Francisco de Meneses Brito

Francisco de Meneses.

Francisco de Meneses Brito (* around 1615 in Cádiz , Spain , † December 29, 1672 in Lima , Viceroyalty of Peru ) was a Spanish officer and governor of Chile from 1664 to 1668 .

Origin and military career

Meneses came from a noble family from Portugal . As a cavalryman , he served the Spanish crown for more than 25 years and distinguished himself in the wars in Northern Italy , Flanders , Catalonia and Portugal. However, he was repeatedly accused of disobedience and was involved in quarrels and duels. He showed great interest in dogs and horses and was considered a lover and master of equestrian games and bullfighting .

Among his patrons at court were influential people like Juan José de Austria . After several candidates for the governorship in Chile had rejected the appointment by King Philip IV , the office was offered to him.

Term of office as Governor of Chile

Quarrels on arrival

At that time, Chile was involved in ongoing Mapuche uprisings in the south of the country. The king in Spain therefore promised to send troops of 1,000 men with the new governor to Chile, but in the end the funds were only enough for around 300 soldiers and equipment for a few more. The fleet that was to sail from Cádiz to Buenos Aires not only carried Meneses and reinforcements for Chile, but also José Martínez de Salazar , who was appointed governor of Buenos Aires , the Oidores for the Real Audiencia, which was newly established there, and several Fathers of the Jesuits .

When Meneses arrived in Cádiz on March 23, 1663, he wanted to speed up the departure and accused the governor of la Plata and the ship chandler of misconduct, which would have led to delays. Eventually, he claimed the ships had contraband on board. After the departure on April 12, the difficulties on the crossing continued.

On July 27th the fleet reached Buenos Aires; the onward journey was planned on the arduous but safe land route over the main Andean ridge. But Meneses refused to go ashore and instead ordered to cast off after the passengers for the Río de la Plata disembarked. The mediation attempts by the Bishop of Buenos Aires, Cristóbal Mencha y Velasco and the Governor of Tucumán , Pedro de Montoya , also remained unsuccessful. As the ships were preparing to leave the port, the cannons fired a shot across the bow from shore , forcing Meneses' ship to evade and land on a sandbar. So he involuntarily went ashore, where his unruly behavior continued so far that the governor, with the consent of the Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires , ordered Meneses to be arrested and kept under guard until he was able to leave for Chile at the end of October. Several soldiers deserted on the journey through the pampas to the Andes.

Assumption of office

Meneses had announced his arrival to the city council (Spanish: Cabildo ). A delegation was sent to meet him in Mendoza . On January 23, 1664, Meneses arrived in Santiago de Chile and was received with all the usual honors. However, he did not take the usual oath of office before the city council. On the same day there was a heated discussion at a meeting with the bishop of the capital.

Allegations against the predecessor

Meneses' administration was strongly influenced by his feelings and changing passions. While he was happy to take part in festivities and on these occasions interacted with the population from all walks of life, his relationship with the dignitaries of the colony was quickly broken.

Soon after taking office, he accused his predecessor, Ángel de Peredo , of wasting state funds. This created more jobs than the army needed. He gave orders to put Peredo under strict observation so that he could not secretly leave the country. Peredo then sought asylum in the Franciscan monastery of Santiago. Meneses stormed the monastery, but Peredo managed to escape. The violation of the sanctuary brought the representatives of the church against the governor. He had numerous high-ranking friends of Peredo deposed and charged, including the Corregidor of Santiago, Pedro de Prado, and the Oidor Alonso de Solórzano y Velasco.

Secret wedding

Around the same time, in April 1664, Meneses married Catalina Bravo de Saravia, the daughter of his Maestre de Campo , Francisco Bravo de Saravia. This constituted another act of disobedience because the king had prohibited his leading colonial administrators from marrying locals without royal permission. The marriage took place in secret, the witnesses kept strict silence and were amply rewarded for it.

War situation against the Mapuche

Meneses initially left the warfare against the insurgent Mapuche to the commander in the south, Ignacio de la Carrera. Meneses was strongly militarily shaped in his way of thinking and considered a crackdown with strength and armed force as the only way to pacify the Indians.

