Antonio de Carvajal: Conquistador, Procurador and Regidor of México (Part 3 of 4)

Steven Perez
Jul 25
7 min read

Updated: Sep 3

Apprised of the death of Ponce de León, the king appointed Nuño de Guzmán as the president of the first real audiencia of New Spain, along with four oidores (judges). Guzmán and the oidores of the real audiencia arrived in Mexico City in December 1528 and were officially received by Antonio de Carvajal as representative of the city council. Carvajal had somehow managed to work himself back into the good graces of the government and had been reappointed as regidor on January 1st of that year. In January 1529, a group of conquistadors petitioned the new audiencia for permission to hold a meeting in Mexico City so that they could discuss their common interests, including the election of attorneys (procuradores) to advocate on their behalf. The petition was signed by seventeen conquistadors, including Antonio de Carvajal. On January 9th, with license from the audiencia, a large group of conquistadors met in the main church to hold their deliberations and conduct the election.

The politically charged gathering soon devolved into pandemonium which could only be calmed by the arrival of Guzmán and two oidores. They instructed the attendees to adjourn to the house where the audiencia met. There, in the presence of the audiencia’s secretary, each conquistador indicated who they wanted to represent them, voting for between one to four names each. The four who received the most votes were: Francisco Verdugo (173), Gonzalo Mejía (148), Antonio de Carvajal (147) and Juan de Mansilla (136). On January 11th, 344 conquistadors signed a power of attorney in favor of the above four procuradores, allowing them to ask for and receive their fair share of the spoils of cash, gold, slaves, precious stones, pearls, feathers and any other property that they could claim. They likewise asked for the allocation of natives for tribute.

With the election of the procuradores settled, Nuño de Guzmán next proceeded to carry out Cortés’s residencia even though Cortés had already departed for Spain several months earlier. He deposed and recorded the testimony of 22 witnesses. On 18 February 1529, Carvajal testified that he was thirty-five years old (therefore born circa 1494) and had known Cortés for sixteen years. He stated that it was widely known that Cortés had disobeyed royal authority when it suited him, such as by refusing to submit to Panfilo Narváez and apprehending him, among other examples. He also said that many people had advised Cortés to rebuild Mexico City on higher ground rather than on the lake, but Cortés wanted to keep the city where it was and took the best land and property for himself and his kinsmen.

More scandalous were Carvajal’s accusations that it was well known that Cortés had killed his first wife (who had died within three months of arriving in New Spain) as well as Luis Ponce de León, and that Cortés had had carnal relations with two daughters of Moctezuma, both bearing him children. Lastly, he accused Cortés of hiding great quantities of gold to avoid paying the king’s fifth and of assigning the wealthy encomienda of Tezcuco to himself rather than reserving it for the Spanish Crown. The audiencia ultimately indicted Cortés on 101 charges.

Before he had departed for Spain, in January 1528 Cortés had designated three individuals to represent him in his defense during the residencia: Licenciado Juan Gutiérrez Altamirano, Diego de Ocampo and Pedro Gallego. They did their best to argue the case but claimed they could not mount an effective defense in the absence of the accused. The legal case languished for years and was eventually reviewed by the Council of Indies, but there is no documentation that Cortés was ever sentenced.[1]

In August 1529, Francisco Verdugo named Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia as his replacement as procurador and sometime later that year, Carvajal and Tapia departed for Spain, carrying with them the documents containing Cortés’ residencia. Queen Isabel of Portugal (wife of the Spanish king Carlos I) was named queen regent that same year, as the king was absent from Spain due to his other duties as the Holy Roman Emperor. Carvajal and Tapia must have arrived in Seville by February 1530 for on the 19th of that month, the queen issued a royal decree instructing the two procuradores to proceed with all diligence to the court in Madrid along with all the documents they were bringing, and that if they were unable to do so quickly, to have them sent at once via the officials of the Casa de Contratación, as she needed to review the documents before making any decisions regarding New Spain.

The pair proceeded hastily to Madrid to answer the queen’s summons. The queen’s advisors were sufficiently alarmed by what they read in the documents, prompting immediate action. She issued a set of decrees designed to diffuse tensions between Cortés and the audiencia. On March 22nd, the queen ordered that a new president and oidores be assigned to the audiencia, naming Bishop Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal of Santo Domingo as president. She instructed that until the new officials arrived, neither Cortés nor his new wife were to be allowed to enter Mexico City, and they were not to engage in any disputes with the current audiencia. Likewise, she ordered the audiencia not to interfere in any way with Cortés and for it to continue carrying out its normal functions. Furthermore, she ordered that the audiencia was not to take up any civil or criminal cases against Cortés pertaining to the evidence gathered against him during the residencia, and that any such actions should be brought to the Council of the Indies, which was already reviewing the reports it had received from Carvajal and Tapia. Whether or not the Council of Indies ever undertook a serious examination of the charges against Cortés is unclear, but it took no further action against him.

