Early life

A miniature portraying Cabral with his family coat of arms below

Little is certain regarding Pedro Álvares Cabral's life before, or following, his voyage which led to the discovery of Brazil. He was born in 1467 or 1468—the former year being the more likely^[2][3]—at Belmonte, which is about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from present-day Covilhã in northern Portugal.^[1][2][4][5] He was a son of Fernão Álvares Cabral and Isabel Gouveia—one of five boys and six girls in the family.^[2][4][6] Cabral was christened Pedro Álvares de Gouveia and only later, supposedly upon his elder brother's death in 1503,^[4][7][8] did he begin using his father's surname.^[C][6][9] The coat of arms of his family was drawn with two purple goats on a field of silver. Purple represented fidelity, and the goats were derived from the family name (cabral translates to goats in English).^[2] However, only his elder brother was entitled to make use of the family arms.^[10]
Family lore said that the Cabrais were descendants of Caranus, the legendary first king of Macedonia. Caranus was, in turn, a supposed 7th-generation scion of the demigod Hercules.^[D] Myths aside, the historian James McClymont believes that another family tale might hold clues to the true origin of Cabral's family. According to that tradition, the Cabrais derive from a Castilian clan named the Cabreiras who bore a similar coat of arms.^[E] The Cabral family rose to prominence during the 14th century. Álvaro Gil Cabral (Cabral's great-great-grandfather and a frontier military commander) was one of the few Portuguese nobles to remain loyal to Dom João I, King of Portugal during the war against the King of Castile. As a reward, João I presented Álvaro Gil with the hereditary fiefdom of Belmonte.^[1][2][11]
Raised as a member of the lower nobility,^[12][13] Cabral was sent to the court of King Dom Afonso V in 1479 at around age 12. He received an education in the humanities and learned to bear arms and fight.^[4] He would have been roughly age 17 on 30 June 1484 when he was named moço fidalgo (noble page; a minor title then commonly granted to young nobles) by King Dom João II.^[4] Records of his deeds prior to 1500 are extremely fragmentary, but Cabral may have campaigned in North Africa, as had his ancestors and as was commonly done by other young nobles of his day.^[1][6][14] King Dom Manuel I, who had acceded to the throne two years previously, awarded him an annual allowance worth 30,000 reais on 12 April 1497.^[15][16] He was concurrently given the title fidalgo (noble) in the King's council and was named a Knight of the Order of Christ.^[16] There is no contemporary image or detailed physical description of Cabral. It is known that he had a strong build^[17] and matched his father's 1.90 meters (6 ft 2.8 in) height.^[18][19][20] Cabral's character has been described as well-learned, courteous,^[20] prudent,^[5] generous, tolerant with enemies,^[9] humble,^[17] but also vain^[20] and too concerned with the respect he felt his honor and position demanded.^[21]