Hernando Pizarro y de Vargas (; born between 1501 and 1508, died 1578) was a Spanish conquistador and one of the

Pizarro brothers The Pizarro brothers were Spanish conquistadors who came to Peru in 1530. They all were born in Trujillo, Spain. They were four brothers: * Juan Pizarro (d. 1536) first illegitimate son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar and Ma ...

who ruled over

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

. Hernando was born in Trujillo, (

Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...

), Spain, son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar (senior) (1446–1522) – who as

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

served in the Italian campaigns under

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 p ...

, and in Navarre, with some distinction – and wife Isabel de Vargas.

Pizarro Brothers

As one of the

, he was related to

Francisco Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name '' Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father o ...

Juan ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...

, and

Gonzalo Pizarro Gonzalo Pizarro y Alonso (; 1510 – April 10, 1548) was a Spanish conquistador and younger paternal half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca Empire. Bastard son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar (senior) ( ...

.Prescott, W.H., 2011, The History of the Conquest of Peru, Digireads.com Publishing, He had two full sisters, Inés Pizarro y de Vargas and Isabel Pizarro y de Vargas, married to Gonzalo de Tapia. Through his father, he was a second cousin of Hernán Cortés.Machado, J. T. Montalvão, ''Dos Pizarros de Espanha aos de Portugal e Brasil'', Author's Edition, 1st Edition, Lisbon, 1972.

Inca Empire

Starting in 1532 and succeeding in 1533, Francisco Pizarro conquered the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...

and claimed what we know today as Peru for Spain. In the 16th century the Incas were conquered by the

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both in ...

, Hernando Pizarro, who was the brother of the chief commander of the conquest Francisco Pizarro, writes a letter to the royal audience of Santo Domino about the expedition. Hernando Pizarro wrote this letter on November 1533. Hernando Pizarro starts his letter by explaining how the government founded a town called San Miguel and then proceeded to search for the town of

Cajamarca Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, ''Kashamarka'', is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Peru ...

whose rulers have been fighting. In this letter, we get a better understanding of what type of person Hernando Pizarro was. In the letter, Hernando gives a description image of his surroundings while on the expedition "The road over the mountains is a thing worth seeing, because, though the ground is so rugged, such beautiful roads could not in truth be found throughout Christendom. The greater part of them is paved. There is a bridge of stone or wood over every stream. We found bridges of network over a very large and powerful river, which we crossed twice, which was a marvelous thing to see."Markham, Clements R., Francisco De Xerez, Miguel De Estete, Hernando Pizarro, and Pedro Sancho. ''Reports on the Discovery of Peru''. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1872. Print. Hernando Pizarro was a very intellectual man with a great appreciation for his surroundings, one of the many reasons for why his part in conquering the

with his brother,

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro González, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of Peru. Born in Trujillo, Spain to a poor family, Pizarro chose ...

, was essential.

The New World

Unlike his other brothers, he was born in wedlock, and he was educated and gained influence in the Spanish court. In 1530 Hernando departed for 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. ...

with his half-brother,

, and accompanied him during his conquests in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

.Hemming, J., 1970, The Conquest of the Incas, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., In 1533, Hernando was sent back to Spain with the royal fifth for the Emperor, which consisted of "a number of the most beautiful articles" collected for Atahuallpa's ransom. Hernando arrived

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

on 9 January, 1534, proceeded to

Calatayud Calatayud (; 2014 pop. 20,658) is a municipality in the Province of Zaragoza, within Aragón, Spain, lying on the river Jalón, in the midst of the Sistema Ibérico mountain range. It is the second-largest town in the province after the capital, ...

, and an audience with Charles. Hernando delivered the

royal fifth The royal fifth (Spanish and pt, quinto real / quinto del rey) is an old royal tax that reserves to the monarch 20% of all precious metals and other commodities (including slaves) acquired by his subjects as war loot, found as treasure or extra ...

and recounted the Pizarro brothers' adventures. Charles confirmed Francisco Pizarro's previous grants, extending them seventy leagues further south, and then gave Francisco's partner,

Diego de Almagro Diego de Almagro (; – July 8, 1538), also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo, was a Spanish conquistador known for his exploits in western South America. He participated with Francisco Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru. While subd ...

, a grant two hundred leagues further south. When he returned to Peru, he ruled with his other half-brothers (

and

) over the prized

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

capital of

Cuzco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...

. Governing with an iron fist, he helped with the eventual suppression of Inca uprisings led by

Manco Inca Manco Inca Yupanqui ( 1515 – c. 1544) (''Manqu Inka Yupanki'' in Quechua) was the founder and monarch (Sapa Inca) of the independent Neo-Inca State in Vilcabamba, although he was originally a puppet Inca Emperor installed by the Spaniards. ...

Cuzco

After

returned from

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

from a fruitless gold-seeking expedition, he found that Hernando and his brothers were in control of Cuzco. However, as he had not obtained any credit for having been Francisco Pizarro's main partner in discovering Peru, he decided to claim Cuzco as part of his share. Almagro seized the city in 1537, capturing Hernando and Juan. Hernando was eventually released after negotiations between Almagro and Francisco, and in 1538 he and Gonzalo returned with an army to confront Almagro. In the ensuing

Battle of Las Salinas The Battle of Las Salinas was a military conflict and decisive confrontation between the forces of Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro against those of rival conquistador Diego de Almagro, on April 6, 1538, during the Conquest of Peru. Both camps clai ...

, the Pizarros won a decisive victory, capturing Almagro and the city. The execution of Almagro later that year and the general disorder caused by the Spanish infighting caused substantial fallout in the Spanish court. Hernando was again called upon to leverage his royal contacts: in 1539 he returned to Spain to lobby in favor of the Pizarros. Their perceived treachery was too great, however, and despite Hernando's bribery, he was imprisoned for the next twenty years, from June 1541 until May 1561, in the

Castle of La Mota The Castle of La Mota or Castillo de La Mota is a medieval fortress, located in the town of Medina del Campo, province of Valladolid, Spain. It is so named because of its location on an elevated hill, a ''mota'' (in Spanish), from where it domin ...

.Leon, P., 1998, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru, Chronicles of the New World Encounter, edited and translated by Cook and Cook, Durham: Duke University Press, He then lived in his Trujillo palace until his death in 1578.

Family

In 1552, Hernando married his niece, Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui (she was the daughter of Francisco Pizarro and his Inca mistress Inés Yupanqui) in Spain. Although born out of wedlock, she was legitimized by Imperial Decree. They had five children. One of their sons, Francisco Pizarro y Pizarro, married twice and had offspring, the Marqueses de La Conquista. As a result, the Pizarro line survived Hernando's death, though currently it is extinct in male line. His father was a son of Fernando Alonso Pizarro and wife Isabel de Vargas Rodríguez de Aguilar, paternal grandson of Fernando or Hernando Alonso de Hinojosa and wife Teresa Martínez Pizarro, and brother of Juan Pizarro, who died without issue in 1521, and Diego Fernández Pizarro, who married Marina López and had a son Fernando Pizarro López, who had a natural son named Diego Pizarro de Vargas, married to Juana Rodríguez de Bobadilla, with female issue in Portugal.

Ancestors

References

External links

Letter from Hernando Pizarro to the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo, in Reports on the Discovery of Peru

''The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pizarro, Hernando 1508 births 1578 deaths People from Tierra de Trujillo Colonial Peru Spanish colonization of the Americas Extremaduran conquistadors 16th-century Spanish people 16th-century Peruvian people