Francisco de Carvajal | |
|---|---|
 Francisco de Carvajal, conquistador of Peru. Museo Nacional de Historia, Lima. | |
| Nickname(s) | El demonio de los Andes[1] |
| Born | 1464 Rágama, Salamanca Province, Spain |
| Died | 10 April 1548 Sacsayhuamán, Nueva Castilla, Peru |
| Allegiance | .svg){kind=small} Kingdom of Castile,.svg){kind=small} Empire of Charles V, Kingdom of Spain, Governorate of New Castile |
| Years of service | 1480–1548 |
| Rank | Maestre de campo |
| Battles/wars | |
Francisco de Carvajal (1464 – 10 April 1548) was a Spanish military officer, conquistador, and explorer remembered as "the demon of the Andes" due to his brutality and uncanny military skill in the Peruvian civil wars of the 16th century.[2]
Carvajal's career as a soldier in Europe spanned forty years and a half-dozen wars. Fighting in Spain's Imperial armies—the famous tercios—he served under Charles V's principal commanders in the Italian Wars: Pedro Navarro, Fabrizio Colonna, and the illustrious Gran Capitán, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. He took part in the memorable Spanish victory at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 and acquired a small fortune when the Imperial armies sacked Rome two years later.
In the 1540s, the octogenarian Carvajal travelled to the Spanish West Indies and from there accepted a military commission with the Pizarro brothers in Peru, eventually backing Gonzalo Pizarro's unsuccessful rebellion against the officials of the Spanish Crown. Carvajal proved a tireless soldier and successful strategist. He was ultimately captured in battle by royalist forces on April 9, 1548 and executed at the age of 84.
- ^ Palma, p. 237, wrote that, por su indómita bravura, por sus dotes militares, por sus hazañas, que rayan en lo fantástico, por su rara fortuna en los combates y por su carácter sarcástico y cruel fué conocido, en los primeros tiempos del coloniaje, con el nombre de Demonio de los Andes.
- ^ Precott, p. 1217, notes, "With a character so extraordinary, with powers prolonged so far beyond the usual term of humanity, and passions so fierce in one tottering on the verge of the grave, it was not surprising that many fabulous stories should be eagerly circulating respecting him, and that Carvajal should be clothed with mysterious terrors as a sort of supernatural being,—the demon of the Andes!"