Alonso de Alvarado

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Alonso de Alvarado

Alonso de Alvarado Montaya González de Cevallos y Miranda (* 1500 in Voto , Secadura , Spain , † 1553 or 1556 in Lima , Peru ) was a Spanish conquistador and knight of the Order of Santiago . He fought against the army of Quizo Yupanqui , which besieged Lima in 1536, against Diego de Almagro in 1537 and in the battle of Las Salinas in 1538. Later he also fought in Chupas and Jaquijahuana .

Life

Alvarado came from Extremadura and was a cousin of Pedro de Alvarado . According to the historian Díaz Pérez Fue, Don García López de Alvarado el Bueno was his father and Doña María de Miranda was his mother. In 1546 he married Ana de Velasco y Avendaño. After a phase under the command of Hernán Cortés in Mexico , he joined the expedition of Francisco Pizarro . In a very short time he proved himself so that Pizarro entrusted him with various research, conquest and settlement projects.

Civil war

In 1536 Sapa Inca Manco Cápac II gave the signal for the general uprising of the indigenous population against the Spaniards, which was connected with a six-month siege of Cusco , Lima and other places inhabited by the Europeans. During this time Pizarro requested reinforcements from all over Spanish America. Alvarado was one of the last to arrive with a strong force from Guatemala and was sent from Lima to Cusco by Francisco Pizarro . With 500 men, Alvarado then moved towards Cusco, but only got as far as Jauja , where he spent five months for incomprehensible reasons. In the meantime, however, the siege of Cusco had collapsed, and Pizarro's former partner and now rival Diego de Almagro had captured Cusco and Pizarro's brothers Hernando and Gonzalo captured. Due to the betrayal of his captain Pedro de Lerma in a nighttime surprise attack by Almagro's most capable captain, Rodrigo Orgóñez, Alvarado was defeated by Almagro's troops in Abancay , seven miles from Cusco, even before a real battle broke out. Alvarado was incarcerated with the Pizarro brothers, but managed to escape. Returning to the side of Pizarro's supporters, he defeated Almagro's supporters at the Battle of Las Salinas in 1538 in loyalty to the king .

On the orders of Francisco Pizarro, he looked for a suitable place to found a settlement halfway between Lima and Cusco. Together with Francisco de Cárdenas he took part in the founding of Ayacucho .

The Peruvian north

Alvarado paved the way for expeditions that penetrated the Amazon: starting from Trujillo in northern Peru, he crossed the Andes to reach the Chachapoyas in 1538 , where a few years later he founded the city of the same name, which is now the capital of the Peruvian Amazon department . He demanded strict discipline from his troops, which was also to be observed towards the indigenous people. He even had two men flogged for stealing food. Another time, when some were tired of marching endlessly through swamps and forests, he allowed anyone to stay behind, whereupon all unanimously vowed allegiance to him.

The chronicler Pedro Cieza de León described the first founding of the city of Chachapoyas : “On the fifth day in September in the year of salvation, 1538 Jesus Christ, almost sixty Spaniards met under the command of Captain Alonso de Alvarado in 'Xalca' to the city of Chachapoyas establish."

In Chachapoyas, Alvarado learned about dreamy treasures that a legendary city, the mythical Eldorado , was to hide in the thicket of the jungle. From there he organized further expeditions that led to the upper reaches of the Marañón near Moyobamba .

New purge

Diego de Almagro "el Mozo" , the son of Diego de Almagros murdered Francisco Pizarro in 1541 in revenge for the death of his father. The following year, Alvarado allied with the new governor, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro , to defeat Diego El Mozo at the Battle of Chupas . Alvarado's loyalty and services were rewarded by King Charles I of Spain by being knighted by the Order of Santiago and Marshal of Peru.

From 1541 Alonso de Alvarado lived again at court in Spain. In 1546 he was sent to South America with Pedro de la Gasca , the new viceroy of Peru, to put down the rebellion of the younger Pizarro brother Gonzalo . In April 1548 de la Gasca won the battle of Jaquijahuana over the supporters of Gonzalo Pizarro, but this victory did not calm the heated feelings of many disaffected Spaniards over the increasing control of the envoys and officials of the crown. So a few years later a group of them arose under the leadership of Francisco Hernández Girón . Alvarado was dispatched to fight them, was crushed in Chuquinga and fled to Lima, where he died in 1556.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Francisco Pizarro . In: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) in the English language Wikisource
  2. ↑ a b c d e Alonso de Alvarado. Archived from the original on August 3, 2008 ; Retrieved December 21, 2008 .
  3. ^ FA Kirkpatrick: The Spanish conquistadors . Munich, p. 142 ff.
  4. ^ FA Kirkpatrick: The Spanish conquistadors . Munich, p. 154
  5. ↑ Arthur Schurig : Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru in the Gutenberg-DE project
personal data
SURNAME Alvarado, Alonso de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alvarado Montaya González de Cevallos y Miranda, Alonso de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish conquistador
DATE OF BIRTH 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Voto (Cantabria) , Secadura , Spain
DATE OF DEATH 1553 or 1556
Place of death Lima , Peru