Pedro de Meneses, 1st Count of Vila Real

Nonetheless, unlike many other nobles, Pedro de Menezes had been allowed to inherit his father's title of Count of Viana do Alentejo and proved himself a faithful loyalist of King John I.

While John I of Portugal was canvassing for governors, the young Pedro was nearby, distractedly playing choca (a kind of Medieval hockey) with a stick of zambujeiro or aleo (wild olive tree).

In a bold gambit, Pedro de Menezes led the Portuguese garrison in a sally against the Marinid camp and forced the lifting of the siege before the relief fleet even arrived.

[6] The political crisis in Morocco released the pressure on Ceuta for the next few years, leaving Pedro de Menezes and the Portuguese garrison with little to do, but entrench themselves in the largely empty fortress-citadel.

They were only occasionally pestered by small parties of Moroccan nobles, who came to challenge Portuguese knights to feats of arms and personal combat, or scrappy columns of Sufi-inspired religious radicals looking for Holy War.

Although the Portuguese crown was losing substantial amounts of money maintaining the expensive garrison, Pedro de Menezes is said to have accumulated a small personal fortune from ransoming Moroccan knights captured in skirmishes and from kickbacks from the corsairs he allowed to operate out of Ceuta.

In 1424, Pedro de Menezes was invested with his mother's dominions as the first Count of Vila Real by King John I of Portugal and appointed the alferes-mor (standard-bearer) of the royal prince and heir Infante Edward.

In anticipation, in 1436, Pedro de Menezes ordered the garrison from Ceuta, led by young Duarte, to attack and raze the citadel of Tétouan, to prevent it from becoming a threat to the Portuguese operations.

His tomb is decorated with carved wild olive tree branches, and repeatedly embossed with the word aleo, a reference to the gaming stick that Pedro de Menezes made famous.

From an unknown woman: From Isabel Domingues, a Pixegueira: "Enquanto do seguro azambujeiro nos pastores de Luso houver cajados, e o valor antigo que primeiro os fez no mundo tão assinalados, não temas tu, Frondélio companheiro, que em nenhum tempo sejam sojugados, nem que a cerviz indómita obedeça a outro jugo algum que se ofereça.