The Mendoza family was a powerful line of
Spanish nobles. Members of the family wielded considerable power, especially from the
14th to the 17th centuries in Castile. The family originated from the village of
Mendoza (
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous c ...
''mendi+oza'', 'cold mountain') in the province of Álava in the
Basque countries
The seigneury of Mendoza became part of the
Kingdom of Castile
The Kingdom of Castile (; es, Reino de Castilla, la, Regnum Castellae) was a large and powerful state on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It began in the 9th centu ...
during the reign of
Alfonso XI (1312–1350), and thereafter the Mendozas participated in Castilian politics, becoming advisers, administrators, and clerics. The family's branches and name expanded out of its original nucleus in later centuries.
Prehistory
Álava is a hilly region with a core flat area (the Plains of Álava) bounded at the time by the kingdoms of
Castile, and the
Navarre
Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...
in the 13th and 14th century. It had been loosely controlled by Navarre earlier, and retained
its own distinctive customs and traditions. The town of Mendoza and the province of Álava itself was also a battlefield, where the clashing noble families of the area settled their disputes for generations. In 1332, the Mendozas had already been there at least a century,
struggling with the rival clans, such as the Ayala, Orozco, and Velasco. They traced themselves as a stem of the House of Haro, another powerful clan of the Basque countries.
Once the
Castilian Civil War came to an end with the triumph of Queen Isabella of Castile, the Basque interclan warfare generally ended as well, but even long before, since the 14th century, the Mendoza were jockeying for position and privilege in Castile, an expanding military power. By virtue of the Mendozas' status as knights and free men, they became Castilian nobility with Álava's annexation (''hidalgos''). All members of the noble class were knights, administrators, or lawyers, and served in the administration of the realm. The largest family's responsibility was to form and maintain a local army that they could make available if called on by the king. The highest nobility became direct vassals of the king.
The Mendozas in the 14th century
Gonzalo Yáñez de Mendoza
The first Mendoza to occupy a high position in Castile was
Gonzalo Yáñez de Mendoza
Gonzalo may refer to:
* Gonzalo (name)
* Gonzalo, Dominican Republic, a small town
* Isla Gonzalo, a subantarctic island operated by the Chilean Navy
* Hurricane Gonzalo, 2014
See also
* Gonzalez (disambiguation)
* Gonzales (disambiguat ...
. During 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 Na ...
, he fought in the
Battle of Río Salado in 1340 and the
Siege of Algeciras (1342–44) against the Muslim kingdoms of Spain. He served as chief huntsman to
King Alfonso XI and settled in
Guadalajara, which he ruled after marrying the sister of Íñigo López de Orozco. Orozco, another person originally from Álava, had received the post of mayor as a reward for his military services to the king. This pattern would later be replicated in the family several times: by serving the king in war, they would receive prestigious positions. Using these positions, they would then marry into power and wealth.
Pedro González de Mendoza
The son of Gonzalo, Pedro González de Mendoza (1340–1385) participated in the
Castilian Civil War. He aided the fortunes of his family greatly by siding with his stepbrother
Henry II over
Pedro the Cruel, as Henry's line eventually won the war. Pedro was taken prisoner by
Edward, the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...
in the
Battle of Najera, a crushing defeat for Henry's forces, but was eventually released after Edward left Pedro's side to return to England. Pedro was remembered as a hero for his actions in the
Battle of Aljubarrota
The Battle of Aljubarrota (; see Aljubarrota) was fought between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile on 14 August 1385. Forces commanded by King John I of Portugal and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira, with the support of Engl ...
, another crushing Castilian defeat. When
King John I's horse died, Pedro gave him his horse so that he could flee. Pedro was then slain in the battle with no way to escape. Still, his services were remembered, and the Mendoza family continued to grow in power and wealth.
Pedro was also a poet whose works include examples of the Galician tradition, a ''serrana'', and ''coplas'' of a Jew's love.
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza inherited the fortunes of his father Pedro. He married the illegitimate daughter of King Henry II, and later married
Leonor Lasso de la Vega
Leonor Lasso de la Vega (b. before 1367 - d. 1432) was a Spanish noble woman from Cantabria and head of the prestigious House of Lasso de la Vega from 1367 - 1432.
Family origins
Leonor was the paternal great-granddaughter of Garci Lasso de ...
an exceptionally powerful and well-connected widow and head of house of the prestigious
House of Lasso de la Vega
The House de la Vega, Laso de la Vega or Lasso de la Vega (sometimes even Garci Lasso de la Vega or Garcilaso de la Vega depending on the family member referenced) is a Spanish noble line from the Kingdom of Castile. The family origins lie in t ...
. That marriage united both families and their titles under the House of Mendoza. King Henry III appointed him
Admiral of Castile Admiral of Castile was the representative of the King of Castile at the head of the Navy. It was a dignity created in 1247 that lasted until 1705.
Admiral of Castile
The title of Admiral of Castile was created by King Ferdinand III the Saint in ...
, and he fought against Portugal as commander of the fleet. Still, of the three engagements he commanded, his forces lost in all of them.
When he died, he was considered among the richest men in Castile.
The Mendozas in the 15th century
Íñigo López de Mendoza
Pedro González de Mendoza
The Mendozas in the 16th century
The family loyalty demonstrated by Santillana's children did not persist through the next generation. With the cardinal dead, the family's leadership fell back in power under the constable of Castilla living in Burgos, Bernardino Fernández de Velasco, Santillana's son, an anomaly according to historian, to the detriment of Íñigo López de Mendoza y Luna, Duke of the Infantado, whose house was in Guadalajara. Bernardino would be the one to guide Mendoza throughout the critical years, in which the crown went from the Trastámara to the Habsburgo. But the constable found himself at the front of Mendozas less willing to follow orders from a sole leader. The same dimensions of power that the cardinal had assured the young generation of the family allowed its members to undertake more independent political careers.
