Jose de Armendariz y Perurena, primer marques de Castelfuerte (sometimes marques de Castel-Fuerte) (b. Ribagorza, Navarre; d. 1740, probably in Madrid) was a Spanish soldier and colonial administrator. From May 14, 1724 to February 4, 1736 he was viceroy of Peru.
Early career
He entered the military and fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, on the side of Philip V of Spain. He saw action in the campaigns in Naples, Sardinia, Rosellon and Catalonia, and in the siege of Gibraltar. Philip granted him the title of marquess of Castelfuerte on June 5, 1711. He was governor of Tarragona and captain general of Guipuzcoa. He was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Order of Santiago.
As viceroy of Peru
In 1723 Philip named him viceroy of Peru, a position which he took up in May of the following year. His term in office was distinguished by a campaign against fraud and corruption in the government, and reform of the royal treasury and tax collection. He took steps to strengthen the mita, the forced labor of Indigenous in the silver mines, and thus to stimulate the production of the metal. He sent to jail the Count of San Juan de Lurigancho, director of the mint, as well as the assayer, for producing false coins. In order to fight smuggling (especially of silver), he reorganized the navy and fortified the coasts.
He reestablished the system whereby Inca nobles who could prove their ancestry were recognized as hijosdalgos of Castile. This led to a frenzy on the part of the Indigenous nobility to legitimate their status.
In 1724 society in Lima discovered an exotic drink — coffee. One patron commented, "The new drink is as bitter as the new viceroy".
The Comunero Revolt in Paraguay
During this time the Comunero Revolt broke out in Paraguay. The governor of Paraguay, Diego de los Reyes Balmaceda, was an unpopular supporter of the Jesuits. A predecessor of Viceroy Armendariz, Carmine Nicolao Caracciolo, sent an inspector there in 1721 to look into the matter. The inspector was Jose de Antequera y Castro. Antequera, however, gained the support of the comuneros, challenged royal authority, imprisoned Reyes Balmaceda and expelled the Jesuits. (The Jesuits were unpopular because they sheltered many Indians from forced labor.) Antequera defeated a royalist force from Buenos Aires under Garcia Ros.
In 1724, Armendariz, now the viceroy in Lima, ordered Buenos Aires governor Bruno Mauricio de Zabala to suppress the rebellion and send Antequera to Lima for trial. Antequera's followers deserted him, and he was forced to flee to a convent in Cordoba in March 1725. He was arrested at Chuquisaca in Charcas, and taken to Lima. He was eventually brought to trial, and in 1731 he was beheaded. However another revolt broke out in Paraguay in 1730, under Fernando Mompo de Zayas. Mompo asserted the sovereignty of the people over the king.
Armendariz faced other rebellions as well. The first uprising of the Chiriguanos, led by Aruma, occurred in 1727. In 1730 there was an insurrection in Oropesa, led by the Mestizo Alejo Calatayud.
End of his term
In 1736 Armendariz turned over the office to his successor, Jose Antonio de Mendoza Caamano y Sotomayor, marques de Villagarcia. The ex-viceroy returned to Spain and became captain of the king's guard. He died in 1740 without descendants.
External links
Other pages about Colonial Peru
-Alonzo de Alvarado -Ana Francisca de Borja y Doria -Ana de Castro -Andres Hurtado de Mendoza -Antonio de Mendoza -Antonio de Morga -Balconies of Lima -Baltasar de la Cueva Enriquez -Battle of Sangarara -Bernardo de Iturriaza -Blasco Nunez Vela -Cabildo (council) -Carmine Nicolao Caracciolo -Cathedral of Lima -Comentarios Reales de los Incas -Convento de San Francisco -Cristobal Ramirez de Cartagena -Cristobal Vaca de Castro -Diego Ladron de Guevara -Diego Lopez de Zuniga y Velasco -Diego Morcillo Rubio de Aunon -Diego Nunez de Avendano -Diego Quispe Tito -Diego de Almagro -Diego de Benavides y de la Cueva -Fernando Torres de Portugal y Mesia -Francisco Ruiz Lozano -Francisco de Borja y Aragon -Francisco de Toledo, Count of Oropesa -Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Canete -Government Palace (Peru) -Hans Heinrich Bruning Brookstedt -Hernando de Luque -Historic Centre of Lima -Jose Antonio de Areche -Jose Antonio de Mendoza -Jose de Armendariz -Juan Jimenez de Montalvo -Juan Pizarro II -Lima City Walls -Luis Jeronimo Fernandez de Cabrera -Manuel de Oms y de Santa Pau -Mateo de la Mata Ponce de Leon -Melchor Bravo de Saravia -Melchor Linan y Cisneros -Melchor de Navarra y Rocafull -Miguel Nunez de Sanabria -Osambela House -Pedro Alvarez de Toledo y Leiva -Pedro Antonio Fernandez de Castro -Pedro Bohorquez -Pedro de la Gasca -San Telmo (ship) -Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire -Torre Tagle Palace -Tupac Amaru II -Turibius of Mongrovejo -Viceroyalty of Peru
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Jose_de_Armendariz
