Álvaro Manrique de Zuñiga

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Álvaro Manrique de Zuñiga

Álvaro Manrique de Zúñiga , Marqués de Villamanrique (* around 1540 in Spain , † 1590 in Madrid , Spain) was a Spanish colonial administrator who served as Viceroy of New Spain.

Life

Origin and career in Europe

Manrique was a later son of the fourth Duke of Béjar, so he came from the Spanish nobility. In his youth he served at the court of King Philip II. For his services the king made him Marqués de Villamanrique . In February 1585 he was appointed by the Viceroy of New Spain to replace the Archbishop of Mexico, Pedro de Moya y Contreras .

Tenure as Viceroy of New Spain

With his wife he set off for Mexico, landed in the port of Veracruz and made his ceremonial entry into Mexico City on November 18, 1585 to take over his office. One of his first official acts was to reorganize the trade and the serving of wine.

A clergy fight had been raging in Mexico for a long time. The friars of the Dominicans , Augustinians and Franciscans were in conflict with the representatives of the official Church under the Archbishop. While the friars were popular with the common people, the leaders of the colonial administration - and also the viceroy - stood on the side of the official clergy.

Another challenge for Manrique was the English privateers , including Walter Raleigh , Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish , who made the coasts and merchant shipping unsafe. The Viceroy set up a volunteer militia to protect the coast from pirate attacks and dispatched armed ships to the Pacific to secure the sea routes from Acapulco to the Philippines .

Negotiation, conviction and overthrow

In 1588 the viceroy Manrique suffered another conflict - this time with the Real Audiencia of Guadalajara ; this new administrative and judicial unit worked largely independently of the work of the Real Audiencia of Mexico in Mexico City and also practically independent of the viceroy. Manrique tried to bind the Oidores to the binding legal system and to prevent arbitrary administration. That made him more enemies.

At the Council of India in Spain, sharp letters of complaint accused the Viceroy of incompetence and abuse of office. Today it is difficult to say whether these complaints were factually justified or whether they were initiated out of political intrigue by his numerous enemies in Guadalajara and with the friars.

In any case, the Council of India feared another civil war in New Spain. The Bishop of Tlaxcala , Pedro Romanos, an avowed enemy of the viceroy in the clergy controversy , was named a visitador to investigate and mediate the dispute. Romanos confiscated all of Manrique's goods, removed him from office and imprisoned him in Mexico City. He then examined the legality of Manrique's administration ( Juico de Residencia ) in a lengthy process .

Some sources state that Manrique was imprisoned in Mexico for six years, which, of course, contradicts his death date of 1590.

With the arrival of the new viceroy in January 1590, Manrique, impoverished and ill, was allowed to return to Europe, where he initiated a court case to rehabilitate himself and get his fortune back. Before a judgment could be made, he died in Madrid in late 1590 in deep poverty.

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predecessor Office successor
Pedro de Moya y Contreras Viceroy of New Spain
1585–1590
Luis de Velasco y Castilla