Luis Merlo de la Fuente

Luis Merlo de la Fuente (* around 1560 in Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real) , Castile , Spain ; † after 1620 ) was a Spanish lawyer who temporarily served as governor of Chile in 1610/1611 .

Life

Career as a judge and auditor

Merlo came from Castile. In 1584 he graduated from the Colegio Mayor of the renowned University of Salamanca .

In 1588 he went to the New World and became a colonial judge ( Oidor ) in Panama and Lima . There he married Jerónima de Santa Cruz on May 1, 1590.

The viceroy of Peru , García Hurtado de Mendoza , sent him to Santiago de Chile at the end of 1592 to do the juicio de residencia for the governor Alonso de Sotomayor y Valmediano . Every official of the Spanish colonial empire had to pass this review of official business before he was allowed to return home in honor. The proceedings dragged on for fifteen months: he officiated in Puertobello in 1602 and in Cartagena in 1603 .

Establishment of the Real Audiencia of Chile

King Philip III decided by decree of March 23, 1606 that the colony of Chile should again receive its own Real Audiencia . Until 1573 the first Real Audiencia of Chile had its seat in Concepción.

Merlo was to act as dean and oidor of the new Audiencia in Santiago. The Oidores reached Santiago in April 1609. When Governor Alonso García Ramón had returned to Santiago from the theater of the Arauco War in August , the Audiencia could solemnly begin its business on September 9, 1609.

Term of office as interim governor

When Governor García Ramón fell seriously ill in Concepción , he named Merlo as his successor on July 19, 1610. Due to the poor winter road conditions, Luis Merlo only received this news on August 15, when García had already been dead ten days.

Although he had no military training or experience, Merlo set out to lead the Spanish troops in the fight against the insurgent Mapuche , acting with "vigor and avoiding the surprises and disasters that other governors had to endure."

At the beginning of 1611 he handed over his office to the viceroy's successor, Juan Jaraquemada . In 1612 Merlo returned to Lima and in 1620 resigned from the royal service.

literature

• José Toribio Medina : Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile . Imprenta Elziviriana, Santiago, Chile 1906, p. 532–533 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [PDF; accessed June 15, 2010]).
• Diego Barros Arana : Historia General de Chile . tape 4 . Editorial Universitaria, Santiago de Chile 2001, ISBN 956-11-1544-1 , p. 9-14 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [accessed June 10, 2010] First edition: 1886).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Original: " había dirigido la guerra con vigor, y evitado las sorpresas y desastres que sufrieron otros gobernadores. »(Barros Arana, p. 14).