Francisco Ibáñez de Peralta

Francisco Ibáñez de Peralta

Francisco Ibáñez de Segovia y Peralta (* 1644 in Madrid , † 1712 in Lima ) was a Spanish officer , colonial administrator and governor of Chile .

Life

Origin and youth

The son of Mateo Ibáñez de Segovia and Elvira de Peralta Cárdenas was a knight of the Order of Malta from 1657 . He served as a soldier in the Order's garrison on Malta and was a member of the Squadron of Sicily in 1672 .

He also took part in campaigns in Flanders against the Catalans and French during the Dutch War . After the Peace of Nijmegen, the Peace of Nijmegen, Ibáñez traveled to France with the procession from Pastrana to bring the gifts for the wedding of King Charles II with Marie Louise de Bourbon-Orléans .

When war broke out again in 1690, he took over command of large parts of the Catalan army with the rank of Maestre de Campo . The historian Diego Barros Arana describes him as unflattering as a child of his time: He was “infected by the example of general military disorganization, in which the troops, poorly paid and even worse commanded, survived the worst and lived from robbery, those with singular wickedness the military leaders exemplified ”.

Since the pensions that the crown had offered were not paid at all for several years because of the disrupted state finances, Ibáñez found himself without funds and tried to find an administrative position in the New World.

Term of office as Governor of Chile

Inauguration and change of dynasty in Spain

On March 6, 1698, he was appointed governor of Chile and traveled to South America. His nephew, Mateo Ibáñez de Segovia y Orellana, Marqués de Corpa, was one of the relatives who accompanied him on the trip.

He met on December 14, 1700 in Santiago de Chile and took office on December 22, 1700 without taking an oath of office before the city council (Spanish: Cabildo ) like his predecessors . On July 1, 1701, news of the death of King Charles reached Santiago. On November 24, 1700, the bourbon Philip V ascended the Spanish throne - on December 2, 1701, this information also reached Santiago, and the Cabildo swore allegiance to the new king in a solemn ceremony.

Government and rioting

Ibáñez 'administration is described as desolate: he confiscated goods and refused to return them. The purchase of offices flourished. His administration in connection with the decline of the outdated Habsburg bureaucracy of the colonial administration provoked uprisings among the soldiers, who shouted: "Long live the king! Down with the government!" stood. In February 1703 the colony was on the verge of civil war.

Term expires

Numerous charges against him have been brought before the king. Nevertheless, he was replaced in honor in January 1709 and succeeded in his office by Juan Andrés de Ustariz de Vertizberea , a loyal partisan and financier of King Philip. However, King Philip waived the usual provisions and honors for deserving governors. Until his successor arrived in 1712, Ibáñez continued his policy of unabashed enrichment. Charges of embezzlement of government funds amounting to one and a half million pesos have been dropped. It was only when his nephew, the Marqués de Corpa, fell out of favor that he had to leave the country and lost all of his possessions. He went to Lima, entered the Jesuit order and died there three years later.

literature

• Biography at biografías y vidas (spanish)
• Pedro de Cordoba y Figueroa: Historia de Chile [1492-1717] (=  Coleccion de historiadores de Chile . Volume II , Instituto Chileno de Cultura Hispánica, Academia Chilena de la Historia). Imprenta del Ferrocarril, Santiago, Chile 1862, Libro Sesto, XIII & XIV (Spanish, books.google.com ).
• José Ignacio Víctor Eyzaguirre: Historia eclesiastica: Politica y literaria de Chile . Imprenta del Comercio, Valparaíso, Chile 1850, p. 205-206 (Spanish, books.google.com ).
• José Toribio Medina : Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile . Imprenta Elziviriana, Santiago, Chile 1906, p. 417-418 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [PDF]).
• Diego Barros Arana : Historia General de Chile . tape 4 . Editorial Universitaria, Santiago de Chile 2001, p. 317-360 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [accessed June 24, 2010] First edition: 1886).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Barros Arana, p. 318: “ … debió contaminarse con el ejemplo de la disorganización general de la milicia, en que las tropas, mal pagadas y peor mandadas, se batián pésimamente, y vivián de la rapiña que practicaban con singular descaro los más caracterizados jefes. ”
2. ↑ See Biografías y Vidas.
3. ↑ Medina, p. 418.