Matias de Albuquerque (Olinda, colony of Brazil, 1580s – Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal, 9 June 1647), the first and only Count of Alegrete, was a Portuguese colonial administrator and soldier. He was nicknamed "Hero of Two Continents" for his performance, beginning in 1624, against the Dutch invaders of colonial Brazil (Captaincy of Pernambuco) and for his role, beginning in 1641, as a general in Portugal, fighting for king John IV during the Portuguese Restoration War, where he won the battle of Montijo over the Spaniards in 1644. For this victory he was rewarded the title of Count of Alegrete by the king. The youngest son of Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho, Matias was baptized as Paulo de Albuquerque, but he changed his name to Matias to honor his relative and godfather, Matias de Albuquerque, who was the Viceroy of India. Career The colony of Pernambuco in Brazil had been granted, in trust, to Matias's brother, Duarte de Albuquerque Coelho, under the system of hereditary captaincies (capitanias) established by the Portuguese crown as a way to administrate their overseas possessions. Olinda, a town in the Captaincy of Pernambuco, was Matias's birthplace, but, as a young man, he left Olinda for Rio de Janeiro, where he pursued a military career. Lieutenant-governor of Pernambuco He served three years in North Africa. In 1620 his brother Duarte asked him to serve as his agent in governing Pernambuco. There, he restored the personal authority of his family after almost fifty years of involvement in colonial administration only as absentees. He assumed the position of lieutenant-governor on 20 May 1620, and he went straight to work preparing the defenses of Pernambuco (he remained in the post until November 1627). The following year, the huge size of Brazil led the crown to divide the colonies into two estados (states); King Philip II created the State of Brazil, the most important colony, with Salvador as its capital and, to its north, the State of Maranhão, with its capital at São Luís. Pernambuco was a captaincy in the State of Brazil. Fighting the Dutch When the first invasions of the colony of Brazil occurred in 1624 and 1625, the Dutch immediately seized Salvador, the capital of the State of Brazil and, in the process, captured the governor-general, Diogo de Mendonça Furtado. When news reached the colonial authorities elsewhere in the captaincies of Brazil that Mendonça had been deported to the