Gaspar de la Cerda Sandoval Silva y Mendoza

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Gaspar de la Cerda Sandoval Silva

Gaspar de la Cerda Sandoval Silva y Mendoza , Count (Spanish: conde) of Galve , (born January 11, 1653 in Pastrana (Castile-La Mancha) , Spain , † March 12, 1697 in El Puerto de Santa María near Cádiz , Spain ) was a Spanish courtier and colonial administrator who served as Viceroy of New Spain.

Origin and career

Gaspar de la Cerda Sandoval Silva came from a family of the Spanish nobility. He was born the second son of Rodrigo Silva y Mendoza, the 4th Duke of Pastrana. His mother was Catalina de Sandoval y Mendoza, Duchess of Infantado.

He received a school education at home, he proved to be gifted with languages ​​and showed great interest in literature, theater and art. In 1675, after the death of his father, his older brother Gregorio inherited the title of duke.

Gaspar went to the court of Madrid with his mother and siblings. As a courtier, he won the trust and friendship of the king, Charles II (Spain) , who was eight years his junior and who had just come of age at the age of 14. He owed his rapid rise at court to the support of the king's mother Maria Anna .

In 1677 he married María Atocha Ponce de León y Guzmán, who died in 1684 without leaving any children. In a second marriage, Cerda Sandoval Silva married Elvira María de Toledo.

In 1679 he accompanied his brother Gregorio on a diplomatic mission to Paris , as part of the delegation which Marie Louise d'Orléans accompanied to Spain as bride for Charles II.

With the death of his uncle Diego de Silva y Mendoza, Gaspar assumed the title of Count of Galve . This happened against the will of his older brother, who claimed the rights of the firstborn. The family feud for the recognition of the title of count is related to the favor given by the rulers in the run-up to the dispute over the Spanish succession , in which parts of the family sided with the Habsburgs.

The family was networked in numerous ways in the Spanish colonial empire in America: his father-in-law Enrique de Toledo y Osorio , Margrave of Villafranca, had been appointed Viceroy of New Spain in 1672 to succeed Antonio Sebastián de Toledo , but had refused, which is why the hapless Pedro Nuño Colón de Portugal , who died after only six days in office. Gaspar's brother José was in turn married to the only daughter of Antonio Sebastián de Toledo.

Tenure as Viceroy of New Spain

The office of the New Spanish viceroy was considered a special favor, which the royal court gladly gave to its favorites. Gaspar de la Cerda received the office at the remarkably young age of 35 because the originally intended candidate, the Margrave of Fuente de Sol, did not receive approval in the Council of India .

Gaspar de la Cerda received his appointment on May 6, 1688 and immediately set off for America. He reached the port of Veracruz at the end of August 1688 . He was accompanied by his wife and an entourage of eighty servants. On the way he met his predecessor Melchor Portocarrero Lasso de la Vega , who was on his way to his new post as Viceroy of Peru . In November de la Cerda made his ceremonial entry into Mexico City ; he took office in December.

At first he was busy with the defense against pirate attacks in the Pacific . He also sent troops to prevent French attempts to build their own fortifications in New Mexico . (At that time, the lower reaches of the Mississippi River as Louisiana (colony) was French territory, so the French had an interest in extending their sphere of influence to the southwest at the expense of Spain.)

He also stopped illegal logging by British traders in Tabasco and Campeche . In 1691 the Spaniards, who were now allied with England again , sent troops to Île de la Tortue , the Bahamas and Hispaniola to bring the French colony there back into Spanish possession. However, they only partially succeeded in driving out the French.

After the reconquest of the areas that had been removed from Spanish control by the Pueblo uprising , around eight hundred Spanish settlers settled in the area of Santa Fe (New Mexico) . Under de la Cerda's rule, as a measure to pacify the rebellious Indians, Spanish lessons were systematically given to local children. Appropriate schools have been set up. But even this measure did not prevent further local uprisings from flaring up.

In 1693 an expedition went to Florida , Spain , east of the French colony of Louisiana. The Mexican geographer and writer Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora wrote a study of the local conditions, while the military leader of the expedition, Admiral Andrés de Pez , had a fort built in the far west of Florida: Pensacola (Florida) .

Domestically, de la Cerda also drove the enormous construction project to drain the valley of Mexico, which was supposed to prevent the annual devastating floods in the capital. Due to the death of the commissioner, Manuel Cabrera, the work came to a standstill in 1691.

The economic situation of the colony was not significantly improved under de la Cerda's administration; The hoped-for increase in taxes to Spain, which Madrid had built on, also failed to materialize. On the contrary: drought and poor harvests for wheat and maize led to the common people suffering from hunger and rebellion against the rule: in June 1692 insurgents set fire to the viceroy's palace, the house of the city administration and other authorities in Mexico City.

His inclination for literature and art made him, like his predecessors, support the poet Juana Inés de la Cruz , who died in 1695. He also kept in touch with Carlos de Sigüenza.

Return to Europe

In September 1695 the Spanish court granted him the release from office, which he had already asked several times for health reasons. Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, Bishop of Puebla , was to succeed , but he declined the call because his health and workload did not allow it.

So de la Cerda transferred his office to the Bishop of Michoacán , Juan Ortega y Montañés . At the beginning of 1696 he handed over the official business and immediately traveled back to Europe. There he hoped for the support of his brother Gregorio for recognition of his achievements by the court. Before his cause could advance, he died in March 1697 near Cádiz.

swell

predecessor Office successor
Melchor Portocarrero Lasso de la Vega Viceroy of New Spain
1690–1696
Juan Ortega y Montañés