Diego González Montero

Diego González Montero y Justiniano , (* 1588 in Santiago de Chile , † June 1673 ibid) was a Spanish officer born in Chile . Twice he served temporarily as governor of Chile .

Life

Diego González Montero was the only child of Captain Antonio González Montero y Marmolejo and his wife Ginebra Justiniano. He married twice: his first marriage was to María Clara de Loaisa and, after her death, to Ana del Águila Sarmiento.

Like his father, he embarked on a military career, first in the cavalry and later in the infantry. The Captaincy General of Chile had at the time as only Spanish overseas colony a state-funded, standing army . Montero distinguished himself among other things as the military governor of Valdivia . In 1625 he was promoted to maestre de campo . He became the second man in the military hierarchy and was directly subordinate to the governor and captain general . In August 1628 he went to Lima for a few months as a general representative of the Chilean army (Spanish: Procurador general ) .

In 1655, when Governor Pedro Porter Casanate took office, he was appointed as his prevention representative. When Porter died on February 27, 1662, he took over the office as planned. Since he was convinced that the approaching winter would make further military action in the war against the rebellious Indians in the south unnecessary, he stayed in Santiago and left the command of the army to the officers on site. On May 22, 1662, the designated successor Ángel de Peredo arrived in Concepción . González Montero took over his duties in the army again.

In February 1670, the incumbent governor Diego Dávila Coello y Pacheco traveled to Lima because he had other positions in prospect when the regent María Ana took office . He therefore handed over the Chilean government on February 14, 1670 to the Maestre de Campo González Montero, who was already over 80 years old at that time. On the trip, Dávila Coello was held up for a long time by a serious illness. When González Montero took office for the first time in 1662, the representatives of the Real Audiencia of Chile refused to let him preside over the court because he was already born as Criollo in the New World and was not a native of Spain (Spanish: Peninsular ). In 1670, however, such doubts no longer played a role.

The fighting in southern Chile continued under the command of Antonio Montero, the governor's son. At the end of October 1570, the new governor Juan Henríquez de Villalobos arrived in Concepción, who replaced the aged Diego González Montero. He died in June 1673 at the age of 85.

literature

• José Toribio Medina : Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile . Imprenta Elziviriana, Santiago, Chile 1906, p. 375 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [PDF]).
• Diego Barros Arana : Historia General de Chile . tape 5 . Editorial Universitaria, Santiago de Chile 2001, p. 27-28, 92-93 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [accessed June 24, 2010] first edition: 1886).

Web links

• Entry in the list of rulers of Chile (Spanish) - with different dates of life