Francisco de Quiñónez

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Francisco de Quiñónez y Araya (* around 1540 in Mayorga , Castile , Spain , † between 1603 and 1605 in Spain) was a Spanish officer who temporarily served as governor of Chile in 1599/1600 .

Life

Careers in Europe

Quiñónes came from a family of the low land nobility ( Hidalgo ) from León. He chose a military career at an early age and fought in the service of the Spanish viceroy of Naples . In 1560 the Spaniards undertook an expedition to Djerba , from where pirates made unsafe the Mediterranean and the coast of Spanish North Africa. The Spanish troops were ambushed by the Turks and defeated. Quiñónes was one of the 5,000 prisoners of war who were put into slavery , but who was released after paying a substantial ransom.

Career in america

Quiñónes married Grimanesa de Mogrovejo, the sister of the Inquisitor of Granada , who was later canonized as St. Toribio. When Mogrovejo was appointed Archbishop of Lima , Quiñones followed him to the New World in 1580. He officiated as Maestre de Campo , so as deputy military commander and as cavalry general. In 1582 he accompanied the Spanish fleet laden with gold and silver from Peru to Panama and was soon appointed Corregidor of Lima.

With the death of the governor Martín García Óñez de Loyola , the viceroy Luis de Velasco named Quiñones as his successor. He had declared himself ready to undertake this dangerous assignment in the council of war in Lima.

Term of office in Chile

The military situation in Chile was serious; in the Arauco War , the insurgent Mapuche had put the few Spanish troops on the defensive. On May 12, 1599 he set sail with auxiliary troops in Callao and came ashore through stormy seas on May 28, 1599 in Concepción .

He soon discovered that the reinforcements he had brought with him would not be enough to turn the war in favor of the Spaniards. At least the area around Concepción was kept under Spanish control.

At the end of September 1599, news of the death of King Philip II reached Chile .

Quiñones' tenure was marked on the one hand by constant defeats in the fight against the Indians, for example the Valdivia fortress fell back into the hands of the Mapuche. The attacks by Dutch privateers also made the coastal cities hard. Despite the reinforcement of fresh troops who arrived in January 1600, the situation remained precarious. Osorno was attacked and set on fire, if not captured.

In view of this difficult situation, Quiñones asked in a letter to the viceroy from March 1600 to send further reinforcements and to be replaced by a younger and more energetic governor. In pursuit of insurgents who had fled to the other side of the Río Bío Bío , Quiñones was caught by the water and suffered paralysis that left him in bed for months. In July 1600 he was replaced by Alonso García de Ramón .

In 1602 he traveled back to Spain via Lima to see his eldest son. In 1606 his wife received the news in Lima that he had died there soon afterwards.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Quiñónez, Francisco de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Quiñónes y Araya, Francisco de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish soldier, Interim Governor of Chile
DATE OF BIRTH around 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH León , Castile , Spain
DATE OF DEATH around 1604
Place of death Spain