Menezes

Meneses, sometimes Menezes in Portuguese, was originally a noble surname which originated in Montes Torozos, a region in Tierra de Campos, northeast of Valladolid and southeast of Palencia. The ancestor of the Meneses lineage was Tello Pérez de Meneses. The family wealth and power grew remarkably along the 13th and 14th centuries, through several marriages with the Castilian and Portuguese royal families.