[4] Not being the firstborn son, he did not inherit his father's estate, that included the lordship of the medieval honras of Barbosa and Ataíde, each with an estimated annual income of 100 thousand reais,[3] a considerable sum in 16th century Portugal.

Dom Jerónimo was thus compelled to follow the example of many second sons of the Portuguese nobility of that era, by emigrating at a young age to the most important of Portugal's overseas possessions, the Estado da Índia, where he made his career.

He entered royal service on 25 March 1577, as a page (moço fidalgo) of King Sebastian's household (this was a posting usually reserved for very young members of the nobility, suggesting he was born sometime around 1560 - and not in 1540 as referred in some sources).

Azevedo arrived in Colombo with fresh troops on 24 December 1594,[10] barely three months after his predecessor, Pedro Lopes de Sousa died at the battle of Danture (9 October 1594).

On 29 May, 1597, just two days after the death of Dharmapala, Azevedo convened a meeting at the Igreja da Misericórdia of Colombo,[2] with the presence of several Portuguese dignitaries and an important number of court nobles of Kotte.

[2] Azevedo then convened the so-called Malvana Convention, a meeting of representatives of all the districts of the kingdom and accepted - after two days of deliberations - that the native inhabitants of Kotte would keep their laws and customs, though they had to pledge allegiance to the king of Portugal.

Later in that year, the Portuguese crown received specific proposals - based on the initial suggestions of the bishop of Cochin, fully supported by Azevedo, whose brother Inácio was a Jesuit martyr - on how to divide missionary activity in the island between the two Religious Orders.

After much debate, these proposals were adopted by the crown and in April 1602 the first four Jesuits arrived in Colombo, backed by a patent issued by Viceroy Aires de Saldanha, in Goa, on 27 February 1602.

In contrast to his predecessor Pedro Lopes de Sousa, who died and his troops in a previous invasion, he did manage to prevent the annihilation of the Portuguese forces and showed exceptional military capabilities[5] during this retreat that thus came to be known as a famosa retirada[10].

Every year the Portuguese would engage in smaller but highly destructive biannual forays and raids deep inside Kandyan territory, burning crops and villages and driving off the cattle.

A. R. Disney writes that by the time of Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo's mandate as viceroy the influence of colonials in Goa, as distinct from metropolitan Portuguese, was steadily growing.

This influence of colonials coincided with the above-mentioned period of resurgent Portuguese expansionism in the East, that - however - did not last very long and was already receding by the time he terminated his mandate as viceroy in 1617.

One factor that probably contributed to his downfall was the obstruction he made,[15] when viceroy in Goa, to the mission of the Castilian national García de Silva Figueroa, appointed by king Philip III of Spain (Filipe II of Portugal) as his envoy to the Shah of Persia.

But military successes in the 1590s against the Kingdoms of Sitawaka and Jaffna presented the Portuguese crown with a unique window of opportunity that led it to decide (in 1594) to attempt the conquest of the entire island of Ceylon.

However, as early as 15 March 1603, the king was already writing to the Archbishop to request the postponement of the inquiry, since in the meantime he had received favorable informations from the bishop of Cochin concerning Azevedo's military campaigns on the island.

[17] But Azevedo was more than a military leader, for he undertook important political initiatives (such as the negotiations that led to the Malvana Convention) and missionary reforms (opening of Ceylon to the Jesuits) while in Colombo - and he strongly supported geographical exploration and scientific activities during his tenure in Goa.

On balance, it is likely that - more than the accusations of embezzlement (a quite common feature of many previous tenures of governors and viceroys of the Portuguese Empire) - it was his politically risky actions against a personal envoy of the king of Spain and Portugal that sealed his final fall from grace in the Habsburg court.