Juan de Mendoza, Marquis de la Hinojosa

Juan de Mendoza y Velasco, Marquis de la Hinojosa, Governor of the Duchy of Milan, 1612–1616, Viceroy of Navarre, 1620–1623, Spanish Ambassador in England in 1623 to discuss with James I, the regnant father of the later king Charles I of England, the requirements to be met, eventually, by English politicians to arrange the marriage of Prince Charles to Maria of Austria, sister of the then nineteen-year-old ruling king Philip IV of Spain. A knight of the Military Order of Santiago, deceased 24 December 1628, he was awarded the title of marquis de la Hinojosa by King Philip III of Spain, on 11 February 1612. Although it is claimed that his father was the 5th Count of Castrogeriz, it seems after careful research that he came rather from a family of landed squires, his father, reported as Antonio Gómez Manrique de Mendoza y Sandoval, being the 6th Sieur of Castrojeriz, and 4th Sieur of Villazopeque, who married first to a certain Isabel de Velasco y Enríquez de Ribera, also, apparently, from a rather modest branch of rural proprietors, albeit pretending to some sort connections with this powerful de Velasco ducal family (Dukes of Frías).

He was second of three brothers and another four sisters, all of whom became nuns, a fate also befitting young women born to rather modest rural squires at the time. Improving fortunes and contacts with the more affluent relatives of the family led the father of Juan de Mendoza y Velasco to marry again, with a daughter of the 5th Count of Osorio, having another four daughters who also took the veil and a fifth who attained marriage to the first count of Valverde. On becoming a widower again he married a village girl, with whom he had no issue, and finally another lady of rather modest social rank among "social achievers," begetting one boy and one girl, Antonia, who became a lady in waiting of Queen Consort Mariana of Austria and another nun. Thus, knight of the Order of Santiago, Juan de Mendoza y Velasco, 1st marquis of Hinojosa since 1612, Commander of Aledo and Totana, thus begetting no fewer than nine female siblings to pray for his soul, both when he was alive and after his death.

In 1609 he fought in Larache (now in Morocco) against North African troops, being one the Royal agents overseeing the forced migration in 1610 of the "moriscos" from the former Moorish kingdom of Granada, from the Moorish non-converted residents in the rest of Andalusia, including those of Hornachos in Extremadura. The latter settled in Salé, much further South, at the other side of the river, where the actual capital of Morocco, Rabat, is found. Supporting themselves by seafaring expeditions, they declared themselves some sort of Republic in 1627, through Ibrahim Vargas, a Spanish family name from the province of Badajoz whose traces may be found in the area to this very day, being recognized at the time by some European countries, apparently including England, France, Netherlands.

In due time he also became marquis of San Germán, Member of the Private Chambers of the king, Viceroy of Navarre, 1620–1623, Captain General of the Spanish Artillery and President of the "Consejo de Indias", a Royal Political Bureau dealing with all the administrative events related with the administration, trade and tax collections of the very extensive American Territories, in the North, Central, and South.

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