Conflict with the Bishop of Santiago

The relationship between Meneses and the Bishop of Santiago was bad from the start and was made worse by Meneses. It culminated in a submission by the governor to the Real Audiencia , in which he made serious accusations against the bishop and wanted to have him arrested. In December 1664, the judges approved the arrest warrant, but Bishop Humanzoro fled across the Andes to Cuyo; but before that he reported in a letter to the king of the events surrounding the governor. In it he also wrote of enrichments and sales of items by the governor, who is also said to have operated a large part of the colony's goods trade under his own direction.

Campaign against the Mapuche

At the beginning of 1665 Meneses himself intervened in the war in Araucania . He had forts reoccupied that had been destroyed by the Indians. At the beginning of 1666 and 1667 he led further campaigns in the south.

Changes in Europe

At this time Meneses learned in Concepción of Philip IV's death in September 1665. Formally, his son Charles II succeeded him to the throne. Maria Anna of Austria served as regent in Spain until he came of age . Meneses had to fear that his patrons would lose influence and weight at court. In the following years he tried to find a more conciliatory line with his enemies and sent messengers to Europe with reports of success from his own government. At the same time, he used the vacancy in the Viceroyalty of Peru to make a number of decisions on his own, without informing the Audiencia in Lima. The news of King Philip's death did not officially reach him until January 1667.

attack

On October 19, 1667, the former army inspector, General Mendoza, attempted to kill Meneses. This had deposed him after Mendoza had opposed the division of the silver payment of the Real Situado ordered by Meneses . Mendoza wanted to use a meeting in the Hospital San Juan de Díos for his attack, but failed. He was captured, sentenced to death, and executed two months later. At his execution, the church bells rang to announce the excommunication that the bishop had ordered everyone involved in the execution.

Deposition and escape

In autumn 1667 the new viceroy arrived in Lima and found plenty of news from the bishop and judges about the scandalous administration of office by Meneses. He sent Diego Dávila Coello y Pacheco as his successor. News of the governor's dismissal traveled faster than the new officer; Meneses fled before his arrival. However, he was caught and imprisoned in Córdoba , and later moved to Trujillo on the orders of the viceroy . The proceedings against him dragged on for years and were dragged on due to the intervention of his family and some patrons. Meneses did not live to see the verdict when he died in 1672.

Appreciation

Francisco Meneses is one of the most colorful personalities to have been Governor of Chile. For the historian Diego Barros Arana , his administration is symptomatic of the decline of the Habsburg dynasty on the Spanish throne: “The government of Francisco Meneses was more or less a faithful mirror of the events of that time in Spain. The governor carried the ideas and visions and the vices that ruled the court to Chile ... "

literature

• José Toribio Medina : Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile . Imprenta Elziviriana, Santiago de Chile 1906, p. 529-531 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [PDF; accessed June 15, 2010]).
• Diego Barros Arana : Historia General de Chile . tape 5 . Editorial Universitaria, Santiago de Chile 2001 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [accessed June 24, 2010] First edition: 1886).

Web links

• Biography at Icarito (Spanish)
• Biography at Biografía de Chile (spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Two pieces of evidence support this date of birth: Barros Arana says that Meneses was around fifty years old at the time of his wedding in 1664; Barros Arana and Medina mention that he served in the army for more than 25 years prior to his appointment as governor in 1663, which suggests a year of birth between 1615 and 1620 if he entered between the ages of 15 and 20.
2. ↑ Barros Arana, p. 34.
3. ↑ Barros Arana, p. 34
4. ^ Medina, p. 529.
5. ↑ Barros Arana, pp. 36f.
6. ↑ Barros Arana, p. 40.
7. ↑ See biography in Icarito
8. ↑ « The administration of the Francisco de Meneses era el reflejo más o menso fell de lo que entonces pasaba en Espana. El Gobernador traía a Chile las ideas, los propósitos y los vicios que dominaban en la Corte… »- Barros Arana, p. 49.