Frei João Álvares (c. 1400 in Torres Novas – c. 1490 in Paço de Sousa) was a 15th-century Portuguese friar of a military Order, chronicler and writer.
To preserve his army from destruction, Prince Henry the Navigator, commander of the expedition, signed a treaty that agreed to deliver Ceuta (captured by the Portuguese earlier in 1415) back to Morocco.
[1] As it turns out, the Portuguese refused to honor the treaty and deliver Ceuta, with the result that Ferdinand was left in Marinid captivity, first at Asilah, then at Fez, where he eventually died in 1443.
[2] He returned to Morocco in 1450 to ransom remaining captives and to collect the relics of Ferdinand, who was now starting to be religiously cultivated as the Holy Prince (Infante Santo) in Portugal.
João Álvares was a member of the military order of the Knights of St. Benedict of Aviz and in 1461 was named commendatory abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Paço de Sousa (near Penafiel in northern Portugal).