Exploring the Legacy and Lineage of Conquistador Alonso de Benavides (Part 2 of 3)
- Steven Perez
- May 9
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 26
A contemporary historian of the era, Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, foreshadowed the capture of the valuable shipment by the French. He described Benavides as an hijo d’algo (nobleman) who had visited him, providing a first-hand account of some of the events after the conquest of Tenochtitlan. Cortés had given Benavides the command of one of the ships carrying the tribute for the king of Spain, the value of which was estimated at more than 200,000 ducats. Benavides had told Martyr that he was afraid of being captured by French pirates, a fate that had befallen an earlier shipment from Hispaniola and Cuba the previous year. At the time of his writing, Martyr noted that the ships had not yet arrived in Spain, as they had stopped at the Azores.
Before the shipment was captured, Benavides sent another report describing an incident that occurred on board. The ships were transporting three “tigers” that had been raised since they were cubs in wooden cages (these must have been jaguars or mountain lions, as tigers were not native to the Americas).
“Two of these animals are on board one ship, and the third is on another. It happened that the ship carrying the two was so shaken by a tempest that the bars of one of the cages were loosened, and one of the tigers escaped. Once free, this ferocious beast tore about the vessel as furiously as though it had never seen a man. It was night-time, and the tiger rushed hither and thither, knocking over seven men, tearing off the arm of one, the leg of another, and the shoulders of a third. Two men were killed, and with a leap the tiger seized another unfortunate, who sought to escape up the mast. He was half dead, but his companions came to his assistance and saved him. Armed with hatchets, swords, and every sort of weapon, the sailors assembled, and the tiger, covered with wounds, was forced to spring into the sea. Fearing that a similar accident might occur with the other tiger, it was killed in its cage; but Benevides [sic] believes that the third will arrive on the other ship.” (Martyr, p. 177-178)
As recounted in part one, Benavides’ fears were well-founded, as he and Alonso de Ávila were indeed captured by the French. There are varying versions of what occurred afterwards. In one account, Alonso de Ávila was imprisoned in a fortress in Rochelle and held for ransom for three years. While in prison, Ávila managed to smuggle out Cortés’ letter for the king of Spain. This record of Cortés’ accomplishments, combined with lobbying by Cortés’ powerful allies at the Spanish court, convinced King Charles V that the campaign had been a success and deserved recognition. He therefore signed a commission on 15 October 1522 granting Cortés the title of Governor, Captain General and Chief Justice of New Spain.
After the Spanish military defeated and captured the French king at the battle of Pavía on 24 February 1525, Ávila was finally released as a part of a negotiated exchange of prisoners (García Guiot, p. 62-63). It’s possible that Benavides likewise achieved his freedom at the same time, or perhaps the French released him earlier. During the perilous journey, Benavides had prayed to Our Lady of the Vega to deliver him from danger, promising that if he reached Spain safely that he would deliver an annual supply of wheat to the church of her namesake near Benavente. After his release, he first returned to his ancestral home of Benavente to see his parents before embarking again for New Spain. In reward for his services to the Spanish Crown, he received the town of Mexicaltzingo as his encomienda, worth 3,900 pesos annually.
Benavides married María de la Torre and they had at least one daughter, Antonia. Based on the timeline of events already described, it’s likely they were married sometime between 1525-1529 and Antonia was born sometime around 1530-1535 (although I have not yet found any specific records to verify these estimates). Alonso passed away sometime around 1536-37 as María de la Torre married Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, another conquistador, around 1537-1538. New Spain’s first viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, helped to facilitate this marriage. Carranza had recently returned from the disastrous 600-man Narváez expedition to Florida (yes, he was the same Narváez who had been sent to arrest Cortés from part one of this story), one of only four survivors who had spent eight years wandering what is now the southwestern United States in search of a way back to Mexico. Their first-born child was Beatriz de Carranza, baptized on 2 July 1539 in Mexico City. Their fifth-born child was Balthazar Dorantes de Carranza, author of one of the first books about the conquistadors and their descendants, published in Mexico City in 1604.
Antonia de Benavides was of marriageable age around 1547 when she sought financial recompense for her father’s services to the crown. Going back to the passage quoted in part one, the individual interceding on her behalf was named as Licenciado Benavente, her uncle. The line reads, “El licenciado Benavente, por Antonya de Benavides, su sobrina.” This is the crucial connection that allowed me to deduce her father Antonio’s lineage. The only Licenciado Benavente present in Mexico City at that time was Cristóbal de Benavente, fiscal of the royal audiencia. He was the second fiscal of the audiencia of New Spain, having replaced his father-in-law Antonio Ruiz del Rincón sometime after 1535. It’s not clear how the royal treasury responded to Antonia’s request, but she was fortunate to have such a powerful official representing her interests. It’s possible he helped negotiate her marriage to the son of conquistador Juan Ruiz de Alanís, Antonio Ruiz de Castañeda, who held half the encomienda of Tehuacán inherited from his father. They were married sometime around 1548-1551 as their first son Juan de Castañeda Benavides was baptized on 4 September 1552. Another son, Luis de la Torre (he used his maternal grandmother’s last name) was baptized on 11 January 1561 in Mexico City.
