Don Alonso Fernández Biography

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY Don Alonso Fernández de Lugo, son of Pedro Fernández de Lugo and grandson of the conquistador Alonso Fernández de Lugo, was born in the town of San Cristóbal de La Laguna in 1506.2 And it was from 1534 when he acquired special notoriety, because thanks to a power granted to him by his father he moved to the peninsula in order to request the capitulation for the conquest of Santa Marta.3 Charles V He granted the settlement and capitulation on January 22, 1535 and from that moment on both he and his father dedicated themselves to organizing the expedition. Alonso Luis in Seville and Puerto de Santa María and his father in Tenerife.4 And of course, before embarking, Alonso Luis obtained from the monarch the confirmation of the granting of the habit of Santiago and the promise that on the death of his father he would inherit the title of governor of Santa Marta, along with that of Adelantado of the Canary Islands. The expedition arrived in Santa Marta at the beginning of January 1536, with 1,200 men, of which about 400 accompanied Alonso Luis, whom his father had appointed captain, to the Sierra Nevada, in a campaign of great economic results, due to the large amount of gold and jewels that they were able to steal from the Indians, but which also meant the beginning of a long conflict with the Council of the Indies for the misappropriation of the land. treasure. In fact, on March 30, 1536, Don Pedro Fernández de Lugo testified to a trial against his son, who, according to witnesses, had not only taken possession of all the gold, worth more than 20,000 Castilians, but had gone with it to Tenerife, while his father remained in Santa Marta. He died shortly afterwards in January 1537. On April 20, 1537, the King ordered Juan Martínez de la Marcha to carry out an investigation into the enterprise carried out by the Adelantado and his son, their actions with the Indians and the theft of their treasures, which was later continued by the prosecutor Villalobos, with the pertinent investigations in Seville, Tenerife and Santa Marta5. A lawsuit that would last until 1540. Despite the lawsuit with the prosecutor of the Council of the Indies, Alonso Fernández de Lugo traveled to Santa Marta in 1538, where in November he presented to the authority of the Cabildo his appointment as governor and captain general of that province, a title inherited after the death of his father. In 1539 he returned to Tenerife to take charge of his patrimony, inheritance on the island of Tenerife of lands and waters of his Mayorazgo, nettle in Tacoronte and sugar mills in Tenerife and La Palma.6 Meanwhile, the lawsuit with the prosecutor Villalobos continued, which lasted until 1540 and was joined by the conflict with the Welsers over the ownership of the governorship of the New Kingdom of Granada.7 However, the lawsuit was interrupted because Charles V from Brussels urged Alonso Luis Fernández de Lugo to return to Santa Marta, to take charge of the governorship, at a very conflictive time for that region.8 In 1542 he returned to Santa Marta, although he had previously made a will in La Laguna, before the notary Juan del Castillo.9 On May 2, 1543, he arrived in Colombia. He began to govern, according to the words of Fernández de Oviedo, in the same way as he had done in his father's time: he ordered that no person should ask for gold or emeralds from the Indians, while he sent his people before all the chiefs and lords of the land to ask them for gold and emeralds. And he even had the gold he had melted, not the King's officers being present, but his servants. He compelled the owners of the repartitions of those Indians, from whom he took the gold and emeralds, to make a donation of it, because of the fear they had of him. He confronted the royal officials over the payment of his salary, and out of fear they went to the province of Popayán, and then to Santo Domingo, where they informed the Royal Audiencia of the tyrannies and excesses that the Adelantado was carrying out in that his governorship. These officers, as they fled, left in the chest of the three keys, 89,253 pesos of low gold, and 29,651 of fine gold, and 651 of fine gold, and 690 pesos of good gold, and 558 emeralds, and a bag of flat stones. Although they believed that the adelantado had unlocked the King's treasury, and besides seizing what was due to him from his salary, he took possession of a large emerald which was called the spectacle, and is the best, they say, of all that have been seen, and a gold bracamarte with certain emeralds. In addition, they informed the Royal Court of the notice they had that the Adelantado was going to Spain, so it was ordered that in all the ports of Hispaniola, where the Adelantado was contributed, he should be arrested with everything he was carrying. In Santo Domingo, on October 11, 1544, a letter and notice was received from the Maguana, port to the west, of Hispaniola, announcing that Don Alonso Luis de Lugo, Adelantado of Tenerife, was inside the inlet of that port marinating a caravel to continue his voyage to Spain. However, at the beginning of February, 1545, the licentiate Juanes, a resident judge in Havana, had arrested the adelantado by virtue of his letter of requisition, and not only imprisoned him, but had also taken fifty arrobas of gold in deposit; and that he sent him to Spain as a prisoner. And while the Prince our Lord and the Royal Council of the Indies were in the town of Madrid, the Adelantado was a prisoner, sometimes having his inn as a prison, and sometimes the town, and very repentant, because he did not bring any more gold. And while the justice of the soil finds out these things, the adelantado enjoys his riches and emeralds. However, and despite the lawsuit with the Council of the Indies, Alonso Luis Fernández de Lugo participated in the war in Italy, where the viceroy of Naples, with the Duke of Tuscany and García de Toledo carried out a great campaign against the French from 1552.10 He was appointed colonel of infantry to go to Corsica with a coastal aid of 3,000 maravedis. which Prince Philip ordered him to give on 25 November 1553.11 On 18 December 1553 he left the port of Malaga12 and on 20 February he arrived on the island of Corsica.13 And even after participating in the surrender of San Florencio and not being satisfied with the post of colonel-general of infantry in Corsica, he wrote to the emperor and Prince Philip about his pretensions to replace Prince Andrea Doria who He was going to the coast of Provence at the beginning of March 1554.14 The war continued until April 1555 and the Adelantado Fernández de Lugo also participated in the capture of Siena and Puerto Hercules, always giving a prompt account of all this to the Emperor.15 Once the Italian campaign was over, Alonso Fernández de Lugo moved to Flanders. where Charles V was and where he witnessed his abdication on September 12, 1556, and his departure for Spain on September 17. A month later, the Adelantado of the Canary Islands and conqueror of Santa Marta died on October 15, 1556, and on December 15 of the same year his will was opened in San Cristóbal de La Laguna.