Guillén Peraza de las Casas

Guillén Peraza de las Casas (* around 1422 in Seville , Kingdom of Seville , † 1447 on La Palma ) was a Castilian nobleman and co-ruler of the Canary Islands .

origin

Guillén Peraza de las Casas came from an upper class family in Seville . His father was Hernán Peraza Martel (Hernán Peraza el Viejo). He held various military and civil offices in the Kingdom of Seville . Since 1437, Hernán Peraza was co-governor of his father-in-law Juan de las Casas on the island of La Gomera . The mother Inés de las Casas came from a family that was one of the most important in the local oligarchy of Seville.

Rights to the Canary Islands

The rights to conquer, own and rule the Canary Islands had been transferred several times to different owners at the beginning of the 15th century. Through purchase and inheritance, Hernán Peraza el Viejo, the father of Guillén Peraza de las Casas, his sister Inés Peraza de las Casas and he himself owned all rights to all of the Canary Islands. In practice, however, the rule only extended to the islands of Lanzarote , Fuerteventura , El Hierro and parts of La Gomera . Parts of the island of La Gomera and the islands of La Palma, Gran Canaria and Tenerife were yet to be conquered.

Death on La Palma

At the end of 1447, Guillén Peraza de las Casas came from Seville to Lanzarote and Fuerteventura with a fleet of three ships and two hundred crossbowmen. There another three hundred men joined him. They drove to La Gomera and on to La Palma. They landed in the Tihuya district near what is now the city of Tazacorte. The aim of the attack on the indigenous people was probably not to gain control of the area. Rather, it was one of the many acts of piracy that took place on the islands during the reign of the Peraza family. Natives were captured and sold as slaves on the Spanish peninsula. This should cover the travel expenses to the islands. During this attack, Guillén Peraza was fatally injured in the head by a stone. The body was buried in the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in San Sebastián de La Gomera .

Las Endechas a Guillén Peraza

Las Endechas a Guillén Peraza (Lamentations for Guillén Peraza) are considered to be the first poetic utterances in Spanish in the Canary Islands. The poem by an unknown artist was probably written for Guillén Peraza's funeral. It was first published in 1632 in the "Historia de la conquista de las siete islas de Canaria" (History of the Conquest of the Seven Islands) by Juan de Abréu Galindo. It is considered by literary scholars to be “a top achievement in Spanish literature”.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alejandro Cioranescu: Una amiga de Cristóbal Colón, Doña Beatriz de Bobadilla . Confederación de Cajas de Ahorros, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1989, ISBN 84-505-8354-3 , p. 61 (Spanish).
2. ↑ Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada: Los señores de Canarias en su contexto Sevillano (1403-1477) . In: Anuario de estudios atlánticos . No. 23 , 1977, ISSN  0570-4065 , pp. 143 (Spanish, [1] [accessed August 30, 2017]).
3. ↑ Juan Álvarez Delgado: Primera conquista y cristianización de La Gomera . In: Anuario de estudios . No. 6 , 1960, ISSN  0570-4065 , p. 485 (Spanish, [2] [accessed August 25, 2017]).
4. ↑ Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada: Los señores de Canarias en su contexto Sevillano (1403-1477) . In: Anuario de estudios atlánticos . No. 23 , 1977, ISSN  0570-4065 , pp. 135 (Spanish, [3] [accessed August 30, 2017]).
5. ↑ Juan Álvarez Delgado: Primera conquista y cristianización de La Gomera . In: Anuario de estudios . No. 6 , 1960, ISSN  0570-4065 , p. 470 (Spanish, [4] [accessed August 25, 2017]).
6. ↑ Juan de Abreu Galindo: Historia de la conquista de las siete islas de Gran Canaria . Valentín Sanz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1632, p. 263 (Spanish, [5] [accessed March 22, 2017] reprinted 1940).
7. ↑ Juan Álvarez Delgado: Juan Machín, vizcaíno del siglo XV, gran figura histórica de Madera y Canarias . In: Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos . No. 7 , 1961, ISSN  0570-4065 , p. 178 (Spanish, [6] [accessed November 30, 2017]).
8. ↑ Ana Rosa Pérez Alvarez: El material arqueológico de las excavaciones en la iglesia de La Asunción (San Sebastián de La Gomera) Revisión y nuevas aportaciones . In: Tabona: Revista de Prehistoria y de Arqueología . No. 14 , 2006, ISSN  0213-2818 , p. 293 (Spanish, [7] [accessed November 29, 2017]).
9. ↑ Juan de Abreu Galindo: Historia de la conquista de las siete islas de Gran Canaria . Valentín Sanz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1632, p. 75 (Spanish, [8] [accessed March 22, 2017]).
10. ↑ Maximiano Trapero: Las Endechas “de Canarias” . In: Yolanda Arencibia, Rafael Fernández (ed.): Historia Crítica de la Literatura Canaria . Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2000, p. 62 (Spanish, [9] [PDF; accessed November 30, 2017], new edition 1940). Las Endechas “de Canarias” ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

literature

• Antonio Rumeu de Armas: El señorío de Fuerteventura en el siglo XVI . In: Anuario de estudios atlánticos . No. 32 , 1986, pp. 17–128 (Spanish, [10] [accessed June 20, 2016]).
• Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada: Los señores de Canarias en su contexto Sevillano (1403–1477) . In: Anuario de estudios atlánticos . No. 23 , 1977, ISSN  0570-4065 (Spanish, [11] [accessed August 30, 2017]).
• Juan Álvarez Delgado: Primera conquista y cristianización de La Gomera . In: Anuario de estudios . No. 6 , 1960, ISSN  0570-4065 (Spanish, [12] [accessed August 25, 2017]).

Web links

• "Las Endechas a Guillén Peraza" Los Sabadeños Antología (Una Historia Musical del Folklore de Canarias)
• "Las Endechas a Guillén Peraza" Los Sabadeños You Tube