Diego Fernández de Córdoba, first Marquis of Guadalcázar and XIII Viceroy of Peru . He was born in Seville in 1578. Son of Francisco Fernández de Córdoba y Portocarrero, twenty-four of the Córdoba council, and Doña Francisca Melgarejo de las Roelas. He was a knight of the Order of Santiago and gentleman of the chamber of King Felipe III, who precisely in 1609 rewarded him with the marquisal dignity. He married Doña Mariana Riederer de Paar, of illustrious Germanic lineage. In her company he moved to Mexico in 1612 to assume the functions of viceroy; his government of eight years in that territory was carried out with exceptional skill and plausible assiduity, reasons for which he deserved on August 22, 1620 the promotion to the positions of viceroy, governor and captain general of Peru and president of the audience from Lima . It was by the way the sixth time that a president initiated in the delicate governmental tasks in New Spain was transferred to our country. Guadalcázar made the customary landing in Paita and made his solemn entry into the Rímac metropolis on July 25, 1622, the feast of Santiago Apóstol.
Term as viceroy
During the administration of this viceroy, the entry into the Pacific took place on May 8, 1624, of the squadron led by the Dutch corsair Jacques l'Hermite Clerk, at the head of eleven ships with 294 cannons and more than 1,600 men, who anchored in the Callao with the intention of looting it; but the opportune measures taken in the capital allowed the recruitment of twenty thousand men, including clerics, for the defense of the kingdom. The foreign enemies were repulsed in various skirmishes and, after the death of l'Hermite on the island of San Lorenzo, as a result of dysentery, they decided to withdraw. Among some curious ordinances given by this ruler is the one referring to the suit of the covered ones, whose use he tried to prohibit without success in 1624, and the one that prohibited seculars from using the mule to ride. On December 31, 1625, the Marquis of Guadalcázar presided over an auto de fe in which the Inquisition burned two Portuguese Judaizers and punished the "blessed" Lima from the circle of Santa Rosa, accused of "illuminadism".
Don Diego Fernández de Córdoba sponsored the foundation of the monastery of Santa Clara in the capital of the viceroyalty, as well as the construction in the suburb of San Lázaro of large warehouses to house the black muzzles . Also by this time the factory of the sober cathedral of Lima, designed by the architect Francisco Becerra, was completed. The town of Moquegua was rebuilt, with the name of Santa Catalina de Guadalcázar, and in Potosí the notorious alterations between the parties of the Basques and the "vicuñas" (Extremeños and Andalusians) occurred. Viceroy Guadalcázar was very committed to his work and performance of his duties, as evidenced by the fact that he had compiled collections of official letters, consultations, reports and notes on the things and events that happened in Mexico and Peru. He governed this last country for six and a half years, until January 14, 1629. Afterwards he returned to Spain and retired to live in the palace that he had built during his prolonged absence in the town of Guadalcázar, head of his lordship, to four leagues from Córdoba. Here he died on October 6, 1630, at the age of 52 .