Antonio de Mendoza (1495 – 21 July 1552) was a Spanish colonial administrator who was the first viceroy of New Spain, serving from 14 November 1535 to 25 November 1550, and the second viceroy of Peru, from 23 September 1551, until his death on 21 July 1552.
Mendoza was born at Alcalá la Real (Jaén, Spain), the son of the 2nd Count of Tendilla Íñigo López de Mendoza y Quiñones, and Francisca Pacheco. He was married to María Ana de Trujillo de Mendoza.
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Early life
Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco was a member of the House of Mendoza, one of the leading noble families of Castile. He was the second son of Íñigo López de Mendoza y Quiñones, 2nd Count of Tendilla and 1st Marquess of Mondéjar, and his second wife, Francisca Pacheco Portocarrero.
Mendoza's siblings included Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, who succeeded their father as Count of Tendilla and Marquess of Mondéjar; Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, a diplomat and writer; Bernardino de Mendoza, a military commander and diplomat; and María Pacheco, who married Juan de Padilla and later became one of the leaders of the Revolt of the Comuneros in Toledo.
Mendoza was a Knight of Santiago and held the Encomienda of Socuéllamos. He also served as a member of the municipal government of Granada and represented Granada at the Cortes of Valladolid in 1518.
During the Revolt of the Comuneros (1520–1521), Mendoza supported the Crown and took part in royalist military operations in the Kingdom of Granada, including campaigns around Huéscar and Baza.
Mendoza subsequently entered the diplomatic service of Charles V. In 1526 he was sent to the court of Ferdinand of Habsburg in Hungary. In 1527 he represented Charles V at the Diet of Buda during the struggle over the Hungarian succession and was present at Ferdinand's coronation at Székesfehérvár. Mendoza subsequently travelled to Italy and Germany and was present at Charles V's imperial coronation in Bologna in 1530. In 1532 he joined Charles V's forces during the campaign against Suleiman the Magnificent and the Ottoman army in Central Europe.
Mendoza was selected in 1529 to become the first Viceroy of New Spain, although he did not take up the office until 1535.
Viceroy of New Spain
On 17 April 1535, in Barcelona, Spain the royal commissions named Mendoza the Viceroy of New Spain. Because Mendoza came from an old and influential family, he immediately gained respect as a member of nobility. Additionally, he was placed in the inner circle of the Empress and was well known in the court. He governed for 15 years which was longer than any subsequent viceroy. On his arrival in New Spain, he found a recently conquered territory beset with Indigenous unrest and rivalry among the Spanish conquerors and Spanish settlers. Throughout his time as a viceroy he would stand in place of the king for all branches of the government. Furthermore, Mendoza was the highest colonial official in both of the Americas making him very influential. His difficult assignment was to govern in the king's name without making an enemy of Hernán Cortés. Cortés himself had expected to be made the permanent ruling crown official of New Spain, since he had led the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain) and the Council of the Indies judged Cortés too independent of crown authority to be made viceroy and had created a high court (audiencia) in New Spain in 1528, appointing Nuño de Guzmán, a rival of Cortés as its president to counter Cortés's power. In 1530 the crown granted Cortés the title of the Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca with multiple encomiendas. With the arrival of Viceroy Mendoza in 1535, Cortés pursued his own economic interests from his palace in Cuernavaca.
Although the Spanish had occupied and expanded explorations, conquest, and settlement in the Caribbean, it was not until the conquest of central Mexico that the crown appointed a viceroy (vice king), who would be the king's living image in Mexico and envisioned to effectively assert royal authority in the Kingdom of New Spain. To further cement his authority and establish a solid society he established marital alliances with powerful settlers committed to the development of New Spain, such as Marina de la Caballería. Mendoza's status as a noble and his family's loyalty to the Spanish crown made him a suitable candidate for appointment.
Don Antonio and Bishop Juan de Zumárraga were key in the formation of two institutions of Mexico: the Colegio de Santa Cruz at Tlatelolco (1536), where the sons of Aztec nobles studied Latin, rhetoric, philosophy and music, and the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico (1552), modeled on the University of Salamanca, which trained young men for the Catholic Church. These institutions were the first and second universities respectively to be established in the mainland of the Americas. In 1536 he began the minting of silver and copper coins, known as macuquinas. Also under his instructions, the first printing press in the New World was brought to Mexico in 1539, by printer Juan Pablos (Giovanni Paoli). The first book printed in Mexico: La Escala Espiritual de San Juan Clímaco. On 18 May 1541 don Antonio founded the city of Valladolid (now Morelia, Michoacán).
Viceroy of Peru
On 4 July 1549 in Brussels, Emperor Charles V named Mendoza viceroy of Peru. He traveled overland from Mexico to Panama, and then by boat to Peru. He arrived and took up his new office on 25 November 1550. However, he soon became ill, and died in 1552. His tomb is in the Cathedral of Lima, along with that of the Spanish conqueror of Peru, Francisco Pizarro.
Cape Mendocino in Humboldt County, California was named in his honor in 1565. From the cape, Mendocino County, the town of Mendocino, and Mendocino National Forest were named in the 19th and 20th centuries.