The voyage was not altogether fruitless, however. Carvajal took advantage of his opportunity at the royal court to request the monarchs to reward him with a coat of arms for his services. On 22 September 1530, the queen granted Carvajal a coat of arms described as follows: a blue field, and upon it two lions holding a tall crown in their paws, and around the border eight lions on a red field, and a closed helmet, and above it a black eagle with wings outspread. The document specifically mentioned Carvajal’s role in the siege of Tenochtitlan as captain of one of the brigantines as well as his participation in the conquests of Pánuco, Tututepec, Jalapa and Soconusco.

A sketch of the coat of arms granted to Antonio de Carvajal

22 September 1530

Madrid

Archivo General de Indias, MP-Escudos, 13

Carvajal’s trip to Spain also afforded him the opportunity to find a suitable bride to begin a new life in Mexico City. He married Tapia’s niece Catalina de Tapia sometime in early 1531 or perhaps in late 1530. Like her uncle, she was from the village of Torralba, near Oropesa in the province of Toledo, the daughter of Francisco de Bullón and Mayor Vázquez de Balboa (Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia’s sister). We do not know precisely where the marriage took place, but Alonso Valiente (a cousin of Cortés) later testified that he had been present at the wedding and several other witnesses in Mexico City said that it was publicly known that the two were married in Spain. On 17 February 1531 the queen issued a royal decree granting Carvajal an exemption from certain duty taxes for his return to New Spain with his wife. On the same day, the queen granted a license to Catalina de Tapia to travel to the Indies with two black slaves for her personal service. Catalina traveled to Mexico in the company of two of her sisters, María and Isabel, who also married conquistadors and first settlers of New Spain.

Before setting off on the return voyage, the queen issued a series of decrees ordering that Carvajal and Tapia be given copies of all the legal documents and instructions that had been provided to the oidores so that they could ensure their proper implementation, in their roles as procuradores. The decrees mandated several changes, including: 1) the number of city council members was set at twelve; 2) the president and the oidores of the audiencia were prohibited from attending city council sessions; and 3) Mexico City was granted the same privileges as the city of Burgos, including a requirement that the city council’s doormen carry maces. The queen also provided Carvajal with a decree ordering the audiencia to grant him two portions of land that he was owed as a conquistador in the area of Tlacabuya (Tacubaya), Mexico City, in the location where he already owned an orchard.

Continued in Part 4. Subscribe to the blog to receive email updates.

[1] For a detailed history of the case, see: María del Carmen Martínez Martínez, “Hernan Cortés: entre las mercedes y la justicia del rey (1522-1547).” Full citation under Sources.

Sources:

Donald E. Chipman, Moctezuma’s Children: Aztec Royalty Under Spanish Rule, 1520-1700. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005).

Guillermo Porras Muñoz, El gobierno de la ciudad de México en el siglo XVI, "Los alcaldes ordinarios," UNAM, 1982.

María del Carmen Martínez and Bernard Grunberg, “A list of conquistadors of New Spain and their votes in the election of their procurators (Mexico, 9 January 1529),” Estudios de Historia Novohispana, 56 (2017) 96–108.

María del Carmen Martínez Martínez, “Hernan Cortés: entre las mercedes y la justicia del rey (1522-1547),” Chapter 7 in Luis René Guerrero Galván and Alonso Guerrero Galván, Descubrimiento, conquista e institucionalización: de las expediciones al Yucatán a la consolidación de la Nueva España (I) (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2022). Available at: https://tinyurl.com/mwsw6724

Manuscripts from the Portal de los Archivos Españoles

https://pares.cultura.gob.es/inicio.html

Archivo General de Indias

Real cédula a Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia y a Antonio de Carvajal, que vienen cómo procuradores de la Nueva España

Mexico, 1088, L. 1, F. 172v-173r

https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/371052?nm

Concesión escudo de armas: Antonio de Carvajal: Nueva España

Patronato, 169, N. 1, A. 1530, R. 6

https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/show/124503?nm

Real cédula al presidente y oidores de la Audiencia de México

Mexico, 1088, L. 1, F. 217v-218r

https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/371107?nm