Juan Rejón

Juan Rejón (* around 1440 Kingdom of León  ; † May 1481 in Hermigua ( La Gomera )) was one of the leaders of the conquest of the island of Gran Canaria on behalf of the Crown of Castile from 1478 to 1480 .

Family and work in Castile

Juan Rejón was the brother of Hernando Rejón, captain of the artillery in the campaign against Granada. He was married to the Aragonese Elvira de Sotomayor, the sister of Alonso Jáimez de Sotomayor, who held the office of the standard bearer during the conquest of Gran Canaria. With Elvira de Sotomayor he had two children.

In 1476 Juan Rejón was a citizen of the city of Seville . He was the agent of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Castile in the creation of the Hermandad of Andalusia . He took part in the creation and activity of the whole of Castile, Santa Hermandad in 1476 and 1477.

Gran Canaria

Beginning of the conquest

Due to the War of the Castilian Succession , the state treasury of the Crown of Castile was heavily burdened. In order to finance the conquest of the Canary Islands Gran Canaria, La Palma and Tenerife, and later those of the American colonies, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Castile created the system of capitulaciones . Private individuals took over the financing and implementation of the military actions.

On April 20, 1478, the representatives of the Crown of Castile agreed with the Bishop of Rubicón , Juan Frías, the Dean Juan Bermúdez and Juan Rejón that these three people should carry out the conquest of the island of Gran Canaria. On May 13, 1478, a corresponding capitulación was issued in Seville in the name of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. The bishop of Rubicón, Juan de Frías, was the sponsor responsible for equipping and supplying the troops. Juan de Frías did not personally take part in the conquest. Juan Bermudez was not only a cleric , he was mentioned in the letters of the Catholic Kings as a captain (captain) before Juan Rejón.

On May 13, 1478, 600 (according to other reports a total of 1,300) soldiers and horsemen went on board in Puerto de Santa María . At the end of May 1478 they arrived at the roadstead of La Isleta (today a district of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). The "Las Palmas" army camp was set up, which was the origin of the later city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria . June 24th was set as the foundation day. It is the day of Saint John , the patron saint of Juan Frias, Juan Bermudes and Juan Rejón. The Canarios were hostile to the conquerors. In response to the Canarios' resistance, at the end of summer 1478, Juan Rejón burned cornfields and fig trees, thus starting the deforestation of the island. This type of bloody scorched earth war was not approved by Juan Bermudez because it prevented the Christianization of the indigenous people. Other decisions by Juan Rejón also led to disputes in the leadership of the conquering troops.

First encounter with Hernán Peraza

The war tactics practiced by Juan Rejón meant that it was not possible to supply the conquerors from the country. To meet the troops' need for food, Juan Rejón wanted to get provisions on the island of Lanzarote . The island was granted to Inés Peraza de las Casas and her husband Diego García de Herrera y Ayala in 1477 by the Queen and King of Castile as rulership. All commanders who were sent to Gran Canaria were expressly instructed by a decree of May 12, 1478 not to enter the Islas de Señorío . When Juan Rejón (probably late 1478 / early 1479) appeared in the bay of Arrecife with a brigantine and about twenty people, Inés Peraza sent her son Hernán Peraza with 30 men to Juan Rejón, who had gone ashore with a troop of ten men was to be rejected. This group was so intimidating that Juan Rejón decided to withdraw. There was an exchange of arrows and rifle fire, injuring some of Hernán Peraza's soldiers and himself. The incident caused quite a stir on the islands, but was probably not known at the royal court.

Pedro de Algaba

When Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Castile heard of the disagreements in the leadership of the conquering troops, which threatened the success of the military operation, they appointed Pedro de Algaba on August 27, 1478 as the first governor of Gran Canaria. He was supposed to remove the "disagreements and annoyances" (divisiones y escandalos) between the captains, that "everything should proceed in good peace and harmony" (todos en buena pas y concordia). The governor's rights were not specified in the deed of appointment. Pedro de Algaba could not resolve the differences between the different groups. He then banished Juan Bermudez to the island of Lanzarote and arrested Juan Rejón and brought him to a court at the royal court on the Spanish peninsula. The court found Juan Rejón's conduct on the island of Gran Canaria not punishable. He therefore returned to his previous position as captain of the conquering forces on the island of Gran Canaria.

The situation on the island with the military leader Juan Rejón and the civilian governor Pedro de Algaba was untenable. This and the previous failure of the conquest caused the crown to negotiate new agreements. On February 24, 1480, a new agreement was reached with Alonso de Quintanilla and Pedro Fernández Cabrón on the financing and implementation of the conquest of the island of Gran Canaria. On February 4, 1480, the Queen and King of Castile appointed Pedro de Vera as governor of the island. His powers were precisely listed in the certificate of appointment. He had the office of captain general and the commander of the fortifications, so the entire military power. He was governor and corregidor and as such the highest political and legal authority on the island. He set out on July 7, 1480 from El Puerto de Santa María towards Gran Canaria.

