Pizarro, Hernando (c. 1503–1578)

Hernando Pizarro (b. ca. 1503; d. 1578), conqueror of Peru. Born in Trujillo, Estremadura, Spain, he was the only legitimate son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro; his mother was Isabel de Vargas. He received a competent education and entered military service. As a youth he fought alongside his father in the wars in Navarre and then served in Spanish campaigns in Italy. He returned to Spain in 1528 and helped half brother Francisco Pizarro secure from the crown the famous Agreement of Toledo, which placed Francisco fully in charge of the Peruvian venture. In Trujillo, Hernando helped organize the third expedition, in which all four Pizarro brothers participated.

Hernando's difficulties with Francisco's close associate, Diego de Almagro, first began in Panama and would have grave consequences for both Francisco and Almagro. After helping to found the city of San Miguel, Hernando marched into the highlands of Peru with Francisco Pizarro. Hernando was a member of the first delegation to meet Atahualpa at Cajamarca on 6 November 1532, and, after the Inca's imprisonment, he was the one who led the expedition to the shrine of Pachacamac to collect the gold promised as ransom. This first European reconnaissance (5 January to 14 April 1533) of Peru's heartland and the magnificent pyramid of Pachacamac revealed to the outsiders the extent of Inca wealth. Francisco put Hernando in charge of transporting the royal fifth of the treasure from Atahualpa's ransom to Spain, where the wealth of the Incas stimulated the interest of other Europeans. Hernando became a member of the Order of Santiago, and Francisco gained new honors from the crown.

Hernando returned to Peru in 1535 and assumed charge of Cuzco, just as the Native American uprising led by Manco Inca began. Hernando fought with great valor; as the siege at Cuzco was lifted, Diego de Almagro returned from Chile, claimed the city, and jailed Gonzalo and Hernando Pizarro. Gonzalo fled, while Almagro held Hernando captive and negotiated Peru's future with Francisco Pizarro. To win release, Hernando promised to return to Spain, but instead he led an army that destroyed the Almagrists at the battle of Salinas (6 April 1538). Hernando was largely responsible for Almagro's execution in Cuzco.

In July 1539 Hernando returned to Spain via Mexico. He lived briefly in Madrid, then Valladolid, but Almagrists filed charges against him in the Council of the Indies. Ordered imprisoned in the spring of 1540, he was jailed in 1541 in the castle of La Mota in Medina del Campo. He paid heavy fines and remained in prison until 17 May 1561. Throughout his long imprisonment, with the help of able agents, he conducted business in Spain and the Indies. He also maintained ample staff and was allowed female companions. Isabel de Mercado bore him several children, but ultimately he married (1551) his young niece, Francisca (1534–1598), daughter of his brother Francisco and Inca princess I'nes Yupanqui Huaylas. They had three boys and two girls. Hernando built a great palace on the main plaza of Trujillo. Urban and rural properties and investments made the family one of the wealthiest in Estremadura, and in 1578 an entailed estate was established. Between July and August 1578, ill and bedridden, nearly blind, and too weak even to sign, Hernando Pizarro modified his will for the last time and soon died.

See alsoAlmagro, Diego de; Pizarro, Francisco.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

José Antonio Del Busto Duthurburu, Francisco Pizarro: El marqués gobernador (1966).

James Lockhart, The Men of Cajamarca (1972), pp. 157-168.

Rafael Varón Gabai and Auke Pieter Jacobs, "Peruvian Wealth and Spanish Investments: The Pizarro Family During the Sixteenth Century," in Hispanic American Historical Review 67 (1987): 657-695.

Maria Rostworowski De Diez Canseco, Doña Francisca Pizarro (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Lavallé, Bernard. Francisco Pizarro: Biografía de una conquista. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Instituto Frances de Estudios Andinos, 2005.

Varón Gabai, Rafael. Francisco Pizarro and His Brothers: The Illusion of Power in Sixteenth-Century Peru. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.

                                    Noble David Cook