Dates and events serve as the corner stones of historiography. History helps to remember, commemorate and celebrate our past. For us, Goa Statehood Day on 30 May 1987 and Opinion Poll Day on 16 January 1967 are important days to reflect into our past. However students of history need reassurance that history is not just dates and tongue twisting names. It is a joyous insight into an interesting study of the colourful socio-religious and cultural identities of people. Most Goans or even Indians are aware that Bombay was given as dowry by a Portuguese princess to a British Monarch but few are aware of the ripple effect of this marriage on the two individuals or nations involved or even on world geo-politics.
On 31 May 1662, a Portuguese princess, Catherine of Bragança, daughter of King John IV married a British King, Charles II and part of her dowry was the Portuguese territory of Bom Bahia (Good Bay) along with the North African city, Tangier and a cash dowry of 500,000 pounds. This marriage also ensured the right of free trade with Portuguese East Indies and Brazil. During the colonial period, the British made the practice of dowry mandatory. The Portuguese had a custom of sending out girls from the orphanages of Lisbon (Orphans of the King) with dowries provided for in orders of appointment for their husbands.
A few years after this marriage, the Royal Charter of 27 March 1668, led to the transfer of Bombay from Charles II to the British East India Company for an annual rent of 10 ponds in gold. Bombay was an archipelago of seven islands (Mahim, Mazagaon, Little Colaba, Colaba, Bombay, Worli and Parel). Portuguese had gained possession of Bombay, after the Treaty of Bassein, with Bahadur Shah. The Portuguese called these islands by various names, which was collectively given the name Bombaim. So the seven islands of Bombaim became Bombay, an anglicised version of the Portuguese name from the early seventieth century till its present name, Mumbai.
One needs to understand the times when this marriage agreement was done. Portugal itself had lost its independence from 1580 to 1640, for want of an heir to the throne and it was taken over by Spain’s King Phillip – II. Ever since a Spanish King had brought Portugal under his control, the interest in the development of trade was ignored. The Portuguese overseas territories were now easy prey to the acquisitive designs of the Dutch and English. The remaining years showed the gradual decline of the Portuguese supremacy over trade and the rise of the British merchants. It was under these conditions that Bombay changed hands – a practical decision in the given circumstances.
This period also witnessed the decay in the Portuguese power, more visible in the towns. The then Portuguese Viceroy, Conde de Vigueira wrote to the King in 1622 that Cochin which was the centre of Spice trade, as well as Cannanore and Quilon had ceased to have any trade at all. These fortresses were without guns or other effective means of defence. The revenue by this time was mainly based on duties like custom duties and the sale of cartazes (licenses issued to the non-Portuguese trading ships to conduct trade in the Indian Ocean).With the loss of trade the revenue from custom duties diminished and with the loss of power the revenue from cartazes ceased. One by one the Portuguese possessions of Cochin, Cannanore and Quilon and even Sri Lanka were surrendered to the Dutch.
The fall out of this marriage is very interesting. It is said that when Catherine of Bragança arrived from Portugal to marry Charles II, she brought with her a casket of tea. The Portuguese had been importing tea to Europe from the beginning of the seventeenth century; the princess had grown up drinking tea as a preferred beverage. The marriage began well but soon Catherine realised that she had to share her husband with his mistresses. King Charles had four favourite mistresses Lucy Walter, Barbara Villiers, Nell Gwyn and Louise de Kérouaille. Lucy Walter gave birth to his son, whom Charles acknowledged and was given the title of James Scott, Duke of Monmouth. In spite of his many mistresses and sixteen illegitimate children, Charles and Catherine never divorced.
Together they faced difficult challenges such as the Bubonic plague which inflicted London in1665/6 and immediately, a fire destroyed most of London. Together they carried out reconstruction of 80% of the destroyed London’s buildings from wood to stone. She remained a Roman Catholic and he a Protestant. On 28th November 1678, Catherine was accused of high treason but it was her husband’s intervention that did not send her to trial.
Catherine had no children, but suffered four miscarriages. A marriage which was arranged to being the greatest political and economic benefit to the King and his country remained so always and lasted for 23 years till the death of King Charles in 1685. Catherine returned to Lisbon as a widow in 1692 and remarried another Protestant, Louis de Duras. In Portugal, she acted as a regent for her brother, Peter II in1701 and 1704-5, and passed away in 1705.
This marriage was a political arrangement, when matrimonial alliances between the royals were more concerned about the future of their countries, rather than the future of the two individual’s involved. If one is to learn from the lessons of history, one can either appreciate this marriage as the call of duty and loyalty to their marriage vows or dismiss it from the prism of infidelity! This event took place over three centuries back, however it proves an important fact of life that extravagant exchanges of wealth and celebrations cannot sustain a faithful marriage!
Catherine of Bragança’s marriage to the British King however had an important result for the later history of the British Empire India and India. Under the British, the city served as an important administrative unit of Bombay Presidency. It gained importance also during World War II, with movement of thousands of military troops, industrial goods and the fleet of the Royal Indian Navy making Bombay an important defence base for the battles being fought in West Asia and South East Asia. Mumbai is today one of the main commercial city of India.
With the re-organisation of States in 1956 Bombay became part of Maharashtra. If the events of 1961 had unfolded just a few years earlier when freedom fighters then and some even today nail Nehru for this delay, the linguistic considerations could have joined Goa to Maharashtra! Pandit Nehru’s reassurance to protect the ‘culture and identity of Goa’ was fulfilled by his grandson Rajiv Gandhi on 30 May 1987.
On a lighter note if the British King had demanded the then Goa (Old conquests only) as dowry and an accident of history had happened both the course of history and geography would have changed. If Bombaim, was not handed over as a dowry then our national freedom fighters would have to struggle to liberate another Portuguese territory in India–Goa itself took over 450 years! It is accidents in history and exigencies of time that determine the future of both, countries and people!
(Dr Sushila Sawant Mendes is Author & Professor in History & Goa Govt. Best College Teacher Awardee)