Andres Hurtado de Mendoza

Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza y Cabrera (Cuenca, 1510 - Lima, September 14, 1560) was a Spanish soldier and politician who became the III Viceroy of Peru, between 1556 and 1560. His government marked the culmination of the period of civil wars, characterized by continuous revolts and changes in the arena of power. He pacified the Viceroyalty, imposed respect for authority and encouraged colonization.

Childhood and youth

A member of a distinguished lineage from Alcarria, he was the son of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Silva, 1st Marqués de Cañete, of the powerful House of Mendoza, and Isabel de Cabrera y Bobadilla, daughter of the Marqués de Moya. He is the grandson of Onorato de Mendoza, Corregidor of Salamanca during the Catholic Monarchs and of Francisca de Silva y Ribera. He is the great-grandson of Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, II Lord of the State of Cañate, Cuenca's chief guard and King's chief huntsman, and Inés Manrique, daughter of the adelantado, Pedro Manrique. He inherited the marquisate of Cañete, granted to his father Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Silva by Carlos I on July 7, 1530, although it had been created (but without issuing the appropriate Royal Office), in 1490 by the Catholic Monarchs.

He succeeded his father in his Cuenca possessions, being Cuenca's Cuenca Warden. Later, he was Montero Mayor de Castilla and accompanied Emperor Carlos I in the military campaigns that he waged in Germany and Flanders, where he distinguished himself.

Appointment as Viceroy of Peru

On March 10, 1555, he received the designation of Viceroy, Governor and Captain General of Peru and President of the Royal Audience of Lima. Even before leaving, he wrote a letter to the emperor, stating that he had news that about eight thousand Spaniards lived in Peru at that time, of whom only five hundred owned divisions of Indians, a thousand had some business or trade, and the rest lacked means. to survive: it was necessary, therefore, to "drain" the land from so many idle elements. With this ideal in mind, and with a large entourage of relatives and servants, among whom were his sons Felipe and García Hurtado de Mendoza, the conqueror Jerónimo de Alderete as governor-designate of Chile, the poet Alonso de Ercilla and the oidor Gregorio González de Cuenca, set sail in the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, on October 15, 1555.

As soon as it made landfall in Panama, it initiated residency proceedings against the magistrates of the High Court and various officials, and repressed a party of runaway black slaves or runaway black slaves that devastated the region. The person in charge of this last mission was Pedro de Ursúa, who managed to capture the self-styled “king of Bayano”, leader of the blacks, who was hanged.

The viceroy Marqués de Cañete arrived in Peru making landfall in Paita on March 24, 1556; he went on to Trujillo and finally continued along the path of the plains until he arrived at Lima. He was received in the City of Kings on June 29, 1556.

Peacemaking work

Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza.

As soon as he arrived in Peru, he energetically dedicated himself to pacifying and ordering the country, recently shaken by the rebellion of Francisco Hernández Girón. One of his first measures was the order for the confiscation of weapons to be deposited in the Sala de Armas de Lima. Next, he granted full powers to Bautista Muñoz and oidor Diego González Altamirano to extinguish all signs of rebellion against the viceregal authority in Cuzco and Charcas, respectively. The first had the surviving lieutenants of Girón executed: Tomás Vásquez, Juan de Piedrahíta and Alonso Díaz. The second did the same with Martín de Robles, an old captain who had made the serious mistake of saying in a letter that the viceroy needed to be “enrolled” like his predecessors, clearly alluding to the tragic end of the first viceroy. Blasco Nunez Vela. Although he had only said it jokingly, it was taken as an incitement to crime.

As many captains and soldiers demanded commendations and prizes for their services, and began to speak curses against authority, the viceroy invited the main leaders to the Palace. After the meal, he had them arrested and taken to Callao, from where they were exiled to Spain. There were a total of 37 individuals. After less than a year in office, he proudly reported to the Duke of Alba, who had had more than eight hundred individuals beheaded, hanged, or exiled, which contributed to clearing the country of harmful inhabitants.

