Count of Vidigueira


Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese comital title of nobility awarded by King Manuel I of Portugal to Dom Vasco da Gama, who discovered the maritime route from Europe to India. The title was created by a royal decree issued in Évora on 29 December 1519, after an agreement signed in 7 November between Vasco da Gama and Dom Jaime, Duke of Braganza, who ceded him the towns of Vidigueira and Vila de Frades, granting Vasco da Gama and his heirs and successors all the revenues and privileges related.
Vasco da Gama was then the 1st Admiral of the Seas of India and in 1524 would become the 6th Governor of Portuguese India under the title of 2nd Viceroy.
Following the expulsion of the Philippine Dynasty from the throne of Portugal in 1640, the new King John IV of Portugal granted this family the new title of Marquis of Nisa by a royal decree dated October 18, 1646.
When the 8th Marchioness and 8th Countess, Maria Josefa da Gama, married the 3rd Count of Unhão, the three titles were later inherited by their son, Rodrigo Xavier Teles de Castro da Gama, who became 14th Count of Vidigueira, 7th Marquis of Nisa and 5th Count of Unhão.

List of the Counts of Vidigueira (1499) and Marquesses of Nisa (1646)