Francisco de Las Casas

Francisco de Las Casas y Saavedra was a Spanish conquistador in New Spain ( Mexico ) and Honduras . He was born in Trujillo , Spain . His exact life dates are not known. In 1513 he married María de Aguilar and had a son named Gonzalo with her. Francisco de Las Casas was related to Hernán Cortés .

prehistory

In April 1523, the captain general of New Spain, Hernán Cortés, sent Cristóbal de Olid to Honduras. There he should found a colony for him and look for a passage to the South Sea ( Pacific Ocean ). Cortés gave Olid command of five ships and one brigantine. He had 370 soldiers and 22 horsemen for this company. On the way, Olid stopped in Cuba . There the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar , persuaded Olid to found his own colony in Honduras and to betray Cortés. Velázquez wanted to support Olid financially and together they wanted to manage the new colony.

On the coast of Honduras, Olid went ashore on May 3, 1523 and founded the city of Triunfo de la Cruz . Then declared himself governor of the new colony.

On behalf of Hernán Cortés in Honduras

Hernán Cortés learned of this betrayal in 1524 and sent Francisco de Las Casas with several ships to Honduras. There he should arrest Olid and take possession of the land for Cortés. However, Francisco de Las Casas got caught in heavier storms and suffered losses off the coast of Belize and Honduras . His ships just made it to Triunfo de la Cruz.

When Olid discovered the ships of Francisco de Las Casas, a large part of his army was just inland. Olid had an argument with Gil González Dávila , another Spanish colonist, and his troops. Although Olid had few men available, he decided to attack with two caravels . A sea battle broke out in which Olid lost a ship. Under these circumstances he wanted to buy time and asked Francisco de Las Casas for a ceasefire and subsequent peace negotiations.

During the night, however, a storm destroyed the fleet and about a third of the men of Francisco de Las Casas drowned. The rest were captured by Olid. After two days, he forced the rescued men to swear allegiance to him. Only Francisco de Las Casas was kept in custody. Gil González Dávila was also captured by Olid's men. But Olid was very carefree with these two prisoners. He let them roam free in his new headquarters in Naco and contented himself with their word that they would not flee. But Francisco de Las Casas decided to kill Olid. With other loyal followers, he arranged a murder plot . At dinner he grabbed Olid's beard and stuck a dagger in the man's throat. Everyone present stabbed with their weapons so that Olid went down. The seriously injured man was beheaded in the market square of Naco. Thereupon Francisco de Las Casas rallied his men and took power in the province. None of Olid's men dared to oppose.

As a prisoner to Spain

Hernán Cortés hadn't heard from Francisco de Las Casas for months and wanted to take action against Olid himself. He equipped a land expedition and marched south in the fall of 1524. Meanwhile, Francisco de Las Casas traveled by ship to Veracruz in 1525 and then overland to the capital Tenochtitlán . There the opponents of Hernán Cortés had spread rumors that the captain general was no longer alive and were just dividing his huge property among themselves. When Francisco de Las Casas spoke out against it, he was arrested and sentenced to death for the murder of Olid. He narrowly escaped his judgment because he wanted to appeal to the emperor's mercy . So the opponents of Cortés sent him in chains to Spain. Only in 1527 could he return to New Spain as a free man.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Bernal Díaz del Castillo : History of the conquest of Mexico (= island paperback. 1067). Edited and edited by Georg A. Narciß. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-458-32767-3 , p. 575.
↑ Bernal Díaz del Castillo: History of the conquest of Mexico (= island paperback. 1067). Edited and edited by Georg A. Narciß. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-458-32767-3 , pp. 614-617.

personal data
SURNAME	Las Casas, Francisco de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Las Casas y Saavedra, Francisco de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Spanish conquistador in New Spain (Mexico) and Honduras
DATE OF BIRTH	before 1513
PLACE OF BIRTH	Trujillo , Spain
DATE OF DEATH	after 1527

[1] Bernal Díaz del Castillo : History of the conquest of Mexico (= island paperback. 1067). Edited and edited by Georg A. Narciß. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-458-32767-3 , p. 575.

[2] Bernal Díaz del Castillo: History of the conquest of Mexico (= island paperback. 1067). Edited and edited by Georg A. Narciß. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-458-32767-3 , pp. 614-617.