women {{Portugal-explorer-stub}}