But not all were rigorous measures. In order to give useful employment to the unemployed officers, he created the company of gentlemen with spears (with one hundred officers endowed with a thousand pesos in annual income) and the subaltern company of arquebusiers (with fifty officers who received 500 pesos in income); both formed the guard of the viceregal palace, under the command of Pedro de Córdoba.

Pacification expedition to Chile

Another important measure of the viceroy for the decongestion of Peru from disturbing elements, was the organization of a pacifying expedition for Chile. After the death of the designated governor of said territory, Jerónimo Alderete (1556), he put his young son García Hurtado de Mendoza in charge of this mission, who left Callao on January 9, 1557 with a good contingent of men from war. With them was the oidor Hernando de Santillán as adviser. The expedition members had the mission of appeasing the hostility of the Araucanian Indians, as well as settling the differences between the Spanish leaders Francisco de Aguirre and Francisco de Villagra; learnedly advised by the oidor Santillán, García managed to carry out a successful task there, although the rebellion of the Araucanians would persist for many more decades.

Exploring expeditions or “entries”

The viceroy also sponsored a series of exploratory expeditions to the east of the territory of the viceroyalty (Amazonian jungle and La Plata basin), among which we highlight the following:

• Gomez Arias Davila's to the Amazon region of Rupa, described by the Indians as a rich and fertile region.
• Juan de Salinas Loyola, governor of Yahuarzongo and Bracamoros, who left Loja on July 8, 1557, advanced first to the south and then to the east, beating the Cordillera del Condor. It founded the towns of Valladolid, Loyola, Santiago de las Montañas and Santa María de Nieva. He made the first navigation of the Marañón River, discovered the Manseriche lay and then the Ucayali river.
• Antonio de Oznayo, who penetrated the eastern confines of Jaén de Bracamoros.
• Andrés Manso, who entered the territory of the Chiriguan feroces, east of the Villa de la Plata.
• The one of Pedro de Ursúa, towards the lands of Omagua and El Dorado, from which formidable preparations were made. He left in September 1560, shortly after the virrey died. This expedition gave rise to the famous episode of the “marañons”, whose outstanding figure was the Basque Lope de Aguirre, the “traitor” or “loco rebelde”. He made the second navigation of the Amazon River, after that of Orellana.

Foundation of cities and towns

Hurtado de Mendoza also promoted the founding of new towns (between cities and towns), destined to accommodate landless Spaniards and Indians. This colonization work was very important because these towns served at the same time as connection points between the cities that already existed in the country. We will mention the main ones of these foundations:

• La Villa de Santa María de la Parrilla (1555), next to the mouth of the Santa River, coast of the present department of Áncash, today called simply Santa.
• La Villa de Santa María de Cañete, current Cañete (30 August 1556), was founded by Jerónimo Zurbano in the fertile Huarco valley, 144 km south of Lima.
• La Villa de San Miguel de la Rivera (September 27, 1557), now known simply as Camaná, was founded by Alonso Martínez de Rivera in the Camaná valley, 176 km west of Arequipa. It was actually the second foundation of the villa, as the first one occurred in 1539.
• Forestry populations Valladolid (1557), Loyola (1557), Santiago de las Montañas (1558) and Santa Maria de Nieva (1558), which we saw were founded by Captain Juan de Salinas Loyola, in the basins of the Santiago and Marañón rivers, in the current department of Amazonas.

In Ecuador, at that time dependent on the Viceroyalty of Peru, the viceroy decided to found several towns, such as:

• The city of Santa Ana de los Cuatro Ríos de Cuenca (1557), on the serrano road between Quito and Loja, in the ruins of the ancient Inca city of Tomebamba, and near the Ingapirca incaic palace, whose name was in honor of the Spanish city cradle of the Virrey.
• La villa of New Baeza of the Holy Spirit (1559), in the East of Ecuador, today Baeza.

In Chile, his son García Hurtado de Mendoza founded the city of Cañete de la Frontera and the towns of Osorno and Angol de los Infantes; on the other side of the Andes, in the current Republic of Argentina, he sponsored the founding of Mendoza, whose name perpetuates his last name (1561).

