José Sarmiento Valladares

José Sarmiento Valladares

José Sarmiento Valladares , Duke (Spanish: duque) of Atlixco , Graf (Spanish: conde) of Moctezuma and Tula , Spanish Grande (* May 1643 in San Román de Sayamonde in Pontevedra , Galicia , Spain ; † 10. September 1708 in Madrid , Spain) was a Spanish colonial administrator who served as Viceroy of New Spain.

Origin and family

José Sarmiento came from a family of Spanish nobility. His parents were Gregorio and Juana Sarmiento.

On May 4, 1643, he was baptized in the parental church. His brother Diego Sarmiento Valladares embarked on an ecclesiastical career, became Bishop of Plasencia , Inquisitor General and Chairman of the Royal Council of Castile .

José Sarmiento married María Jerónima Moctezuma y Jofre de Loaisa, daughter of the Count of Moctezuma and descendant of the Aztec ruler . When she died, José inherited her titles. He married a second time in 1694, María Andrea de Guzmán y Dávila, a niece of the Marquis Villamanrique.

Tenure as Viceroy of New Spain

In 1696 he was appointed viceroy of New Spain. He went to America with his family, but did not travel the usual route and at first did without the usual celebrations. On December 18, he reached Mexico City incognito, took over the office of Bishop Juan Ortega y Montañés and took the oath of office at the Real Audiencia of Mexico . Only on February 2, 1697 did the solemn entry into the city follow. At the ceremony, his horse stumbled and the viceroy fell to the ground, amusing the audience.

One of his first official acts was the dispatch of another expedition of the two Jesuits Eusebio Francisco Kino and Juan María Salvatierra to California to promote the proselytizing of the local population and the exploration of the area.

Mexico City experienced food shortages after several years of drought; the poorer people were starving. The viceroy had the granaries filled with wheat and maize, which was bought in other parts of the country and given out to the population at moderate prices. Despite these measures, hunger riots broke out among the poorest sections of the population in 1697 and were violently suppressed. In return, Sarmiento allowed the consumption of pulque , a mildly alcoholic drink that was very popular with the Indian population.

Another problem was highway robbery: muggers made many paths and streets unsafe. Sarmiento tried to curb crime by patrolling urban militias and threatening draconian punishment. Road robberies were punishable by death, and prisoners with minor offenses were sent to Puerto Rico for forced labor.

The silver and gold mining suffered from the shortage of mercury at that time . Viceroy Sarmiento bought all available quantities in the Philippines and thus provided for supplies.

The rainy season of 1697 brought violent floods that damaged numerous buildings. That spurred work on draining the Valley of Mexico. In the spring of 1699, work on the Viceroy's Palace, which had become necessary due to the earthquake and fire of 1692, was completed.

On March 7, 1701, a letter from the reigning Queen Maria Anna arrived in Mexico, announcing the death of King Charles II . Since the marriage of the two had remained childless, the European powers fought for the Spanish throne. In addition to the planned successor Philip of Anjou , who had taken over the government in Spain, the Austrian Habsburgs also raised claims to the throne for Archduke Karl . This conflict led to the War of the Spanish Succession .

Sarmiento openly sympathized with the Austrians. The conflict also came to a head in America: Dutch and English ships were approaching Veracruz (Holland and England were on Austria's side), while French ships on the orders of King Louis XIV rushed to the aid of the beleaguered Bourbons .

In this situation, a disloyal viceroy seemed intolerable: Sarmiento received orders to hand over the office again to Juan Ortega y Montañés , who had meanwhile been appointed Archbishop of Mexico .

Late years in Spain

Sarmiento handed over the official business in November 1701; In view of the war situation, he had to wait a few months before he could sail from Veracruz to Europe in June 1702 with a Spanish fleet.

In Spain he took the oath of allegiance to the new King Philip V and was raised to Duke of Atlixco and Spanish grandee in November 1704 .

He died in 1708.

swell

• Biography (Spanish: PDF)
• Biography (spanish)
• History of his tenure (Spanish)
• Short biography (Spanish)
• Juana Vázquez Gómez: Dictionary of Mexican Rulers, 1325–1997 . Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, USA 1997, ISBN 0-313-30049-6 , pp. 35 ( books.google.de ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Juan Ortega y Montañés	Viceroy of New Spain 1696–1701	Juan Ortega y Montañés