Francisco de Borja y Aragon

Francisco de Borja y Aragón Count of Mayalde and Prince of Squillace (* 1581 (according to other sources: 1577 or 1582) in Genoa , Italy (according to other sources in Madrid , Spain or at sea in the Tyrrhenian Sea ); † September 26 (according to other sources: October 25, 1658 in Madrid, Spain) was a Spanish writer and served as Viceroy of Peru from 1615 to 1621 .

Francisco de Borja was born to Juan de Borja y Castro and Francisca de Aragón y Barreto. His paternal uncle was Francisco de Borja of the Borgia family , general of the Jesuit order , who was later canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. On the mother's side, the family comes from the royal Spanish house of Aragón. He traveled a lot in his youth, as his father was a diplomat on missions for the Spanish court. By marrying his cousin Ana de Borja y Pignatelli, he gained the title of Prince of Squillace in 1602.

Viceroy of Peru

In July 1614 Borja was appointed Viceroy of Peru. He traveled to South America with an entourage of 174 people. At that time, it was mainly Dutch privateers who made the Pacific waters unsafe. The last leg of the journey from Panama to Peru was delayed a year out of fear of pirate attacks . In December 1615, Borja reached the city of Lima and took office.

He increased the yield from the silver and gold mines and thus improved the income for the state treasury. To protect against pirate attacks, he fortified the port of Callao and equipped it with a permanent garrison of 500 men. In 1617 he divided the administrative units on the other side of the main Andean ridge between the Río de la Plata and today's Paraguay ,

In the cultural field, Borja was committed to science by founding the Universidad de San Marcos in Lima (1619) and the Colegio del Principe , an educational institution for noble Indians (1620).

At the end of 1621 his term of office ended and Borja returned to Europe, where he devoted himself to poetry.

Literary works

As a poet, Borja created the following major works:

Obras en verso (1654) (works in verse)
El canto de Antonio y Cleopatra (The Song of Antony and Cleopatra)
La Pasión de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo (1638) (The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ)
Nápoles recuperada por el rey don Alfonso (1651) (The reconquest of Naples by King Alfonso) - epic poem

Web links

Commons : Francisco de Borja y Aragón - collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Juan Manuel de Mendoza y Luna	Viceroy of Peru 1615–1621	Juan Jiménez de Montalvo

personal data
SURNAME	Borja y Aragón, Francisco de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Conde de Mayalde, Prince of Squillace
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Writer and Viceroy of Peru
DATE OF BIRTH	uncertain: 1577 or 1581 or 1582
PLACE OF BIRTH	unsure: Genoa or Madrid or at sea
DATE OF DEATH	1658
Place of death	Madrid , Spain