Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ulloa-Ossorio (

Medina del Campo Medina del Campo is a town and municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Part of the Province of Valladolid, it is the centre of a farming area. It lies on the banks of the Zapardiel river, in the centre of t ...

, 1462 –

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

, 1504) was the daughter of Juan de Bobadilla and named after her cousin Beatriz de Bobadilla. Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio was married to the ruler of the

La Gomera La Gomera () is one of Spain's Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. With an area of , it is the third-smallest of the archipelago's eight main islands. It belongs to the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. La Gomer ...

and El Hierro islands, Lord Hernán Peraza the Younger and after his death she succeeded him as ruler.

Background

Beatriz was born in Medina del Campo to the powerful and wealthy Bobadilla family with close ties to the

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingd ...

. Her father, Juan de Bobadilla, held numerous roles including alderman for Medina del Campo, governor of Madrid, and chief huntsman for the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

. As a result of this last role, Beatriz became known as "La Cazadora" – The Huntress. The name was also a reference to her attractiveness and her rumored high-profile relationships with King Fernando and

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

. As a result of the former, Queen Isabella arranged for her to marry Hernán (also known as Fernán) Peraza, Lord of La Gomera and El Hierro, in 1482.

Conquest of the Canary Islands

During the Spanish Conquest of the Canary Islands the island of La Gomera was not taken in battle but was incorporated into the Peraza-Herrera fiefdom through an agreement between Hernán Peraza the Elder and some of the insular aboriginal groups who accepted the rule of the Castilian. However, there were a number of uprisings by the

Guanches The Guanche were the Indigenous peoples, indigenous inhabitants of the Spain, Spanish Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean some to the west of modern Morocco and the North African coast. The islanders spoke the Guanche language, which i ...

aboriginals due to outrages committed by the rulers on the native Gomeros. The last of these, in 1488, resulted in the death of his son and Beatriz's husband, Hernán Peraza the Younger. Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio then had to seek the assistance of Pedro de Vera, conqueror of Gran Canaria, in order to snuff out the rebellion. The subsequent repression caused the death of two hundred rebels and many others were sold into slavery in the Spanish markets. Beatriz then took her deceased husband's place as Lord of La Gomera and El Hierro, ruling for over ten years until their son, Guillén Peraza de Ayala, was old enough to rule himself.

Columbus

made La Gomera his last port of call before crossing the Atlantic in 1492 with his three ships. He stopped here to replenish his crew's food and water supplies, intending to stay only four days. Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio, the Countess of La Gomera and widow of Hernán Peraza the Younger, offered him vital support in preparations of the fleet and he ended up staying one month. When he finally sailed, she gave him cuttings of sugarcane, which became the first to reach the New World. Columbus would visit her a further two times, in 1493 and 1498.

Children

Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio had two children, Guillén Peraza de Ayala and Inés de Herrera. Guillén succeeded her as ruler of the islands and was made a Count by Queen

Juana of Castile Joanna of Castile (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), historically known as Joanna the Mad (), was the nominal queen of Castile from 1504 and queen of Aragon from 1516 to her death in 1555. She was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile ...

/Emperor

Carlos V Charles V may refer to: Kings and Emperors * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise Others * Charles V, Duke ...

References

{{Authority control Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands Spanish women