When Pedro de Vera arrived in Gran Canaria, he found that his predecessor as governor, Pedro de Algaba, had been sentenced as a traitor in a 17-day trial and had been executed in late May or early June 1480. He had been accused of trying to sell the islands to the King of Portugal. He had written correspondence with him and received gifts from him. Since Pedro de Vega doubted the legality of the process against Pedro de Algaba, he sent Juan Rejón to the Spanish peninsula so that the royal court should decide on the legality there.

Death on La Gomera

The royal court ruled again in favor of Juan Rejón. He was not installed in his previous office as the conqueror of the island of Gran Canaria, but was entrusted with the conquest of the island of La Palma . Juan Rejón left the port of Cádiz in the spring of 1481 with four ships, three hundred men and twenty horses . He was accompanied by his wife and two young children. It's amazing that he didn't leave her with his wife's family in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. The ships had apparently already reached the coast of La Palma in May 1481 but a storm brought a ship to the coast of La Gomera. In the Hermigua Valley, Juan Rejón went ashore with his wife, children and only eight men. The island of La Gomera was under the rule of Hernán Peraza de Ayala, with whom Juan Rejón had a bloody argument two years earlier when he wanted to get provisions on the island of Lanzarote. When Hernán Peraza learned of the presence of Juan Rejón on the island, he sent some Gomeros to bring Juan Rejón to him. He refused to appear before the master of the island. There was a fight in which Juan Rejón was killed. The case came before the royal court. There it was found that Hernán Peraza was not to blame for the death of Juan Rejón.

Juan Rejón was buried in the Asunción de San Sebastián de la Gomera church.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Manuel Lobo Cabrera: La conquista de Gran Canaria (1478-1483) . Ediciones del Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2012, ISBN 978-84-8103-653-4 , p. 120 (Spanish).
2. ↑ 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. 70 (Spanish).
3. ↑ Manuel Lobo Cabrera: La conquista de Gran Canaria (1478-1483) . Ediciones del Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2012, ISBN 978-84-8103-653-4 , p. 121 (Spanish).
4. ↑ Juan Álvarez Delgado: Alonso de Palencia (1423-1492) y la Historia de Canarias . In: Anuario de estudios atlánticos . No. 9 , 1963, ISSN  0570-4065 , p. 67 (Spanish, [1] [accessed August 16, 2017]).
5. ↑ Marta Milagros de Vas Mingo: Las capitulaciones de Indias en el siglo XVI . Instituto de cooperación iberoamericana, Madrid 1986, ISBN 84-7232-397-8 , p. 24 (Spanish).
6. ↑ Antonio Rumeu de Armas: La política indigenista de Isabel La Católica . Instituto Isabel la Católica de Historia Eclesiástica, Valladolid 1969, p. 178 (Spanish, [2] [accessed March 28, 2016]).
7. ↑ Mariano Gambín García: Las cartas de nombramiento de los primeros gobernadores de Canarias / Expresión de la política centralizadora de los Reyes Católicos . In: Revista de historia canaria . No. 182 , 2000, pp. 43 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed June 20, 2016]).
8. ↑ Dominik Josef Wölfel: Don Juan de Frías, el Gran Conquistador de Gran Canaria . In: El museo canario . No. 14 , 1953, pp. 6 (Spanish, [3] [accessed July 20, 2016]).
9. ↑ 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. 68 (Spanish).
10. ↑ Mariano Gambín García: Las cartas de nombramiento de los primeros gobernadores de Canarias / Expresión de la política centralizadora de los Reyes Católicos . In: Revista de historia canaria . No. 182 , 2000, pp. 43 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed June 20, 2016]).
11. ↑ Mariano Gambín García: Las cartas de nombramiento de los primeros gobernadores de Canarias / Expresión de la política centralizadora de los Reyes Católicos . In: Revista de historia canaria . No. 182 , 2000, pp. 44 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed June 20, 2016]).
12. ↑ Antonio Rumeu de Armas: La política indigenista de Isabel La Católica . Instituto Isabel la Católica de Historia Eclesiástica, Valladolid 1969, p. 204 (Spanish, [4] [accessed March 28, 2016]).
13. ↑ Mariano Gambín García: Las cartas de nombramiento de los primeros gobernadores de Canarias / Expresión de la política centralizadora de los Reyes Católicos . In: Revista de historia canaria . No. 182 , 2000, pp. 45 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed June 20, 2016]).
14. ↑ Mariano Gambín García: Cinco documentos inéditos sobre Pedro de Vera, conquistador y gobernador de Gran Canaria . In: El museo canario . No. 58 , 2003, ISSN  0211-450X , p. 191 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed August 12, 2017]).
15. ↑ 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. 70 ff . (Spanish).
16. ↑ Manuel Lobo Cabrera: La conquista de Gran Canaria (1478-1483) . Ediciones del Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2012, ISBN 978-84-8103-653-4 , p. 122 (Spanish).

literature

• 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 (Spanish).
• Manuel Lobo Cabrera: La conquista de Gran Canaria (1478-1483) . Ediciones del Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2012, ISBN 978-84-8103-653-4 (Spanish).
• Mariano Gambín García: Las cartas de nombramiento de los primeros gobernadores de CanariasExpresión de la política centralizadora de los Reyes Católicos . In: Revista de historia canaria . No. 182 , 2000, pp. 39–95 (Spanish, unirioja.es [accessed June 20, 2016]).