Decline and fall
The Palace of Infantado in Guadalajara did not cease to make up the family's material centre. The Mendozas that stayed in Castilla accepted the constable's leadership, but even in this group disputes surfaced, especially between the Infantado and the Count of Coruña, who weakened the family's cohesion as a political and military unit. The family unit was even more threatened by the acts of two of Santillana's grandson: the cardinal's eldest son Rodrigo, marquis of the Cenete, and the second Count of Tendilla.
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar y Mendoza
The marquis of Cenete and the Count of Cid acted, in all aspects, totally independent from the Mendoza group, stimulated by their haughty and arrogant character. From his bases in
Granada
Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...
where, thanks to his father—the cardinal—he possessed vast domains, he occupied the post of prison governor of Guadix and came to form part of the Council of Granada. Cenete developed a career marked by audacity, opportunism, and scandal.
In 1502 he secretly married and in 1506 he kidnapped the woman whom Isabel the Catholic had forbidden him to marry. In 1514 he was accused by the Crown of entering the city of Valencia completely armed, without royal sanction, and in 1523 he joined forces with his younger brother, the Count of Mélito, once again without permission, to quell the
Revolt of the Brotherhoods. In 1535, his second daughter, heiress to the title and fortune, married the heir of the Count of Infantado, returning the titles to the central house of the Mendozas.
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
The career of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Count of Mélito and older brother to the Marquis of Cenete, presents totally different features. Mélito carried out a moderately important role as viceroy of Valencia during the first years of Charles V's reign, during the
Revolt of the Brotherhoods.
Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda
Granddaughter of the Count of Mélito, she married
Ruy Gómez de Silva, the favourite of
Felipe II, in 1553. The couple, who in 1559 received the title of Princes of
Éboli, became the centre of a political party in the Court. Before the politics of the
Duke of Alba
Duke of Alba de Tormes ( es, Duque de Alba de Tormes), commonly known as Duke of Alba, is a title of Spanish nobility that is accompanied by the dignity of Grandee of Spain. In 1472, the title of ''Count of Alba de Tormes'', inherited by G ...
of a "closed Spain", the Mendozas were promoters of a Spain "open" to new ideas.
The period, marked by the ascending politics of the Éboli in Castilla, that goes from 1555 until the death of Ruy Gómez in 1573. This politics of an "open Spain" was not typical of the House of Mendoza as a whole, but rather of the branches of the family that came from the cardinal Mendoza, for which he had created proper bases of power in the kingdoms of
Granada
Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...
and
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
.
Íñigo López de Mendoza y Quiñones
The most famous and capable of Santillana's grandsons was the second Count of Tendilla. Thanks to his uncle's influence, the cardinal of Mendoza, Tendilla was named captain general of the kingdom of
Granada
Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...
and prison governor of
Alhambra. He was capable of dazzling gestures like his cousin the Marquis of Cenete, but was intensely loyal to Ferdinand the Catholic: during the disputes about the succession that arose after 1504, he was one of the only noble Castilians that remained loyal to Fernando and was opposed to the efforts of Felipe I of Castile to be done with the kingdom.
Each time more absorbed in the problems of the
kingdom of Granada, Tendilla isolated himself from the rest of his family, becoming more conservative and convinced that his house was the only one that remained loyal to the family traditions of the Mendozas.
Lope Hurtado de Mendoza
Born in 1499, he was the youngest son of Juan Hurtado Díaz de Mendoza y Salcedo, Lord of Legarda, Salcedo, and the Bujada, major of Vizcaya. Since he was not the heir to the title of major he was sent to Court, where he prospered and came to occupy important positions, being named as member of the Council of the Kingdom and Main Butler of Margarita de Austria. He served also as governor of
Oran and ambassador before the courts of Portugal, Germany, and Rome. He inherited from his father the Lordship of the Bujada and in 1539 he was named commander of the charge of Villarubia de Ocaña by the Emperor Carlos V. He was first married to Teresa Ugarte, heiress to the Lordship of Astobiza. His second wife was margarita de Rojas, with whom he had Fernando de Mendoza, who was distinguished for his career and the military and came to be General of the coast of Granada and Knight Commander of
Sancti Spiritus in Alcántara. He died in October 1558.
Family policy
During most of the reign of the Catholic Monarchs no serious conflicts arose between the nobles or crises occurred nationally able to test the cohesion of the family. Tendilla and cousins, separated from the main branch by the expansion of a prolific family and geographic dispersion of their political careers, were delivered, every one by his side, to ensure success without further consideration to the family as a whole. When probate litigation generated, again, serious conflicts in Castile, Mendoza could not or would not act as a group, particularly Tendilla adopted positions against the rest of the family.
In the atmosphere of crisis and rebellion that gripped Castile death of Isabella in 1504, the Mendoza family was forced to choose between their traditional political support for the Trastámara dynasty, whose last representative was Ferdinand, who had cemented the family's success in the past and set the new policy, or to support the new dynasty of Burgundy. The third Duke of the Infantry, the nominal head of Mendozas, and the constable, who actually ran the affairs of the family, favored the Burgundy. Tendilla preferred to keep the tradition. While Castile was under Trastámara government, its policy was successful, when it became clear that the dynasty would die out in Castile, the position taken by Tendilla proved detrimental to its political and material prosperity, preventing the family act together and weakening Mendoza efficiency of the whole.
External links
Page dedicated to the Mendoza family by Jose L. G. de Paz, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Castillo de Calahorra of the Marquis of Cenete
{{DEFAULTSORT:House Of Mendoza
House of Lasso de la Vega
Spanish noble families