Pedro Arias Dávila
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2021) |
Pedro Arias Dávila | |
---|---|
1st Vasco Nuñez de Balboa | |
Succeeded by | Pedro de los Ríos y Gutiérrez de Aguayo |
Royal Governor of Nicaragua | |
In office 1528–1531 | |
Monarch | Charles I |
Preceded by | Diego Gutiérrez de los Ríos y Aguayo |
Succeeded by | Pedro Ramírez de Quiñones |
Personal details | |
Born | 1440 General |
Battles/wars |
|
Pedro Arias de Ávila (1440 – 6 March 1531; often Pedro Arias Dávila) was a Spanish soldier and colonial administrator. He led the first great Spanish expedition to the mainland of the New World. There, he served as governor of Panama (1514–1526) and Nicaragua (1527–1531), and founded Panama City (1519).[1][2] He died in 1531 aged around 90 or 91.
Family
Pedrarias was the son of Pedro Arias and María Ortiz de Cota. He was born into a prominent and well-connected Spanish family. His grandfather, Diego Arias de
Early life
As a boy, he was a
Towards the end of 1485, he married an intimate friend of queen
A few years before 1513, he collapsed of some unrecorded illness. As he was about to be lowered to his grave, a tearful servant who was embracing the casket was astonished to hear movement inside. Incredibly, Arias was breathing and very much alive. Thereafter, he ordered an annual Requiem Mass sung for him in the cathedral at Torrejón, and stood in his own unused grave to listen to it. He took his coffin everywhere he went, even to the New World.
In 1514, at the age of nearly seventy, he was made commander by King Ferdinand II of Aragon of the largest Spanish expedition (19 vessels and 1,500 men) hitherto sent to America.
America
They reached
Arias Dávila superseded him and promised him his daughter in wedlock but he had Balboa judicially murdered at age 44 on 15 January 1519,
Another of Arias Dávila's daughters, who was born when he was elderly, Isabel Arias or Isabel de Bobadilla (to mark the female ancestors of the family), was married in
In 1519, Arias Dávila founded
The death of the New Governor, a change of position decided in Spain, Lope de Sosa, in 1520 before even landing and taking possession, the expeditions with military garrisons from Panamá and Nata, to reduce the "disorders" promoted by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, a.k.a. Francisco Fernández de Córdoba, the diversion from New Governor of Castilla del Oro since 1526, now, more or less Panamá, Pedro de los Ríos, getting a nomination for himself as the new Governor of Nicaragua in 1527 show the energy of Dávila, already approaching his nineties.[clarification needed]
María Ortiz Cota, the mother of Dávila, was the daughter of Toledo family member and Royal Treasurer Alonso Cota (died 1468) who was married to one Teresa Ortiz, their children being known however as "Ortiz Cota" under the Portuguese family style, whereas, following the Spanish succession style, they would have been known as "Cota Ortiz".
Moreover, he was a party to the original agreement with Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro which brought about the discovery of Peru, but he withdrew (1526) for a small compensation, having lost confidence in the outcome. In the same year, he was superseded as Governor of Panama by Pedro de los Ríos and retired to León, Nicaragua, where he was named its new governor on 1 July 1527. Here he lived for the rest of his life until his death on 6 March 1531. He left an unenviable record, as a man of unreliable character, and who was cruel and unscrupulous.[6]
Through his foundation of
Notes
- ^ "Pedro Arias Dávila". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
- ^ Sherman (2008)
- ^ a b Romoli (1953)
- ^ Wood, Peter. Time-Life Books Inc. The Seafarers: The Spanish Main.
- ISBN 0140441239
- ^ Andagoya, Pascual de. Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila. The Hakluyt Society. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Wikisource.
References
- Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die. Cambridge University Press. pp. 53–54.
- Patterson, Jack E. (2010). Fonseca: Building the New World. ISBN 9781441494917.
- Romoli, Kathleen (1953). Balboa of Darien: Discoverer of the Pacific. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
- Sauer, Carl Ortwin (1966). The Early Spanish Main. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
- Sherman, William L. (2008). "Ávila, Pedro Arias de (c. 1440–1531)". In Kinsbruner, Jay; Langer, Erick D. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 409–410.
- Thomas, Hugh (2003). Rivers of Gold. New York: Random House. pp. 328-353. ISBN 9780375502040.
- "Pedro Arias Dávila". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
Spanish references
- Alvarez Rubiano, Pablo: Pedrarias Dávila. Contribución a la figura del "Gran Justador", Gobernador de Castilla del Oro y Nicaragua. Madrid, 1944.
- Cantera Burgos, Francisco: Pedrarias Dávila y Cota, capitán general y gobernador de Castilla del Oro y Nicaragua: sus antecedentes judíos. Universidad de Madrid, Cátedra de Lengua Hebrea e Historia de los judíos. Madrid, 1971.
- Gitlitz, David M., Los Arias Dávila de Segovia: entre la iglesia y la sinagoga (Baltimore: International Scholars Publications, 1996.
- Mena García, Carmen: Pedrarias Dávila o la Ira de Dios: una historia olvidada. Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, 1992; ISBN 84-7405-834-1
- Mena García, Carmen: Sevilla y las flotas de Indias. La gran armada de Castilla del Oro, 1513-1514. Universidad de Sevilla, Fundación cultural El Monte, Sevilla, 1998, 2ª edición Sevilla, 1999; ISBN 84-472-0459-6
- Mena García, Carmen: Un linaje de conversos en tierras americanas. Los testamentos de Pedrarias Dávila, gobernador de Castilla del Oro y Nicaragua. León, 2004; ISBN 84-9773-137-9
External links
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pedro Arias de Avila". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Hernando de Soto's activity with Pedro Arias Dávila in Panama