El Viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela, encomenderos and expenses for the pacification of Peru in 1544

Abstract

In 1544, Viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela arrived in Peru with instructions to enforce the “Leyes Nuevas de Indias” and put an end to the civil wars of the spaniards, but he found strong opposition from the “encomenderos” led by Gonzalo Pizarro. In Lima, Núñez Vela spent more than eighty thousand pesos of the “Real Hacienda” in organizing an army that could never get into action, as he was betrayed and shipped back to Spain. The viceroy escaped and fought against the rebels in the battle of Iñaquito, in which he was defeated and executed. The “encomenderos” of Peru consolidated their power, but only for a brief period, until the arrival of a new and definitive peacemaker: Pedro de la Gasca.