Alonso de Cárdenas was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Great B ...

who served as the 44th and 47th (and last) Grand Master of the

Order of Santiago The Order of Santiago (; es, Orden de Santiago ), is a religious and military order founded in the 12th century. It owes its name to the Patron Saint of Spain, "Santiago" ( St. James the Greater). Its initial objective was to protect the pilgr ...

before the title passed to the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being bot ...

as the need for a powerful military order outside the direct control of the king ceased to exist with the end of the

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

. He is famous for building the castle at Puebla del Maestre in 1483. He was also the father of García López de Cárdenas.

Family

Alonso was a member of the House of Cárdenas, a relatively new family that would become increasingly powerful in Spain's colonial possessions in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

. He was the father of

García López de Cárdenas García López de Cárdenas y Figueroa was a Spanish conquistador who was the first European to see the Grand Canyon. Life Cárdenas was born in Llerena, Crown of Castile, second son to Alonso de Cárdenas, 1st Count of La Puebla del Maestre ...

who would go on to discover the Gran Cañón del Colorado, what is today known simply as the "Grand Canyon".

Biography

Alonso de Cárdenas served the

during the

War of the Castilian Succession The War of the Castilian Succession was the military conflict contested from 1475 to 1479 for the succession of the Crown of Castile fought between the supporters of Joanna 'la Beltraneja', reputed daughter of the late monarch Henry IV of Castile ...

. One of the captains under his command was

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1 September 1453 – 2 December 1515) was a Spanish general and statesman who led successful military campaigns during the Conquest of Granada and the Italian Wars. His military victories and widespread po ...

, also known simply as the "Gran Capitan" for his considerable military exploits throughout Spain's European empire. After the

Battle of Albuera The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was a battle during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about south ...

, Alonso singled the Gran Capitan out for praise stating that he had always seen the captain leading his troops from the front, a fact he was sure of due to the splendor of his armor. Throughout his life, he had to engage in continuous power struggles to obtain and maintain power. With the finalization of the Spanish

, there were fewer and fewer possibilities to contribute militarily to the crown. For this reason, the struggles for power in contemporary Spain left the battlefield and were concentrated more on the political front. He was Grand Master of the

during two separate terms: the first was from 1474 to 1476 and the second lasted from 1477 to 1493, the last year that the order existed in a semi independent form from the Spanish crown. Alonso de Cárdenas obtained his first term as Grand Master after his predecessor,

Juan Pacheco Juan Pacheco, 1st Duke of Escalona (1419 – 1 October 1474), better known as Juan Pacheco, Marquess of Villena, was a Castilian noble of Portuguese descent who rose to power in the last years of the reign of Juan II of Castile and came to d ...

, the Marquis of Villena, renounced his title in favor of his son,

Diego López de Pacheco y Portocarrero Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. E ...

. This type of succession for the Grand Mastership of Santiago was incorrect as the title was traditionally one obtained by election and not by inheritance. This kicked off a power struggle amongst the nobles of the order and led to a confrontation between Rodrigo Manrique de Lara, and Don Alonso de Cárdenas himself. The result of this power struggle was a period of time in which the order had two different Grand Masters, one for Castile and one for Leon. King

Ferdinand II of Aragon Ferdinand II ( an, Ferrando; ca, Ferran; eu, Errando; it, Ferdinando; la, Ferdinandus; es, Fernando; 10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), also called Ferdinand the Catholic (Spanish: ''el Católico''), was King of Aragon and Sardinia from ...

stepped into the argument and mediated this division which ended upon the death of Pedro Manrique two years later in 1476. For his contribution in the war against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, Alonso was eventually granted the title of Grand Master in 1474. Throughout his tenure as the Grand Master, Alonso held his chapter meetings at Azuaga in the Chapel of San Sebastián which would later become known as the

Convento de la Merced San Pedro is a Roman Catholic parish church located in the town of Valdunquillo, province of Valladolid, Spain. The church was adjacent to the convent of Nuestra Señora de la Merced Descalza. The church once was dedicated to Nuestra Señora de ...

. Another instance of political conflict arose between members of the order and the Condado de Feria, located in

Zafra Zafra () is a town situated in the Province of Badajoz (Extremadura, Spain), and the capital of the comarca of Zafra - Río Bodión. It has a population of 16,677, according to the 2011 census. Zafra is the hometown of Fray Ruy Lopez, author ...

. This dispute resulted in a confrontation between Alonso and the "Señor de Feria" after which an agreement was made that the order would demolish their castle at

Los Santos de Maimona Los Santos de Maimona is a municipality in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest ...

which had consequently been rebuilt only a few years previously in 1469 by the previous Grand Master,

. Disputes also arose with Enrique de Guzmán, the

Duke of Medina Sidonia Duke of Medina Sidonia ( es, Duque de Medina Sidonia) is a peerage grandee title of Spain in Medina-Sidonia, holding the oldest extant dukedom in the kingdom, first awarded by King John II of Castile in 1380.Castillo de Jerez de los Caballeros Castillo (Spanish for " castle") may refer to: People * Castillo (surname) Places Geography Dominican Republic * Castillo, Dominican Republic, a town in Duarte Province, Dominican Republic Nicaragua * El Castillo (municipality), a municipal ...

to defend himself against the Duke. Shortly thereafter in 1478, Alonso ambushed and defeated the Duke's forces at Guadalcanal after which time the Duke renounced his claim by order of the king. He finished his career as Grand Master in the Conquest of Granada.

Death and legacy

Alonso de Cárdenas died in 1493 and was buried in a

sepulcher A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

at the church of

Santiago de Llerena Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

in Llerena. After his death, the

, by papal mandate, passed into the ownership of the Spanish crown. With the finalization of the

, there was not any new Spanish territory to conquer on the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

and nothing left to fight for.

References

* The information on this page was translated from its Spanish equivalent :es:Alonso de Cárdenas. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cardenas, Alonso de Year of birth missing 1493 deaths 15th-century Castilians Spanish untitled nobility Order of Santiago Grand Masters of the Order of Santiago Knights of Santiago

Family

Biography

Death and legacy

See also

References