Submission of Sayri Túpac

This viceroy was also responsible for making the Inca Sayri Túpac, a direct descendant of the imperial lineage, leave his redoubt in Vilcabamba. The viceroy received Sayri Túpac in his Government Palace in Lima, on January 5, 1558. Two days later the Archbishop invited the Inca to a banquet, where the famous anecdote, so often told, occurred: Sayri Túpac found out that only as All mercy they would give him a parcel in the Yucay Valley, the same one that had belonged to the rebel Hernández Girón, he tore a thread from the table top and asking his hosts if they would accept that thread instead of the entire table top, he told them that they would proceed with it that way., as soon as they took an Empire from him and gave him a shred. The truth is that the Inca returned to Cuzco, was baptized in the Cathedral and after three years he died in Yucay, when he was barely 43 years old.

Social measures

Among the social measures of this viceroy, the general visit he ordered to the Indians of Peru to assess the degree of exploitation exercised by the encomenderos and the tax burdens on them stands out. As a result of this action, he prohibited Indians from the highlands from being forcibly transferred to the coast and vice versa. Next, he issued a series of ordinances that regulated the cultivation, cultivation, and trade of coca among the Indians, while he tried to banish drunkenness by imposing a series of corporal punishments. He also encouraged the evangelizing work of the clergy.

Public works

Regarding the building in Lima, he carried out the following works:

• He completed the works of the Cathedral.
• He built a stone bridge over the river Rimac, replacing the wooden and sticks for the benefit of the limeños. The virrey marquis donated 12,000 pesos for the work.
• He raised the House of the Alhóndiga to store the grains.
• It created a water-privation court to promote the irrigation of the valleys that surrounded the capital.

In other places of the Viceroyalty he did the following works:

• He set a bridge over the Abancay river, and another one on the Mantaro, on the Anguyaco ravine, on the road to Cuzco. It was part of a vast plan entrusted to four Spanish singers, whose mission was to make bridges in the necessary places along the entire route to Potosí, in Alto Peru (present-day Bolivia).
• In the port of Callao the first steps were taken for the construction of the Church, Cemetery and Casa cural. In 1556 a factory was established for the construction of galleys. Although there was never an official foundation of Callao, all this indicated that it was already considered a formal population.

In educational matters, he did the following:

• He founded an instruction school in Lima and another school in Trujillo.
• He managed to build the house of Recogimiento of San Juan de la Penitencia, for the education of the mestizo maidens, who often suffered the abandonment of their parents or were orphaned.

Regarding the royal patronage:

• He opened the Hospital of San Andrés for men and that of Our Lady of Charity for women, both for the care of the sick or needy Spaniards (1556). In the first were deposited the mummies of several incas and of their women sent from Cuzco by the corrector Juan Polo de Ondegardo, who were buried in a corral of that hospital.
• He created Our Lady of Remedy's beatry
• He supported the building of the convent of San Francisco in Lima.

In the economic order

• During its management there was the rise of the exploitation of silver in Potosí and the discovery of the azogue mines in Huancavelica, this latest product of fundamental use in the metallurgical technique of obtaining silver. Its consequence was that the mining mine would be divided between this region and the mines in Potosí, with the consequent expansion of the number of indigenous villages affected by forced labour. Mining discoveries allowed the Royal Treasury to experience sustained growth: a total of 684,287 ducats in precious metals were referred to the Crown.
• The agriculture of the Peruvian coast experienced an important innovation by successfully introducing the olive cultivation in 1560, by Don Antonio de Ribero. This character had gone to Spain as attorney general of Lima, and back brought a lot of olive plantations, of which only three arrived in good condition, who planted them in the garden that he had in Lima: one was stolen, despite the fact that he was taken care of by one hundred blacks and 30 dogs; the other got bad, and the last thrived and was the origin of the olive trees of Peru, the most celebrated being those of Moquegua. The stolen olive tree reappeared in Chile, and because of the excommunication against the thieves, they replaced it after three years, but the plant had already spread in that country. Also, in Peru wheat was harvested, introduced since the first years of the conquest by Inés Muñoz or María Escobar, who planted it in Lima, and the first grains cultivated, because they were still scarce, distributed them among their friends. Thus the plant that prospered in the surrounding valleys spread; in 1539 the first mills were installed and for the first time fixed the lobby of Lima the sale prices in 1540. The seed was also sent to Chile. The production of wheat, only in the valleys of Lima, reached such prosperity, that in the centuryXVII was exported to Guayaquil, Panama and other places (this data is important because there is the myth that Peru never produced wheat in quantity). It was only after the earthquake of 1687 when the boom ended. The vine was also extended to 1550, and its introduction in Peru was attributed to the conqueror Francisco de Caravantes (1537); the plant thrived mainly in the valleys of Moquegua and Ica, although the neighbors of Lima cultivated it in their orchards.

