Filipa Moniz Perestrelo
(d. c. 1484)
BIRTH
c. 1455
PLACE
Porto Santo, Portugal
DEATH
c. 1484
PLACE
Lisbon, Portugal
FAMILY
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHRISTIAN
CATHOLIC
MEMBERSHIPS
ORDER OF SANTIAGO MEMBER, SANTOS O VELHO RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY MEMBER
AWARDS
Filipa Moniz Perestrelo was a Portuguese noblewoman, daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrelo, captain of Porto Santo, and Isabel Moniz. She married Christopher Columbus around 1479–80 and became mother of Diego, later admiral and governor in the Indies. Her family linked Columbus to Madeira’s Atlantic settlements. Accounts associate her with Lisbon’s Todos-os-Santos community, but evidence is sparse; her birth around 1454–55 and death date remain uncertain.
EARLY LIFE
Filipa Moniz Perestrelo was born around 1455, the daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrelo, the first captain of the island of Porto Santo, in the Madeira archipelago, and his wife, Isabel Moniz, who came from a noble Portuguese family. Her father, of Italian descent, had taken part in the Portuguese settlement of the Atlantic islands under Prince Henry the Navigator. After his death in 1457, the family lived partly in Lisbon. Filipa was educated in Lisbon and lived for a time at the convent of the Order of Santiago there.
Around 1479 Filipa married Christopher Columbus, then a Genoese seaman and trader living in Lisbon. The marriage gave him connections to the Portuguese nobility and to the world of Atlantic exploration.
The couple lived for a time on Porto Santo and Madeira, where their son, Diego, was born around 1480. According to Columbus's son Fernando, Filipa's mother gave Columbus her late husband's charts and papers.
Filipa died around 1484, before Columbus left Portugal for Spain to seek support for his voyage. Where she died is uncertain.
CAREER
DEATH
Filipa Moniz Perestrelo was a Portuguese noblewoman, daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrelo, captain of Porto Santo, and Isabel Moniz. She married Christopher Columbus in 1479 at Vila Baleira on the island. Filipa Moniz Perestrelo married Christopher Columbus around 1479–80 and became mother of Diego, later admiral and governor in the Indies. Around 1479 Filipa married Christopher Columbus, then a Genoese seaman and trader living in Lisbon. The marriage gave him connections to the Portuguese nobility and to the world of Atlantic exploration. The couple lived for a time on Porto Santo and Madeira, where their son, Diego, was born around 1480. According to Columbus's son Fernando, Filipa's mother gave Columbus her late husband's charts and papers. Filipa died around 1484, before Columbus left Portugal for Spain to seek support for his voyage. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, Christopher Columbus’s wife and Diego Columbus’s mother. These are related family and voyage biographies. Editorial selections prioritize biographical coverage; five standalone biographies were not established. Family and collective biographies, primary writings, references and related studies are labelled individually. Multi-volume works and series are counted as one selection.
1. Columbus — Felipe Fernández-Armesto. [Related biography of her husband] Find on Amazon
2. Columbus — Laurence Bergreen. [Related biography of her husband] Find on Amazon
3. Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus — Samuel Eliot Morison. [Related biography of her husband; collected work] Find on Amazon
4. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus — William D. Phillips Jr.; Carla Rahn Phillips. [Related family and voyage history] Find on Amazon
5. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand — Ferdinand Columbus; Benjamin Keen (translator). [Related early family biography] Find on Amazon
103699