Mencey

Tinerfe Statue the Great in Adeje.

Mencey was the Guanche term used by the indigenous Guanches to designate the chief or king of a territorial demarcation or menceyato before the conquest of the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, by the Crown of Castile in the fifteenth century.

Etymology

Although early historians translated the term simply as 'king,' modern linguistic scholarship suggests the more accurate meaning of 'principal', 'first', & #39;primate.

Features

The menceyes were the highest authority of the hierarchical Guanche society, holding absolute power in civil, religious and military matters. All the territory and its resources were property of the mencey, who distributed it among the population in consideration of the social category and the services provided.

The succession was fraternal, that is, when a mencey died, his brother inherited, and so on until, when the lateral line was finished, the charge returned to the eldest son of the first brother. When the mencey was elected, he swore before the tagoror , an assembly made up of nobles and elders. During the ceremony, the chosen one kissed the bone of the oldest of his lineage kept for this purpose and then, placing the bone on his head, he swore saying: Ágoñe Yacoron Yñatzakaña Chacoñamet ('I swear by the bone from that day you grew up').

The menceyes maintained the purity of their blood, marrying only the high nobility of the island, even marrying siblings.

History

The doctor and historian Juan Bethencourt Alfonso names in his History of the Guanche people a whole dynasty before the last absolute king of Tenerife, Tinerfe, nicknamed the Great, taken from the oral tradition of the island, although he himself warns that they are more legendary than real. For him, the oldest sovereign in memory was Archinife, who was overthrown by the nobleman Ucanca, who founded a new dynasty. After this, and a descendant of this, came Binicherque, who married a princess from Gran Canaria. Centuries later, the bellicose Chíndia appeared, who came to power after defeating his uncles. With Chíndia dead, the island was divided between his brother Armeñime and his son Vinque, who died at the same time in battle. Thus Betzenuriga remained heir, although his uncles Taburco, Naga and Góymar were crowned by their provinces of Teno, Anaga and Güímar, respectively. Betzenuriga defeated his uncles, because according to Bethencourt Alfonso —quoting the historian Marín y Cubas— in 1347 he was already the sole king of Tenerife. He was succeeded by Titañe, who also disputed power with his uncles. His son, Sunta, defeated his father's brothers, who had established themselves as kings of his territories. Sunta's death was succeeded by his son Tinerfe, nicknamed the Great, after whose death his nine sons divided the island into as many kingdoms.

The nine children of the last mencey of the island were Acaymo, Atguaxoña, Atbitocazpe, Betzenuhya, Caconaimo, Chincanairo, Tegueste, Rumen and Benecharo. The descendants of these menceyes were the ones who ruled the island at the time of the conquest, and their names were Añaterve, Adjoña, Pelinor, Bencomo, Romen, Pelicar, Tegueste, Acaimo and Beneharo.

In 1502, years after the island was declared conquered, the menceyato of Adeje was reunited under the command of mencey Ichasagua.

The names of the menceyes

The names of the menceyes have been highly controversial in Canarian historiography. The first to deal with the history of Tenerife, such as the friars Alonso de Espinosa and Juan de Abreu Galindo or the engineer Leonardo Torriani, said that in their time —between 1590 and 1630— only the descendants of the Guanches survived in the memory of the names of the first menceyes of Abona (Atguaxoña), Adeje (Atbitocazpe), Güímar (Acaymo) and Taoro (Betzenuhya), considering by modern historians that the rest of the names were invented by the poet Antonio de Viana and Juan Núñez de la Peña, who wrote their works in 1604 and 1676 respectively.

The only names corroborated by the contemporary sources of the events are those of Bencomo and Bentor, both father and son and menceyes of Taoro during the Castilian invasion.