Juan Ortega y Montañés
Juan Ortega y Montañés (also in a different spelling: Montañéz ) (* June 23 or July 2, 1627 in Spain , † December 16, 1708 in Mexico City ) was a Spanish clergyman and bishop of the Roman Catholic Church , who twice interim officiated as Viceroy of New Spain.
Origin and education
Ortega came from a superior family, his father Diego Ortega y Montañés was chairman of the supreme royal council of Castile . There is contradicting information about his place of birth: Either he was born in southeastern Spain, in or around Cartagena (Spain) in the Murcia region , or he was cradled in Llanes , in what is now the province of Asturias on the north coast of Spain.
Agreement among the sources that Ortega in Málaga and at the University of Alcalá studied and a degree in law making.
Church career
As fiscal (accuser) of the Inquisition , he went to New Spain and was ordained bishop of Durango there in 1675 . The following year, 1676, he was transferred to the diocese of Guatemala . In 1682 he went to Morelia as Bishop of Michoacán .
In these stations he succeeded in disciplining the clergy and preventing excesses of the Spaniards against serfs and locals.
Interim term as viceroy 1696
In February 1696 Ortega took over the office of the Viceroy of New Spain. The incumbent, Gaspar de la Cerda Sandoval Silva y Mendoza , was to be replaced, and the Bishop of Puebla , Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, who was initially chosen as his successor , had refused the appointment. So Ortega took over the office and traveled to Mexico City.
There he found the city in turmoil. A student had been arrested for setting fire to the pillory in the Plaza de Armas as "an ancient symbol of the monarchy" and the people wanted him to be freed. The extent to which the protest was actually politically motivated, or related to a flea market that took place at this point, is unclear. Viceroy Ortega ordered a new stake to be erected and banned the flea market.
During his almost one year term of office there were clashes between Spanish and French ships in the Caribbean ; the Armada de Barlovento also had to fight against English and Dutch corsairs. In the north, the expedition to California was under way under Eusebio Francisco Kino and Juan María Salvatierra .
Domestically, he tried to collect outstanding tax debts for the crown. In view of the famine of previous years, he also ordered grain stocks to be kept in Mexico City in order to be able to feed the population in times of drought.
In October 1696 the news of the death of the regent and king mother Maria Anna of Austria reached the colony. In December, the new Viceroy José Sarmiento Valladares made his entry into Mexico.
Ortega returned to Morelia for the next four years and resumed his duties as Bishop of Michoacán.
Second interim term in 1701
In March 1700 Ortega was appointed Archbishop of Mexico . He traveled to Mexico City.
There, in the spring of 1701, he received news of the death of King Charles II , who had remained childless. In his will he had chosen Philip of Anjou from the Bourbon family as his successor, but the Austrian line of the Habsburgs also raised claims to the Spanish throne and wanted Archduke Charles to the throne. Viceroy Sarmiento Valladares sympathized with the Austrians and was therefore deposed. Again Juan Ortega was to lead the colony on an interim basis; At the end of 1701 he took over the secular official business again.
He stopped the shipments of convicts to Puerto Rico that his predecessor had begun.
When Count Chateau-Renault arrived in Havana with a French fleet to bring the Spanish taxes and duties to Europe, Ortega consulted with the Real Audiencia of Mexico and decided not to give any money to foreign hands without the express order of the king. Instead, in June 1702, a Spanish fleet under the command of Admiral Manuel de Velasco sailed from Veracruz (Veracruz) towards Europe with coins and merchandise worth over 5 million pesos on board. These were attacked by Dutch and British ships in the Atlantic , were initially able to save themselves in the Bay of Vigo , but were then destroyed in October during the sea battle of Vigo .
This information had not yet arrived in Mexico when Ortega handed over his office to his successor Francisco Fernández de la Cueva Enríquez in November 1702 .
Term of office as archbishop
Ortega limited himself to the office of Archbishop of Mexico in the following years. In this office he died in Mexico City in December 1708.
swell
- Biography (spanish)
- History of his first term (Spanish)
- History of his second term (Spanish)
- Short biography (Spanish)
- Entry for Juan Ortega y Montañés on catholic-hierarchy.org
- Juana Vázquez Gómez: Dictionary of Mexican Rulers, 1325–1997 . Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, USA 1997, ISBN 0-313-30049-6 , pp. 34-36 ( books.google.de ).
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Gaspar de la Cerda Sandoval Silva y Mendoza |
Viceroy of New Spain 1696 |
José Sarmiento Valladares |
| José Sarmiento Valladares | Viceroy of New Spain 1701-1702 |
Francisco Fernández de la Cueva Enríquez |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ortega y Montañés, Juan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ortega y Montañéz, Juan (different spelling) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Archbishop of Mexico and Viceroy of New Spain |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 23, 1627 or July 2, 1627 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Spain |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 16, 1708 |
| Place of death | Mexico city |