Gonzalo de Sandoval

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Gonzalo de Sandoval

Gonzalo de Sandoval (* 1497 in Medellín , † 1527 in Palos de la Frontera ) was a Spanish conquistador . He took part in the conquest of Tenochtitlán (1519-1521) under Hernán Cortés and was a friend of the chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo .

From March 2, 1527 to August 22, 1527 he fulfilled duties in the government of the colony of New Spain .

Campaign to the Aztec Empire

In 1519 Gonzalo de Sandoval went ashore with Hernán Cortés and his army on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico . He was the youngest deputy of Cortés and one of his most capable officers. With only a few men, the Spaniards subjugated several Indian peoples. In the heavy battles with the Tlaxcalteks , Sandoval proved himself. After the Tlaxcalteks failed to defeat the Spaniards, they allied themselves with them against the Aztecs . In November 1519, Sandoval entered Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire , with Cortés and his army .

Soon after Moctezuma II was captured , Cortés gave command of the company in Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz to Sandoval. At the same time he took over the office of mayor there.

In the spring of 1520, Pánfilo de Narváez landed at Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz with an army of over 1200 men. He sent messengers to Gonzalo de Sandoval and requested the surrender of the base. Although Sandoval had only about 60 men available, he captured the messengers from Pánfilo de Narváez. He had her handcuffed and carried by friends of the Indians to Cortés in Tenochtitlan . Cortés released the messengers after bribing them. Then he set off for the coast with 250 men and attacked Narváez and his army in Cempoala at night . It was a unit under the command of Sandoval, assigned to arrest or kill Narváez. Narváez was seriously injured in the fight and eventually captured.

Sandoval was also in command of the vanguard in the Noche Triste on the Spanish retreat from Tenochtitlán. After this defeat, Cortés had ships built in Tlaxcala to attack and besiege the capital of the Aztecs again. Under the leadership of Gonzalo de Sandoval, the individual parts of the brigantines were transported from Tlaxcala to Lake Texcoco .

During this time, Sandoval and his men conquered Zultepec , an important city on the border with Tlaxcala. As he advanced towards the city, the population fled and tried in a great hurry to cover up all traces of the train of the Pánfilo de Narváez, whose members had been captured by the hundreds, sacrificed to the gods and then ritually eaten. In a temple, Sandoval found two leather-worked Spanish scalps with their beards and the stretched hides of four horses. In another temple he found the inscription of a prisoner: “Here lay the unfortunate Juan Yuste with many comrades in painful captivity.” The soldier Juan Yuste was a nobleman who had come to New Spain with Pánfilo de Narváez and was captured by the warriors from Texcoco has been. Despite everything, Sandoval did not allow the city to be destroyed.

Instead, he turned back to the task of transporting the individual parts of the ships for the attack on Tenochtitlán. In Texcoco, the ships were assembled and launched despite constant attacks by the Aztecs. During the month-long siege of Tenochtitlán, Sandoval fought with his men on the section of the front assigned to him. He supported Pedro de Alvarado in the attack on the Tlatelolco market . After a final attack on Tenochtitlán, García Holguín, one of his men, captured the Tlatoani (King) Cuauhtémoc . Holguín and Sandoval handed the king of the Aztecs over to Cortés.

Cortés later sent him to the Coatzacoalcos area . From there he "pacified" Huatusco , Tuxtepec and Oaxaca . He founded the city of Medellín in Tatatetelco and the port Pacífico de Espíritu Santo . In Pánuco he suppressed an uprising by the local Indians. In July 1523 Gonzalo de Sandoval founded the city of Colima . From 1524 to 1526 he took part in Cortés' campaign to Honduras .

Return to Spain

In the autumn of 1527 he traveled to Spain with Cortés and arrived in December in the port of Palos after a crossing of only 41 days . But already on the trip he was seriously ill and died shortly after his arrival. Before that, 13 gold bars had been stolen from him. He was buried in La Rábida Monastery. Having no legal children, he made his niece the heir to his vast fortune.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gonzalo de Sandoval  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christopher Minster: 1520: The Panfilo de Narvaez Expedition to Mexico ThoughtCo., June 5, 2015
  2. ↑ Christopher Minster: 1520: The Battle of Cempoala ThoughtCo., May 13, 2015
  3. ↑ Bernal Díaz del Castillo The True Story of the Conquest of Mexico p. 407
personal data
SURNAME Sandoval, Gonzalo de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish conquistador
DATE OF BIRTH 1497
PLACE OF BIRTH Medellin
DATE OF DEATH after August 22, 1527
Place of death Palos de la Frontera