Lope de Aguirre

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Lope de Aguirre (* around 1511 in Oñate ; † October 27, 1561 in Barquisimeto , Venezuela ) was a Spanish conquistador who rebelled against the Spanish crown during an expedition in search of the golden land of Eldorado and a regime of terror among his fellow conspirators and travel companions erected. Notorious for its particular cruelty , its figure has been stylized in Latin American literature and historiography as the epitome of betrayal and madness .

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Aguirre (Basque Agirre) was born between 1511 and 1515 in Oñate in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa . He probably came from a noble family and had an ecclesiastical judge as an ancestor.

Lope de Aguirre reached Peru probably in 1536 or 1537, i.e. immediately after the Spanish conquest, and was involved in various political intrigues in the period that followed. At that time there were repeated clashes similar to civil war between competing groups of conquistadors , while the Spanish crown tried to get the new territory under their control by sending royal officials. New laws that forbade the enslavement of Indians caused particular resentment among the conquerors . Some rebels argued that the conquest of Peru was a private enterprise and that the Spanish crown was therefore not entitled to the new lands. Aguirre also protested against the conditions in the colony in several letters to the Spanish king. In these letters, some of which are still preserved, he attacks the Spanish King Philip II sharply, once even describing him as "worse than Lucifer ".

Aguirre earned his living initially by breeding horses and then took part in an expedition against the Indian tribe of the Chunchos . In 1541 he fought on the side of Pedro Álvarez Holguín against Diego de Almagro , then on the side of the viceroy Blasco Núñez de Vela against Gonzalo Pizarro . In both civil wars he was on the side of the crown and helped to suppress the rebels. In the meantime he fled to Nicaragua and did not return to Peru until 1548 after the execution of Gonzalo Pizarro. Although not proven, it is believed that Aguirre took part in the 1553 rebellion of Sebastián de Castilla against the Spanish crown.

In 1554 the Viceroy issued a pardon for all ex-rebels who joined Alonzo de Alvarado's army to put down the uprising of Francisco Hernández Girón . Aguirre took part in the fighting on the viceroy's side, was wounded at the Battle of Chuquinga in May 1554 and has limped ever since.

From 1554 to 1558 Aguirre hung around without employment in Peru and is said to have been imprisoned together with his friend Lorenzo de Salduendo for conspiracy against the crown. Both allegedly escaped conviction by reporting to the Pedro de Ursúa expedition . Aguirre took his daughter Elvira, whose mother was an Indian , with him.

Amazon expedition to search for the Eldorado

Pedro de Ursúa planned an expedition to the kingdom of the Omagua in the south of today's Venezuela , where at that time the legendary gold country Eldorado was suspected. This assumption was based on reports by the German conquistador Philipp von Hutten . It was not known at the time that this country actually did not exist; it was rather believed to be a real kingdom.

Ursúa's expedition was delayed several times for lack of money. The royal administration, glad to have so many potential troublemakers far from Peru, eventually granted a larger grant. The then still missing money Ursúa obtained partly by force. He blackmailed several clergymen and then forced them to travel with them so that they could not report him. Finally, the expedition was able to leave Lima in February 1559 with 300 armed Spaniards, several hundred Indian helpers, 20 African slaves and 27 horses. In September 1560, the expedition reached the Amazon and took ships downriver into the hardly explored jungle.

The expedition had been joined by numerous dissatisfied people in the hope that Ursúa would use his troops for a revolt against the viceroy. For these people it was a disappointment when the expedition actually left for the jungle. Ursúa had previously been warned to take several well-known troublemakers, including Aguirre, but ignored the warnings. In addition, Ursúa is said to have made himself unpopular during the trip through his tyrannical leadership and brutal punitive measures and to have aroused jealousy because of his young wife, a rich mestizo who accompanied him on the trip.

When the middle reaches of the Amazon was reached in November and the alleged gold country turned out to be an illusion, dissatisfaction increased among the expedition members. Aguirre, Salduendo, and several other subordinates started a conspiracy against Ursúa. On the night of January 1, 1561, they jointly murdered him and appointed the 25-year-old Andalusian nobleman Fernando de Guzmán as the new leader of the expedition.

