A donatário, sometimes anglicized as donatary, was a private person—often a noble—who was granted a considerable piece of land by the Kingdom of Portugal. The king exempted these titleholders from normal colonial administration; the donatários were comparable to a royal governor or a British Lord Proprietor. As the donataria were often captaincies, the position is also translated as captain.
History
Normally, the donatário was the recipient of a captaincy, a territorial division and land grant, within Portuguese colonies. It was an effective administrative system that ceded certain rights and responsibilities to the donatário, facilitating the settlement of unpopulated places with little cost to the Crown. The donatário was obligated to govern his territories under specific terms: in exchange for the grant, he received tax immunity, but was also responsible for promoting and settling new residents to his territory, establishing churches, protecting them from frequent pirate attacks, and promoting agriculture and commerce. While the donatário assumed expenses of the settlement and economic development, he also benefited from various judicial and fiscal privileges, while the King maintained certain unalienable rights to safeguard the territorial and political unity of the Kingdom. Except for private land grants, the territory administrated by the donatário was turned over to settlers and the bestowed was responsible for all the expenses of the Captaincy. Almost dictatorial in their powers, the donatários were limited by the difficulties of the territories they governed. With the Brazilian territories, which were large, the donatários' obligations covered the governorship, expansion and settlement of the territory, necessitating a large labour force, security forces and administrators. Many of the new settlers were criminals, opportunists or political exiles who arrived in these territories to make their fortunes. At the same time, the donatário promoted the faith by receiving and assisting the Catholic missionaries that trekked across the Portuguese Empire.
The Dukes were the direct line to the Crown, paying vassalage as serfs to the Kings of Portugal. When Manuel, 5th Duke of Viseu, ascended the throne as King Manuel I of Portugal, he incorporated the donatary privileges of the seven islands of the Azores into the properties and possessions of the Crown. The donatary system was bestowed upon Henry the Navigator at an unknown time, but his order to introduce livestock on the islands suggests that he would have received jurisdiction between 1432 and 1438. This was the same period as the death of King Duarte, and his successor King Afonso V exempted fees and taxes for five years at his request, suggesting Henry's compliance with the duties of a donatário. Yet it was only in his last will and testament that it was explicitly stated that he was protector of the Azores. The transfer of this title to his nephew the Infante Ferdinand, was in keeping with the Lei Mental proclaimed by his brother in 1434, that bound Henry to pass on all lands and goods from the King to legitimate male descendants. If not, then the Crown would regain ownership. The donatário was expected to promote the settlement of the territory. Consequently, the hierarchical model that developed was an extension of this process. In order to govern the islands, Henry as donatário nominated men of confidence, capitães do donatário, to administer their territories locally. This three-tier system worked effectively: King, donatário, and captains allowed the administration of overseas territories without direct intervention of the Crown. Yet the Crown oscillated between total neglect and strong vigilance; between the 15th-18th centuries the monarchy did not really know how to manage its territories. King Manuel I of Portugal, for his part, was a micro-manager and was involved in judicial affairs and exercised his duties as lord of the islands. This led to the creation of monarchial posts to directly influence control, such as the Corregedor, the Provedoria das Armadas, 1527, and the Feitorias of Angra and Ponta Delgada, in 1561. These new posts showed the importance of the Crown's representatives in the regions over their control, and men like Cipriano de Figueiredo e Vasconcelos would play important roles in coexistence between local and national administration. After the 16th century the figure of the donatary captain lost its effective governorship in most of the islands of the Azores, with the exception of São Miguel, which was transformed into an honorific post, conferred by the King to people and noble families who he wished to honour. It was through this system that the majority of donatary captaincies fell into the hands of the high nobility of Portugal, who never lived on the islands or had little economic interest in their development.