Other important events

• After the abdication of Emperor Charles Quinto in his son Philip II of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, there was the proclamation of the new king in Lima, on July 25, 1557. This proclamation coincided with the first coin minting that was made in Lima, the one that carried on the reverse the superimposed busts of the King and his wife Mary of England and the inscription Phil. et Maria Dei gratia Ang. et Hisp. rexis and on the contrary the arms of Spain and the legend Philp. Dei gratia Hisp. rex.
• Then the death of Carlos Quinto came to an end, so in Lima the first real exequias and the arrival of the seal of the new King that led the Saavedra listener and received the Audience on April 28, 1558.
• The Council of the Royal Treasury was established to resolve the petitions concerning this branch
• The Royal Audience of Charcas was erected in 1559 in the current city of Sucre Bolivia, which would be installed years later, already under the government of the successors of the Virrey.

End of his rule

The Marquis de Cañete and its rubric, according to the engraving of Evaristo San Cristobal, 1891.

Despite his meritorious efforts, Don Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza had to endure the antipathy of the officials of the Royal Court, who were arrogant for his extensive exercise of power and affiliated with the oligarchy of encomenderos. Said court was made up of the former judges Melchor Bravo de Saravia, Hernando de Santillán and Diego González Altamirano, and the new ones: Mercado de Peñalosa and Gregorio González de Cuenca (he had come with the viceroy).

From the beginning, the Viceroy had misunderstandings with Dr. Bravo de Saravia, which was aggravated by the fact that he had not been granted the governorship of Chile, as said oidor desired. With the lawyer Santillán he established a friendship at the beginning; then he sent him to Chile as adviser to his son Garcia, but when he returned in 1559, they were already estranged. Subjected to residency trial, Santillán returned to Spain. The oidor Altamirano was sent as Corregidor and Visitor of La Plata, where he stood out for the severity of his procedures, which caused numerous complaints, for which he was suspended from his duties and sent to Spain in 1558.

The Audiencia was thus reduced to Bravo de Saravia, Mercado de Peñalosa and González de Cuenca. The Viceroy kept them at bay, leaving them the administration of justice and communicating only some of the government affairs. This did not please Bravo de Saravia, and there was a violent exchange of words between the two, then the Viceroy ordered his arrest, but Saravia managed to escape and take refuge in the Dominican convent in the capital. Shortly after he made an arrangement with the viceroy and returned to the Audiencia.

Nevertheless, tension continued between the magistrates and the viceroy. The oidores, together with the prosecutor Fernández and the royal officials, accused the viceroy of nepotism and embezzlement of public funds. All of this was added to the passionate complaints of the exiled residents and relatives of the executed rebels, thus discrediting the figure of the viceroy at Court. In view of his bad image, the King decided to replace him with Diego López de Zúñiga y Velasco, fourth Count of Nieva. Weakened by rheumatism and surely affected by the news of his dismissal, to which were added some slights that the Count of Nieva made to him during his trip to Lima, the Marquis of Cañete died in the palace of Lima on the 14th of September 1560. His corpse was given a provisional burial in the church of San Francisco de Lima, and definitive in the city of Cuenca in Spain, where he was transferred years later during the viceroyalty of his son García.