After the execution in 1538 of the marshal, advance and Governor of Nueva Toledo, Diego de Almagro , at the end of the so-called War of Las Salinas, which pitted him against his old partner, Francisco Pizarro , his brother, Hernando, went to court, where he would be tried and sentenced, while his brother, Gonzalo, would explore the Amazon in search of the country of Cinnamon. At the beginning of 1541, the only relative who remained in the City of the Kings together with the Marquis and Governor was his half-brother Francisco Martín de Alcántara. The situation was delicate, since a plot was being organized in the capital itself to put an end to the death of Pizarro .
The threat came from the son of Diego de Almagro, who had sworn to himself to avenge his father's death and who knew how to attract the hundreds of discontented who had not reached the perquisites that they expected or that were tired of the prevailing nepotism. The truth is that the rumors were insistent, but neither the governor nor his closest entourage noticed what was about to happen. And it is that Francisco Pizarro was an extremely trusting person; In fact, when he fought in a skirmish against Manco Inca's men and listened to his captains lamenting their numerical inferiority, he always replied:"we were fewer in Cajamarca, we left a thousand for each one of us, and we could beat them."
Pizarro's death
That June 26, Francisco Pizarro, with his armor halfway put on, threw himself against the attackers despite his inferiority and knowing of a more than predictable result. In the last fight of his life, he took out three almagristas. The latter, a certain Narváez, was pushed by Juan de Herrada against the Marquis, who fatally pierced him, but the other attackers had time to fatally wound him. Although he received five wounds to the head, six to the spine and three to the upper extremities, the perpetrator of the deadly blow was a certain Martín de Bilbao. Apparently, the man from Trujillo made a move to ask for a confession, to which Juan Rodríguez Barragán replied:"to hell, to hell you will go to confess" , while hitting him hard on the head with a thick pottery. Along with the Marquis, five other people lost their lives, namely, the aforementioned Francisco de Chávez, Francisco Martín de Alcántara, Juan de Vargas, son of Gómez de Tordoya; Garcia de Escandon and Francisco Gaitan. Others were seriously injured but recovered, including Gonzalo Fernández, Sheriff Juan de Vergara, and Gómez de Luna.
A hapless ending for the conqueror of Tahuantinsuyo, but probably in keeping with the character's character. Pizarro's death thus fulfilled the ritual of the conquerors, since almost all of them, with very few exceptions, died dramatically. Once again, the proverb that said that he who kills iron dies became a reality and, by the way, the tragic premonition of Mr. Espinosa, collected by Cieza de León, was fulfilled:"the vanquished, vanquished, and the winner, lost" . Now, as his own co-religionists recognized, he lost his life courageously defending his person as "so valiant knight was expected".
Ungrateful and cowardly
The assassination was hardly planned and it was almost a spontaneous start. If a whole succession of mistakes by the Marquis and those around him had not been concatenated, he could have been easily disrupted. But, between ingrates and cowards, Pizarro had been left practically alone. Precisely this argument was used by Diego de Almagro el Mozo in the letter he sent to justify his actions:the murder had been by the will of God because "there was no man, seeing him in the middle of the day, who would reach out to the sword to help him". This was not exactly true, because a few minutes later, when it was too late, a large contingent of men came to help him, but it does reflect well the situation of solitude in which Pizarro found himself in the last moment of the battle. life of him.
The governor's overconfidence and the passivity of his entourage cost them all dearly. Such an attitude already at the time raised the suspicion of several chroniclers. In fact, Francisco López de Gómara stated that he was surprised by the "lukewarmness" of Pizarro's personal secretary, Antonio Picado, and his lieutenant of justice, Juan Blázquez. Due to the persecution that both suffered at the hands of the almagristas, it does not seem that they had any kind of involvement, but, like many others, they showed flagrant cowardice, because instead of confronting the almagristas they decided to hide or escape through the windows. This was the case of both Dr. Juan Blázquez and the opportunist Francisco Ampuero, married to the Marquis's former concubine. And we say opportunist because the same thing that saved his life by jumping out the window, in 1546, after the battle of Añaquito, anticipating a fatal outcome, he changed sides, betrayed Gonzalo Pizarro and obtained in compensation positions such as alderman, bailiff mayor, mayor of the Santa Hermandad and mayor of Lima.
More controversial is the attitude of Francisco de Chávez, from Trujillo, who opened the door of the palace to speak with the assailants. He felt annoyed with Francisco Pizarro for the displacement he was suffering in favor of Francisco Picado, and he uttered some disturbing words before falling mortally wounded:“Gentlemen, what is this? Marquis, well, I was always a friend”. José Antonio del Busto sees here a certain understanding with the almagrists, which was evident years before. Is it possible that Francisco de Chávez was one of the almagristas moles inside the palace? It is difficult to affirm, but the truth is that he maintained a certain friendship with them, to the point that he stayed for a time in his house Diego de Almagro el Mozo after the battle of Las Salinas. His friendship was solid enough to think that they would not kill him, hence his attitude, but the truth is that his wrong decision almost instantly cost him his own life and put hers on a platter. his countryman Francisco Pizarro. Had the door remained closed, the assassination attempt could most likely have been thwarted, either by reorganizing the defense from within or waiting for reinforcements from without.
Chase of blackboarders
Once the crime was consummated, a persecution began against the slate workers and their properties. Most fled, but with very uneven luck. The secretary Antonio Picado took refuge in the house of the treasurer Alonso de Riquelme, who ended up betraying him. The famous fray Vicente de Valverde fled together with his brother-in-law, Dr. Juan Blázquez, and other slate workers. They reached the island of Puná, but with such bad luck that the Indians rose up and beat them to death. Juan de Barbarán, after burying the body of the Marquis and putting his sons in a safe place, paid some horsemen out of his own pocket and went in search of the lawyer Vaca de Castro. There were more executions of which hardly any news has reached us, such as that of Alonso de Corvera, a modest settler who had lived in Cartagena de Indias and who was beheaded by Almagro. Of course, those who had not been closely linked to the Marquis' family were spared their lives in exchange for swearing allegiance to the new governor.
The properties of the Pizarristas were looted, starting with the Marquis's own house. With the Quaker obsession on the surface, some of his servants were tortured to confess where the imagined family treasure was hidden. The dwellings of Hernando Pizarro, Francisco Martín de Alcántara, Diego de Agüero, Francisco de Herrera, Alonso Palomino y Orihuela, Antonio Prado, Dr. Juan Blázquez and Secretary Picado, among others, suffered the same fate. The almagristas stole a large amount of gold in cash, in addition to silver, precious stones and all the documentation of the governor's chancery. Likewise, they seized two hundred horses and weapons, knowing that they had to confront the Pizarristas and Mr. Vaca de Castro. As López de Gómara affirms, they did everything as they pleased, because Gonzalo Pizarro was on the Canela expedition, while Hernando Pizarro was in Spain.
The joys of Diego de Almagro el Mozo and his family would not last long, since the Crown used to act forcefully in these cases, but this is another matter.