Pires against Camargos
Pires against Camargo or the War of the Pires against the Camargo was a rivalry that took place in the town of São Paulo, between the 1640s and 1660s, in which the two families came into conflict for different reasons. Leading to assassinations between both sides. The Pires and Camargo had political and military leaders, owners of huge wheat farms in Serra da Cantareira, therefore they competed for supremacy in São Paulo. The rivalry in the dispute for command of the Chamber was the main reason for the conflict.[1]
The dispute began around 1640, when Alberto Pires murdered Leonor de Camargo Cabral, his wife, and also António Pedroso de Barros, his brother-in-law. It is not certain whether Alberto wanted the murder or whether he had hit his wife by chance, and, without knowing how to justify his death, he also killed his brother-in-law and accused the dead of adultery.[2]
The beginning of the rivalry
The historian Afonso de Escragnolle Taunay says about this war in Ensaios Paulistas, 1958:
| “ | These are the facts included in what is called the conflict between the Pires and the Camargos, named after the two great families whose irreconcilability resulted in a true civil war, similar to the devastating municipal struggles in medieval Italian cities and of which the best known is that of the Capuletto and Montechio families, from Verona, immortalized by Shekespeare.! | ” |
| — Afonso de E. Taunay | ||
The Murder of Leonor de Camargo Cabral
There were very turbulent years, says Afonso E. de Taunay, “the warring factions did not lay down their weapons. And as a consequence, the pace of Bandeirantism decreased noticeably, as was to be expected. Alberto Pires' crime unexpectedly occurred on Leonor de Camargo Cabral, his wife and, as was said at the time, on Antônio Pedroso de Barros, a great bandeirante who Alberto also killed in an ambush. Now, it was later proven that Antônio perished at the hands of his rebellious Indians. Alberto Pires was murdered by the Camargos, in reprisal.
The Pires, led by Fernão Dias, then opposed Fernão de Camargo's brother, José Ortiz de Camargo, taking office in the São Paulo ombudsman's office. There was later an agreement negotiated by the Pires, on 12 May 1653, by which the Jesuits returned to their college with a formal promise not to shelter runaway Indians nor to publish the papal brief of Urbano VIII about the freedom of the Gentile. The two factions continued their fight until the agreement
of February 9 of 1654, by which Ortiz took over the Ombudsman's Office, but did not fulfill what he promised, and also lost the support of the General Government with the departure of the Count of Castelo Melhor, replaced by a magistrate closely linked to Pires. The fight was reignited, but there are only details and details, largely obscure. An ecclesiastical intervention promoted yet another attempt at pacification, which resulted in representatives from both parties going to Bahia to come to an understanding with the new governor-general, Jerónimo de Ataíde, Count of Atouguia. From the mission came an ordinance on November 24, 1655 granting general amnesty.
Atouguia was succeeded in the government by Francisco Barreto de Meneses who requested an expedition designed to “suppress the rushes of the gentiles through the Bahian backlands”. It was organized under the command of Fernando de Camargo and Domingos Barbosa Calheiros, both leaders of the Camargos faction. They arrived in Salvador in October 1658 but the expedition had an unsuccessful outcome.
The riots in São Paulo were renewed in 1659, with Fernão Dias Pais facing off against José Ortiz de Camargo. Francisco Barreto even talked about personally going to accommodate the situation, he ended up dispatching the ombudsman and he was successful: with the parties exhausted, the two opposing leaders signed the agreement of January 1, 1660 and returned to the activity of the sertanista companies. Other sources point to January 25, 1660, as the date of signing of the peace agreement.[2]
Bibliography
- Ensaios Paulistas, Editora Anhambi, São Paulo, 1958.
References
- ↑ "Fights between families in Colonial Brazil last to this day". Adventures in History. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2016. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Camargos x Pires: Surname, just a surname". Folha de S. Paulo. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
External links
- Genealogia Paulistana, Title Camargos (http://www.arvore.net.br/Paulistana/Camrg_1.htm)
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