Fernando de Noronha, 2nd Count of Vila Real

Who is Fernando de Noronha, 2nd Count of Vila Real?

Dom Fernando de Noronha was a 15th-century Castilian-Portuguese nobleman. He was the 2nd Count of Vila Real, a title which he acquired and shared by his marriage to Brites de Menezes, 2nd Countess of Vila Real and the third Portuguese governor of Ceuta from 1437.

Fernando de Noronha united two prominent bastard lines of the crowns of Castile and Portugal. He was the second son from the marriage of Alfonso Enríquez de Castilla, count of Gijón y Noreña and Isabel of Portugal, Lady of Viseu. After the death of Alfonso of Gijón y Noreña in 1398, Isabel fled to the court of her uncle, King John I of Portugal. Her children were raised in the Portuguese court, where they were known by their appellation Noronha. Fernando's elder brother, Pedro de Noronha, would become an Archbishop of Lisbon.

On October 18, 1430, Fernando de Noronha married Brites de Menezes, the daughter of the prominent Portuguese nobleman Pedro de Menezes, 1st Count of Vila Real and first Portuguese governor of Ceuta. Brites competed with her half-brother Duarte de Menezes for her father's titles for herself and her consort. Fernando de Noronha secured the office of counciller and chamberlain in the household of the royal prince and heir Infante Edward.