João Rodrigues de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 2nd count of Castelo Melhor jure uxoris, was a Portuguese military officer and colonial administrator.
When João IV of Portugal was proclaimed king, he undertook an ultimately unsuccessful but widely celebrated effort, along with D. Rodrigo Lobo and other noblemen, to return to his country the Portuguese galleys anchored in Cartagena.
Once his plan was discovered by the Spanish, he was arrested along with some of his co-conspirators, stoicly resisting the suffering imposed upon him in order to not denounce his remaining accomplices.
When he was being returned in custody to Castile, Dutch corsairs rescued him at the request of King João IV, and led him back to Portugal.
[3] Welcomed with honours by the new monarch, he was appointed to the offices of Military Governor of the Provinces of Minho and Alentejo, as well as to a seat in the Council of War.