Luis de Velasco y Ruíz de Alarcón (1511-1564) was the second viceroy of New Spain since this ceased to be a position that was designated hereditary. He ruled from November 25, 1550 to July 31, 1564. He held the position after Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco.
As viceroy of New Granada, he had power over the territory of Mexico, part of the United States, a territory that is currently part of Canada and Central American countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. He also had power over islands such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. Even Asian areas like the Philippines, the Caroline Islands and the Marianas.
Source: Jojagal, via Wikimedia Commons.
Before he had already played the role of viceroy in Navarre. He was the eleventh person to hold the post, a position he held from May 20, 1547, after Álvaro Gómez Manrique, until January 7, 1549, when he was replaced by Bernardino de Cárdenas.
This occurred during the reign of Carlos I of Spain, also known as César or Carlos IV of Navarra.
Biography
Velasco y Ruíz de Alarcón was born in Spain in 1511. His father was Antonio Velasco Manrique and his mother Ana Juana Ruíz de Alarcón. His family (the Velasco) formed one of the most important groups in the Kingdom of Castile. They had noble titles and a lot of power at the military level when the King of Spain was absent.
He started working for the King of Spain, Carlos I, when he was only 14 years old. Due to the trust that existed, he came to play important roles for the Crown at a military level, then he was appointed as viceroy of Navarre.
In 1550 he arrived in New Spain, specifically what is now known as Fortaleza San Juan de Ulúa in Veracruz, Mexico. Three months after his arrival in the American continent, he began his government as viceroy of this territory, when he moved to what is now known as Mexico City.
Family
He was the first child of the marriage between his parents Antonio and Ana. He had a sister from that union named Antonia. Velasco and Ruiz de Alarcón's father was married to a second marriage, in which he had four other children.
Thanks to his good relations with the groups close to the King, Velasco was able to meet Ana de Castilla, a family of important people within the Spanish royalty. They married and the marriage had four children: Francisco, Luis, Ana and Beatriz.
When Luis de Velasco y Ruíz de Alarcón traveled to New Spain, he surrounded himself with his son Luis (who was only 11 years old), a brother he had thanks to the second marriage of his father and one of his nephews.
His wife, Ana de Castilla, remained in Spain until 1553 with the other children of the couple. That year she decided to travel to Mexico with the oldest of the women, Ana, but shortly after she returned to Spain, where she died in 1561. Her other two children, Francisco and Beatriz, never traveled to America.
Louis the younger
The second son of Luis de Velasco and Ruíz de Alarcón was also very important during the time when the American territories were under the rule of the Spanish Crown.
Luis de Velasco y Castilla was born in 1539, he was nicknamed the young man and was the eighth viceroy he held in the kingdom of New Spain, a position he held twice, to rule for a total of 9 years.
Contributions
Despite having been viceroy first in Navarre, he is best remembered for his role in America. It is considered that during his government as viceroy of New Spain, Luis de Velasco y Ruíz de Alarcón was well aware of the consequences of each of his decisions.
It was stressed that he always tried not to generate negative effects and that is why he ruled for 14 years.
Among the most important decisions he is reminded of is having freed thousands of indigenous people who were illegally slaves, since the encomiendas had supposedly been abolished.
Luis de Velasco y Ruíz de Alarcón stood out for enforcing the encomienda prohibition despite the criticism he received from the Spanish who benefited from the exploitation of the Indians.
Under his rule the University of Mexico was built, which opened its doors in 1553 and which taught in principle grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy. Classes were taught in Latin and a large part of the student population was made up of the Creoles and Spaniards of the time.
Luis de Velasco y Ruíz de Alarcón was important for the expansion of the viceroyalty of New Spain by conquering new lands, especially in areas north of the Spanish colony.
problems
Velasco y Ruiz de Alarcón ruled without major problems until 1558. In that year King Carlos I died and his son, Felipe II, came to power. Groups of Spaniards in New Spain began to send complaints to the Crown about the viceroy, his health deteriorated, and he had problems with the Church.
In spite of everything, he continued working. Velasco conquered new territories towards the north of the American continent. The discovery of mines allowed him to increase the coffers of the Crown.
One of his main detractors was Martín Cortés, known for being the richest man in the viceroyalty and who was always against the elimination of the encomiendas.
Death
Luis de Velasco y Ruíz de Alarcón died in 1564. He had already been ill for some time and his physical condition worried the politicians of the time. He was viceroy of New Spain until the day of his death, when Gastón de Peralta became his successor.
In 1562 his health problems became public knowledge. To begin with, the doctors discovered gout (arthritis) in him and in a couple of years it became very clear that he suffered from exhaustion from his obligations and the protests surrounding his government.
His death occurred on a Friday morning. The burial had all the possible honors for the time and his family, the archbishop, several bishops, members of the council, more than 600 soldiers marched in his honor and all the relevant figures of political life paid honors to the deceased viceroy.
When his son Luis de Velasco y Castilla became viceroy of New Spain, he ordered that his father's remains be taken to Spain and they are currently in Palencia.
References
- Barrios, Feliciano. Law and Public Administration in the Hispanic Indies. Editions of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, 2002.
- Muñoz Altea, Fernando, and Magdalena Escobosa Hass de Rangel. The History Of The Official Residence Of Los Pinos. Economic Culture Fund, 1988.
- Rubio Mañé, Jorge Ignacio. The Viceroyalty. Economic Culture Fund, 1992.
- Sosnowski, Saul. Critical Reading Of American Literature. Ayacucho Library, 1997.
- Terukina Yamauchi, Jorge L. The Empire of Virtue: Mexican Greatness (1604) By Bernardo De Balbuena. Thames, 2017.