Lopo Fernandes Pacheco (died 22 December 1349), was the first of his lineage to accede to the highest ranks of the nobility, that of a rico-homem, in the Kingdom of Portugal. He lived during the reign of King Afonso IV of Portugal of whom he was his favorite and loyal vassal. His parents were João Fernandes Pacheco and his wife Estevaínha Lopes de Paiva, daughter of Lope Rodrigues de Paiva and Teresa Martins Xira. His family owned properties in different parts of the kingdom although its area of influence was mainly Beira in the northern part of the country.
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Life
The rise of his lineage in the Kingdom of Portugal, a process by which members of the lower nobility gradually displaced the old lineages, began with Lopo Fernandes Pacheco, the first Lord of Ferreira de Aves. A great favorite of the monarch, he was perhaps one of the most prominent personalities during the reign of Afonso IV of Portugal. He occupied several posts in the kingdom: merino-mor (1329); mordomo-mor of Infante Pedro, the future King Pedro I of Portugal; and, member of the king's council. He was also the mordomo-mor (1334-1336) and chancellor (1349) of Queen Beatrice of Castile, the wife of King Afonso IV, and, in 1327 was one of the executors of the will of Queen Elizabeth of Aragon, the wife of King Denis of Portugal. King Afonso IV entrusted Lopo with the education of his children, the infantes Peter and Eleanor, the future queen of Aragon by her marriage to King Peter IV.
He appears in 1317 with Infante Afonso and in 1318 was one of the witnesses when Afonso made several donations to the Monastery of Saint Denis in Odivelas. He sided with Afonso against the pretensions of his half-brother, Afonso Sanches and was at his side in 1322 when the brothers signed the peace treaty in Pombar.