Guzmán announced that he would give up the search for the non-existent kingdom of the Omagua and instead wanted to return to Peru to take up the fight against the viceroy and his officials. Thereupon he was confirmed as the new leader in March 1561 by the majority of the expedition participants. At Aguirre's suggestion, Guzmán was proclaimed ruler a few days later and was to be crowned king after arriving in Peru. A document drawn up by Aguirre, in which the rebels broke away from the Spanish kingdom, was signed by most - not all - of the participants in the expedition.

The campaign against Peru

Since the return march through the jungle was not manageable, Guzmán and Aguirre had seaworthy ships built. In the footsteps of the conquistador Francisco de Orellana , they wanted to travel the Amazon to the mouth and then return to Peru by ship via Panama . Aguirre hoped to increase the number of rebels in Panama and Nicaragua by recruiting dissatisfied Spaniards and cimarrones .

On the way there was a power struggle between Aguirre and Salduendo, as a result of which the latter was murdered by Aguirre in front of Guzmán. Guzmán then had concerns about the company, and he had several officers assure him that he would support a planned crackdown on Aguirre. However, Aguirre found out about it through informers. He had Guzmán and his followers killed on May 22, 1561 and proclaimed himself the new leader. He also had some soldiers who criticized his approach killed, as well as the widow Ursúas, over whose property after his death disputes between the conquistadors had flared up again and again.

On the way, Indian settlements were ruthlessly looted and their inhabitants killed. When the expedition finally reached the mouth of the Amazon, Aguirre had the approximately 100 surviving Peruvian Indians abandoned in the jungle, as there was not enough food to be taken by ship.

The expedition reached Isla Margarita off the coast of Venezuela on July 20, 1561 . The island was occupied in a coup, all royal officials arrested, the court files burned. Aguirre established a reign of terror on the island that lasted over 40 days, which fell victim to both locals and other men he classified as unreliable. But he was also able to win new followers attracted by the prospect of prey.

The next goal of his campaign, the Isthmus of Panama , could not reach Aguirre. Several of his supporters had deserted and warned the royal authorities on the mainland of the impending danger. Under the leadership of Francisco Fajardo standing Indian warriors in Spanish pay landed on Margarita and included the troops of Aguirre. He had the royal officials held hostage murdered and then sailed to the mainland.

Aguirre landed in the village of Burburada and had the ships burned to prevent desertions from his followers. Since his next destination, Panama, was known to the authorities, he tried to get to Peru by land via what is now Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. He also hoped to increase his force by recruiting discontented settlers. However, the next Spanish settlements they marched through were deserted by the inhabitants. Several of Aguirre's supporters deserted, others were killed trying to escape.

The end in Venezuela

In the likewise deserted city of Barquisimeto , Aguirre's people met with soldiers loyal to the king on October 27, 1561. These, numerically and technically inferior, withdrew, but left pardons from the Venezuelan governor for defectors. In another skirmish, Aguirre's supporters were also victorious, but more and more of them defected to the enemy. In the end Aguirre was left practically alone, only his ammunition master Llamoso refused to overflow. According to Iakob Zvanev, 174 of the 300 armed participants in the Ursúas expedition had survived to this point, 66 men had been murdered or died violently during the journey, and 60 men perished from disease or starvation. Fluctuations due to desertions and newcomers are not taken into account in this calculation.

Abandoned by his people, Aguirre stabbed his daughter Elvira, who was housed there, in the local inn. He justified the act of desperation to the maid, who snatched the rifle from his hand, with which he stormed into the living room, with his concern that Elvira might be treated as a “mattress of fairies” and in the future as the daughter of a traitor and that he might dishonor his memory. Then he surrendered to the royal soldiers. While trying to make a statement, he was shot dead by two of his former supporters, and his body was then beheaded and quartered. In addition to anger at the tyrannical leader, the motive of preventing Aguirre from making statements that would have incriminated other surviving participants could also have played a role in his lynching . In a posthumous trial, Lope de Aguirre was found guilty of the crime of majesty and all of his property was confiscated in favor of the Spanish Crown.

Governor Vollato's amnesty for Aguirre's followers was first confirmed by the Audiencia (court of law), but then repealed by a decree of King Philip II of October 3, 1562.

