Francisco de Villagra

Francisco de Villagra

Francisco de Villagra , also Francisco de Villagrán (* 1511 in Santervás de Campos , Spain , † February  1563 in Concepción , Chile ) was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Chile .

Life

Francisco de Villagra was born in 1511, the illegitimate son of Álvaro de Saría (or Núñez Sarría) and Ana de Villagra, probably in Santervás de Campos, Spain. He married Cándida de Mortesa. They had a son named Pedro. On January 4, 1537, Villagra embarked in Sanlúcar de Barrameda on a ship under the command of Juan Sánchez de Vizcaya to Peru . Presumably in the same year he reached Peru. What is certain is that the following year he was in Cusco and joined the expedition of Pedro de Candía .

In the civil war between the conquistadors in Peru that began in 1538, he sided with the rebelling Diego de Almagro in opposition to the legitimate governor Francisco Pizarro . Almagro was captured by Hernando Pizarro on April 6, 1538 at the Battle of Las Salinas near Cuzco . Under the leadership of Alonso de Mesa, Francisco de Villagra tried to free Almagro. The plan was betrayed, Mesa was executed, and Villagra saved himself due to an intervention by Gonzalo Pizarro . Villagra then joined Pero Anzúrez, who was also a follower of Almagros. After about a year this group was also wiped out. Villagra joined in Tarapacá in mid-1540 Pedro de Valdivia , who was on a conquista expedition to Chile.

After Santiago was founded in January 1541, he became a member of the colonial city government. On December 6, 1547, Pedro de Valdivia appointed him deputy governor of Chile. Villagra stifled a burgeoning coup against him the next day and had the leader, Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz, beheaded without the usual procedural and religious formalities . This action strengthened the relationship of trust with Pedro de Valdivia.

In July 1549, Villagra was sent from Valdivia to Peru with gold to organize supplies. On his return trip along the east side of the Andes Cordillera , he met the conquistador Juan Núñez de Prado, who had just founded the city of Barco in what is now Argentina. Because Prado had penetrated too far south into an area that was assigned to Pedro de Valdivia, a military conflict broke out. Villagra forced the withdrawal of Prado and placed the new city under the administration of Valdivia. This expedition lasted two years, after which Villagra came back to Chile and settled in Imperial near Concepción .

After the death of Pedro de Valdivia in December 1553, Villagra in Concepción succeeded him as governor of Chile and stood against Rodrigo de Quiroga , who did the same in Santiago. Villagra assembled a troop and marched to Santiago, where he forced Quiroga to resign and forcibly appropriated the royal treasury.

On January 9, 1557, the Spanish viceroy in Peru, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, appointed his son García Hurtado de Mendoza governor of Chile. Villagra was captured by the new governor, transferred to Lima and charged before the Real Audiencia . On November 10, 1559, Villagra was acquitted despite all allegations. He stayed in Peru until 1561, after which he replaced García Hurtado de Mendoza, who had fallen out of favor with King Philip II , as governor of Chile.

Francisco de Villagra died during his tenure, at the age of 56, in February 1563 in Concepción. He was buried in the San Francisco Church. His legitimate son Pedro had died six months earlier. Other children were Álvaro (* 1549), Francisco (* 1551) and Isabel de Villagra. He left his heirs in debt of 120,000 pesos in gold, which was the equivalent of about 60 kg of fine gold.

literature

• José Toribio Medina (1852–1930): Diccionario biográfico colonial de Chile . Imprenta Elziviriana, Santiago de Chile 1906 ( Memoria Chilena - Documents ).

Web links

Commons : Francisco de Villagra  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ^ José Toribio Medina. 1906, pp. 948-952.