João Serrão

He served in the Portuguese India Armadas that secured control of the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca for the Portuguese but is most well known for his participation in Ferdinand Magellan's 1519–1521 expedition to the Spice Islands for Charles I of Spain, which discovered a path around South America to the Pacific and initiated Spanish involvement in the Philippines.

Serrão and Duarte Barbosa became leaders of the expedition after Magellan's death at the Battle of Mactan but did not live to complete the circumnavigation with Elcano.

Serrão was born in Frixinal[3] (now Fregenal de la Sierra), Badajoz, in a border area long contested between Portugal and Spain.

Finding himself in disgrace in the Portuguese court and thinking Francisco's information suggested the Spice Islands (now Indonesia's Maluku Islands) fell within the Spanish hemisphere created by the Treaty of Tordesillas, Magellan approached the young Spanish king Charles I (subsequently Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire) for funding.

Magellan had hoped to meet Francisco Serrão when he arrived in the Spice Islands but, after the First Mass in the Philippines, he was killed at the 1521 Battle of Mactan while attempting to shore up the power of his convert and ally Humabon, the raja of Cebu.