Francis of Sande
Francisco de Sande (Cáceres, ca. 1540 - September 12, 1602) was a Spanish royal official who held various positions in America and the imperial Philippines, including Governor General of the Philippines (1574-1580), and later President of the Royal Audience of Santafé de Bogotá (1597-1602).
Biography
Francisco de Sande was born in Cáceres (Spain) around 1540, the son of Pedro de Sande and Mrs. Francisca Picón. In 1558 he began his studies in canon law at the University of Salamanca and later went to the University of Seville to finish them.
Already as a legal professional, on June 18, 1568, he was appointed mayor of crime in the Royal Audience of Mexico and soon after he was working as a prosecutor. On April 30, 1572, he was appointed oidor of the same Court, and while he was acting in his mission, he intervened in the pacification of the Chichimecas.
Itinerant official
By royal decree of April 6, 1574, he was appointed Governor and Captain General of the Philippines and took office on August 26, 1575. In the Philippines, he founded the town of Nueva Cáceres, in addition to sending an expedition to attempt the conquest of Borneo (War of Castilla). He even dared to ask King Felipe II for the respective permission to start the Spanish conquest of China.
In June 1580, he was relieved of his position in the Philippines and he returned to Mexico again to occupy his former position as oidor of the Royal Audience. Once again he changed places, and in August 1593 he was appointed visitor of the Royal Audience of Guatemala, and then he held the position of president of that Royal Audience, remaining in this position until 1596 when by royal decree he was appointed president of the Royal Audience of Santafé, as well as Governor and Captain General of the New Kingdom of Granada (Colombia)
God's Judgment?
Sande took charge of his new assignment in Bogotá at the end of August 1597, and although he was an extremely rigid official in his institutional actions, possibly the weight of the new responsibility hardened his heart and soured his character, because Shortly after finding himself in Bogotá, as he had made so many enemies for his severe way of acting, instead of referring to him as Dr. Sande, he was known as "Doctor Sangre". Protests over his excessive harshness reached the Council of the Indies and this body would appoint the visitor Andrés Salierna de Mariaca to investigate Sande's behavior.
Salierna de Mariaca undertook the residence trial beginning with the exile of the president to Villa de Leiva. Before leaving, Sande spread the rumor that he had bribed the visitor with money and therefore would favor the decision of the pending trial. The slander produced deep sorrow in that honest official and, as he had fallen ill in those days, Sande's perjury took him to the grave on September 6, 1602, not without warning him that he too would appear before the tribunal of God in the following days. next nine days. President Sande suddenly fell ill and died on September 12, 1602, within the term set by Andrés Salierna de Mariaca.
Particulars of his life
He had married Doña Ana de Mesa, who died in 1629, and they had four children (Pedro, Fernando María and Francisca. Dr. Sande's widow and children, for a long time, fought hard to obtain the treasure that had been The rigid official had amassed it and entrusted it to his friend Don Pedro de Mendoza, but apparently the one who had seized the treasure was Fray Martín de Sande, brother of the President, and the said Fray vanished it by making gifts to the Duke of Lerma so that he will provide him with some bishopric.
Fray Martín, who had also been in Guatemala and Bogotá in the shadow of his brother, wanted to become a bishop with the arrobas of gold and emeralds, valued at 60,000 ducats, which his brother surely did not earn honorably. Sande's widow claimed her brother-in-law for her treasure, but since she had squandered it, she could not return any of it. When the ecclesiastical authorities learned of the case, the ambitious friar was banished to the convent of Trujillo, where he died in 1627.