Pedro Menéndez Márquez
Pedro Menéndez Márquez | |
---|---|
3rd Governor of La Florida | |
In office 1577 – 9 July 1594[1] | |
Lieutenant | Vicente González and Tomás Bernaldo de Quirós |
Preceded by | Gutierre de Miranda |
Succeeded by | Domingo Martínez de Avendaño |
Personal details | |
Born | c.1537[2] Asturias, Spain |
Died | 1600 Florida |
Spouse | María de Miranda |
Profession | explorer, conquistador and governor |
Pedro Menéndez Márquez (c.1537 – 1600) was a Spanish military officer, conquistador, and governor of Spanish Florida. He was a nephew of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who had been appointed adelantado (an elite military and administrative position) of La Florida by King Philip II. Márquez was also related to Diego de Velasco, Hernando de Miranda, Gutierre de Miranda,[3] Juan Menéndez Márquez, and Francisco Menéndez Márquez, all of whom served as governors of La Florida.
Early career
Pedro Menéndez Márquez was the son of Marquis Alonso ("El Mozo") and Maria Alonso Arango ("La Moza"). He had four siblings: Alonso, Juan, Catalina and Elvira Menéndez Marqués.[4] Márquez began serving with his uncle Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in about 1548, occasionally as master of ships under his uncle's command. As Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was preparing his expedition to found a colony in Florida, he appointed Márquez as second-in-command of the fleet sailing from Asturias. After the founding of St. Augustine and the expulsion of the French from Fort Caroline, Márquez was dispatched to carry the official report to Spain, in command of the ships returning there for supplies. Although Márquez was not the first to bring news of Menéndez de Avilés' success to King Phillip II, the king nevertheless awarded him 300 gold ducats. Márquez then loaded supplies for the new colony and sailed for Florida, but other ships in Menéndez de Avilés' fleet were prevented from leaving Spain.[5]
Governor of Cuba and Florida
For a brief period around 1571, Menéndez Marquéz served as
In 1577, Philip II appointed Pedro Menéndez Márquez as governor of La Florida.
Menéndez Márquez successfully suppressed a rebellion of the Guale Indians provoked by his predecessor and restored or strengthened the Spanish outposts. He also had to deal with new French attempts to establish themselves along the coast north of Santa Elena, English raiding in the Caribbean, and the establishment of an English
In 1580, Márquez discovered coquina, a sedimentary rock composed mostly of the ancient shells of small mollusks and later used in many buildings in St. Augustine, on Anastasia Island.[18] In 1587, he returned to Santa Elena and ordered his soldiers to destroy what remained of the Spanish infrastructure and the second Fort San Marcos.[17]
Although by 1589 Márquez knew that the English colony at Roanoke was gone, he planned on establishing a Spanish outpost on Chesapeake Bay to block future English settlements in the area. Instead, he was appointed to organize the treasure fleets in Havana, and did not return to Florida.[15]
Personal life
Pedro Menéndez Márquez married María de Miranda, according to the will of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.[19]
Márquez arranged for his nephew, Juan Menéndez Márquez, to marry his niece, María Menéndez de Posada. Juan became the royal treasurer for Spanish Florida, and the couple's descendants remained prominent in official and economic affairs there for more than a century.[20]
According to Márquez, when he governed Florida he got half his salary through the situado (the
Citations
- ^ a b U.S. States F-K.
- ^ "1593". University of Florida Digital Collections. John B. Stetson Card Calendar. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
- ^ a b Karen Paar (1999). "Witness to Empire and the Tightening of Military Control: Santa Elena's Second Spanish Occupation, 1577-1587". University of North Carolina. Archived from the original (PhD. dissertation) on July 12, 2015.
- ^ Aviles. Familia del adelantado Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (In Spanish) Aviles. "The Family of Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles".
- ^ Lyon: 73, 88, 144-145, 161n1, 163-164
- ^ El Explorador. Periódico Digital Espeleológico (In Spanish). "The Explorer. Digital Newspaper Speleological).
- ISBN 978-1-4655-1428-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7385-2402-3.
- ^ John Edwin Bakeless (1950). The eyes of discovery: the pageant of North America as seen by the first explorers. Lippincott. p. 227.
- ^ U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1885). Annual Report of the Director. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 504.
Of the expeditions of Menendez the most interesting is recorded in the narrative by his nephew, Pedro Menendez Marquez, who was an able seaman and afterwards a commander of Spanish fleets. The nephew was accompanied by four ships and one hundred and fifty men. Barcia states that the exploration commenced at Cape Florida and was prosecuted northward beyond the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. This bay (says Barcia) is 3 leagues broad at its entrance and it stretches towards the north-northwest, and has many rivers and ports on both sides. His mention of soundings agrees so well with our charts that he must be regarded as one of the best amongst early explorers of Chesapeake Bay
- ISBN 978-0-557-07527-0.
- ISBN 978-84-7100-473-4.
- ^ Chester B. DePratter (2005). "Santa Elena History: The Second Spanish Occupation: 1577 - 1587". South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA). University of South Carolina. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012.
- ISBN 978-1-59884-530-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7864-6221-6.
- ISBN 978-0-674-02702-2.
- ^ a b "Charlesfort-Santa Elena Port Royal, South Carolina". American Latino Heritage. National Park Service. Archived from the original on April 5, 2015.
- ^ "Long-Sanchez House HABS No. FIA-132 43" (PDF). Historic American Buildings Survey. National Park Service. 1965. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 20, 2015.
(letter to King from Governor Pedro Menendez Marquez, December 27, 1583
- ^ Jeannette M. Connor (1925). Colonial Records of Spanish Florida: Letters and Reports of Governors, Deliberations of the Council of the Indies, Royal Decrees, and Other Documents. The Florida State Historical Society. p. xxiv.
- ^ Bushnell:118, 120
References
- Bushnell, Amy Turner (1991). "Thomas Menéndez Márquez: Criolla, Cattleman, and Contador/Tomás Menéndez Márquez: Criolla, Ganadero y Contador Real". In Ann L. Henderson and Gary L. Mormino (ed.). Spanish Pathways in Florida/Caminos Españoles en La Florida. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press. pp. 118–139. ISBN 1-56164-003-4.
- Lyon, Eugene (1976). The Enterprise of Florida: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and the Spanish Conquest of 1565-1568 (Second (1990) paperkack ed.). Gainesville, Florida: The University Presses of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-0777-1.
- Pickett, Margaret F.; Dwayne W. Pickett (2011). The European Struggle to Settle North America: Colonizing Attempts by England, France and Spain, 1521 to 1608. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5932-2.