Historical Figures

Carmine Nicola Caracciolo

Carmine Nicola Caracciolo he was the VI prince of Santo Buono and XXVI Viceroy of Peru. He is distinguished among the list of colonial rulers of the country by the enlightened nobility of his lineage, since he was the head of an ancient Italian family. he was born in the castle of Bucchianico (Naples) on July 5, 1671 . Together with the principality of Santo Buono (title of the Holy Empire), he was inherited the duchy of Castel di Sangro, the marquisate of Bucchianico and the counties of Schiavi, Cagracotta and San Vito, also receiving the dignity of Grandee of Spain (1712) . He was the son of Prince Marino Caracciolo of Santo Buono and Donna Giovanna Caracciolo Torella. A man of deep culture and refinement, he was called by Felipe V to serve as ambassador of the Spanish crown in Rome and Venice. He was then the first president appointed to the Viceroyalty of Peru after the War of Succession. He spent nearly two years preparing for his journey; He left Cadiz in November 1715, made landfall in Portobelo, Panama and Paita, and through the towns and sandbanks of the coast he continued to the city of Lima, where he made his public entry on October 5, 1716 . He fought the “direct” trade that French ships had carried out since the end of the 17th century in all the coastal ports and captured several dams in Arica and Cobija, a fact that contributed to discouraging illicit traffickers; he having also been responsible for the organization of the shelter or port surveillance service. Due to a plague that devastated the interior of the country, causing a notable drop in wheat production, he authorized the massive importation of this cereal from Chile. In addition, it protected the installation in the mountain area of ​​the first twelve Franciscan missionaries - one of whom, Fray Francisco de San José, would later found the convent of Santa Rosa de Ocopa - who went out to evangelize the so-called Cerro de la Sal. He had to comply with the royal order of 1717 that established the viceroyalty of New Granada , with capital in Santafé de Bogotá, thus separating the provinces of Tierra Firme and Quito that had been subject to the jurisdiction of Lima. Opposed to the Indian mita he consulted the Council of the Indies to abolish him , obtaining after some time a royal certificate that ordered the cessation of all forced mita in the mines; certificate that, although dated April 5, 1720, a few months after his departure from Lima, was in justice an achievement of his management.

The refined prince apparently felt uncomfortable in this "tropicalized" social environment, for which he began to ask for his relief from 1719. Other versions indicate that he had a confrontation with the Archbishop of Charcas, Diego Morcillo Rubio de Auñón, who had ruled from interim way before your arrival. On January 26, 1720 he left the insignia of the viceroyalty in the hands of Morcillo , and immediately set sail on the ship La Peregrina heading to Acapulco. He crossed the territory of New Spain and arrived in 1721 back at the port of Cádiz. He spent the last years of his life in his palatial estates and dwellings, dying at the court of Madrid on July 26, 1726 . He married twice:first with Doña Constanza Ruffo, of the Sicilian nobility, in 1693, and later with Doña Isabel María Martínez, in Madrid, in 1723 .


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