As fiscal, Licenciado Cristóbal de Benavente brought charges against Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in 1545 for abuses committed against native peoples during his now famous expedition. Another brother, Pedro de Benavides, was also a member of the Coronado expedition. In 1550, Cristóbal de Benavente resigned as fiscal and embarked on a return trip to Spain with his family. Before leaving Mexico City, his wife Isabel del Rincón made a confidential last will and testament at the monastery of San Agustín witnessed by eight friars, without her husband’s knowledge. She died during childbirth en route and was buried in Havana. Her husband had suspicions regarding the counsel she had received in drawing up such a will and suspected that the amount of property she claimed in it was greater than that to which she was entitled. In his own will, he clarified these assets and explained how he had complied with her wishes, to a degree. Cristóbal resided for a year in Seville before moving to Valladolid, where he married María de Guzmán, daughter of Luis de Guzmán of Portillo, in September 1553.
Cristóbal made his last will and testament in Valladolid on 13 September 1557, in which he named his parents as Pedro de Benavente “El Rico” (The Wealthy) and Leonor Díaz de Benavides, residents of, and originally from, the Villa de Benavente in the Kingdom of León. His parents had lived on the Calle de la Viga in houses that he had purchased from the Countess of Rivadavia and were buried in the church of San Nicolás in Benavente. Cristóbal’s lengthy will demonstrates just how wealthy he was. He valued his estate before his first marriage to Isabel del Rincón at 10,000 ducats and in 1557 owned properties in Mexico City, Seville and Valladolid. His will also confirmed that his brother was Alonso, declaring:
“I order that 3,000 maravedís be given as alms, as intended by my brother Alonso de Benavides, to Nuestra Señora de la Vega, which is one league from San Cristóbal, from which a chalice or a chasuble be purchased for the service of the said church, and I declare that I have purchased the said chasuble and alb, and I order that it be given for said purpose.”
Cristóbal was deceased by 16 January 1558 when his widow held an auction of his property. His grandson Cristóbal de Benavente y Benavides became the first Count of Fontanar, a title granted to him by King Philip IV in 1645. The investigation into his family lineage prior to him obtaining this title revealed that his great-grandfather Pedro de Benavente was a descendant of the Counts of Benavente and great-grandmother Leonor Díaz de Benavides was a descendant of the Counts of Santisteban. Nearly 30 years earlier, on 1 June 1531, Leonor Díaz de Benavides made her last will and testament in Benavente. Her husband was already deceased and she gave detailed instructions regarding her burial and disposition of her estate, but unfortunately did not name her parents. I have not yet located a will for Pedro de Benavente.
Sources
Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint, “A Most Splendid Company: A Database of People from Sixteenth-Century New Spain,” available at: https://coronado.unm.edu/node/8645
Silvano García Guiot, “El Capitán Alonso de Avila, primer contador de la Nueva España y primer contador real de Yucatán,” Memorias de la Academia Mexicana de la Historia, Tomo II, Num. 1, Enero-Marzo, 1943.
Francisco A. de Icaza, Diccionario Autobiográfico de Conquistadores y Pobladores de Nueva España (Madrid: Imprenta de “El Adelantado de Segovia,” 1923).
Peter Martyr d’Anghiera translated by Francis Augustus MacNutt, De Orbe Novo: The Eight Decades, vol. 2 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912).
Hugh Thomas, Who’s Who of the Conquistadors (London: Cassell, 2000).
Manuscripts from the Portal de los Archivos Españoles
Archivo Histórico de la Nobleza
Documentación relativa a la testamentaría de Cristóbal de Benavente Benavides, fiscal de la audiencia de Méjico [y abuelo de Cristóbal Benavente Benavides, futuro I conde de Fontanar,] tramitados por su primera mujer, Isabel del Rincón, la segunda, María de Guzmán, y sus hijos, Bartolomé, Nicolás y Leonor de Benavides.
Osuna, C.68, D.7-12
Almoneda de los bienes dejados por Cristóbal Benavente Benavides, [abuelo del I conde de Fontanar], hecha a instancia de su segunda mujer, María de Guzmán, como testamentaria del mismo.
Osuna, C.75, D.3
Diligencias practicadas por Cristóbal Benavente Benavides, para obtener el titulo de conde de Fontanar.
Osuna, C.70, D.84
Testamento otorgado por Isabel del Rincón, mujer del licenciado Cristóbal Benavente Benavides, fiscal de Indias en la ciudad de Méjico [abuelo del I conde de Fontanar, Cristóbal Benavente Benavides]
Osuna, C.74, D.14
Testamento otorgado por Leonor Díez de Benavides, mujer de Pedro de Benavente, [bisabuelo del futuro conde de Fontanar], en el que dispone que sea enterrada con su marido en la Iglesia de San Nicolás de la villa de Benavente (Zamora)
Osuna, C.68, D.1-2
There was a Portuguese Franciscan Alonso de Benavides (c.1758-1635) said to have brought La Conquistadora from Spain to New Mexico in 1626. He may have also been the first to identify the Navaho as such.
Great job Steve. Enjoying the ride.
I am hooked! Looking forward to the next installment. Of possible interest, is the static website for Research at King's College London, Early Modern Spain (a legacy project). One of the lines of inquiry of the project was in 'Discoveries' and a researcher found documents about Alvaro Nuñez Cabeza de Baca and others. These docs were transcribed and translated. There's info on Dorantes Carranza marrying wife of Antto de Benavides and more. No links except for one to información Baltazar Dorantes Carranza, but it does provide the Pares reference numbers to the other documents.