By royal decree, in 1624, he was obliged to take his retinue to Ponta Delgada and carry out his role as dontary captain, but following the death of this wife returned to Court in 1626.
He remarried on 1 June 1628, to D. Maria Coutinho, daughter of the Count of Vidigueira, the Queen's handmaiden and descendant of Vasco da Gama:[1] at the wedding the couple were assisted by the Kings of Spain and the entire court.
[1] Remaining in Lisbon in the ancestral home in the estate of São Francisco, in 1629 he and his wife had a daughter, followed in 1630 by a son, which they named Manuel Luís.
The Count was in São Miguel at the time of the beginning of the Portuguese Restoration War, receiving the notice of the acclamation of John IV of Portugal in the middle of January 1641 from Francisco de Ornelas.
In the next year, on 4 May 1651, the inevitable occurred: Lucas Leite Pereira, a former page, presented a new complaint to the Inquisition, that due to the public scandal, they were obliged to initiate a judicial process against the Count.
[3] Receiving a complaint of sodomy on 5 May 1651, two days later the General-Council of the Holy Office of the Portuguese Inquisition deliberated on the material, owing to the Counts position of power.
The King, informed of this material by the General Inquisition, and knowing of the rumours, charged the Count of Cantanhede, cousin of the accused, to advise him and counselled him to abandon the kingdom.
The Count ordered the preparation of a ship, but, unafraid of the gravity of the situation did not embark, owing to his illness, but sent a petition to the Holy Office and revealing his location.
Owing to the proof and his own confession, the count was condemned for sodomy on 20 December 1652, and sentenced to life, resulting in the forfeiture of his possessions, including the Captaincy of the island of São Miguel.