Afterlife and tradition

Most of the reports of the Lope de Aguirres rebellion come from the court records. Some letters have also been preserved. The description of the murder of Fernando de Guzmán and other members of the expedition goes back to such letters. It is difficult to judge how credible Lope de Aguirre's accounts are. Much of his letters seem exaggerated; they contain grotesque and sometimes unbelievable details. For example, he claims that when he heard about the Reformation in Germany, as a spontaneous reaction, he had a German named “Monteverde” smashed to pieces. The apparently translated name ("Grünberg") is supposed to question the credibility of the episode, according to some interpreters.

The memory of Lope de Aguirre survived mainly in the archives of Venezuela and Colombia. Most colonial chroniclers portrayed him as an insane murderer and tyrant. This reputation persisted even after the success of the independence movements in the 19th century. There have been isolated attempts to portray Aguirre - who had broken away from Spain and in this respect could be seen as a role model for independence fighters - positively, but for the most part the new rulers viewed him as a brutal representative of the very colonial power that had been happily got rid of. In this way it became part of the national demarcation and self-discovery processes of the two states.

In 1821 Simón Bolívar planned to publish Aguirre's letters to the Spanish king for propaganda reasons. It can no longer be proven whether the publication took place. This attempt did not have a noticeable effect until much later, when Aguirre was stylized by various authors of the 20th century as a champion for the independence of Latin America with reference to Bolívar. Basque authors also discovered it as a model for their own resistance struggle against Spanish oppression. Both interpretations are considered historically untenable appropriations. In fact, Aguirre's rebellion was merely the last revolt by conquistadors who had missed out on the installation of the new absolutist order in the Spanish overseas territories.

It is suggested by some contemporary historians that the crimes Aguirre committed were not too different from the atrocities common to the day. The murders committed by him and his followers were felt by contemporaries to be particularly horrific and scandalous mainly because they were committed as part of a rebellion against royal power. However, this thesis is controversial, since there were other insurgents and rebels against the crown in the 16th century, who are also portrayed as cruel and appear in the sources in a very unfavorable light. However, none of them is portrayed as an insane butcher. Rather, in the case of Aguirre, the beginnings of a sadistic self-stylization can already be seen in his traditional letters . In fact, in some novelistic receptions of the events, the effort to portray Aguirre as a mad murderer in contrast to Pedro de Ursúa, who, contrary to the sources, is portrayed as a chivalrous nobleman, is noticeable. This unhistorical characterization has also found its way into the films.

The 1972 movie Aguirre, the Wrath of God by Werner Herzog , in which Klaus Kinski embodies the adventurer, was inspired by the life and reports of Aguirre for the (but essentially fictional) plot. The title is borrowed from a quote attributed to Lope de Aguirre. When he proclaimed himself ruler of Peru, Tierra Firme (isthmus of Panama) and Chile in March 1561, he is said to have said: "I am the wrath of God, the Prince of Freedom, Lord of Tierra Firme and the provinces of Chile".

The fictional novel Death in the Rainforest by Boris von Smercek from 1998 takes up Aguirre as a historical person and attributes his cruelty and megalomania to a psychoactive neurotoxin .

literature

  • Ingrid Galster : Aguirre or the arbitrariness of posterity. The rebellion of the Basque conquistador Lope de Aguirre in historiography and historical fiction (1561–1992) . Vervuert Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-89354-075-X
  • Ingrid Galster : Aguirre o La posteridad arbitraria. La rebelión del conquistador vasco Lope de Aguirre en historiografía y ficción histórica (1561-1992) . Ed. Universidad del Rosario and Ed. Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá 2011, ISBN 978-958-738-204-4 . (also available as an e-book)
  • Alfred Antkowiak: El Dorado. The search for the gold country . Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1976.
  • Miguel Otero Silva : Lope de Aguirre, Prince of Freedom . Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Wilhelm Plackmeyer. Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-7466-0143-6 .
  • Arturo Uslar Pietri : El Camino de El Dorado, 1947 (German by Maria Bamberg: Rauch über El Dorado, 1966)

Film adaptations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jacob Zvanev: Lope de Aguirre, el Príncipe de la libertad. Available online at: Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 31, 2014 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. (Spanish). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.elortiba.org
personal data
SURNAME Aguirre, Lope de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Basque-Spanish conqueror in South America
DATE OF BIRTH around 1511
PLACE OF BIRTH Oñate , Province of Guipuzcoa
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1561
Place of death Barquisimeto , Venezuela