Francisco Álvarez de Toledo (Oropesa, 10 July 1515 – Escalona, 21 April 1582), also known as The Viceroyal Solon,This was the name given by Antonio de León Pinelo: "Solón del Perú". was a Spanish aristocrat and soldier of the Kingdom of Spain and the Spanish Empire’s fifth Viceroy of Peru. Often regarded as the "best of Peru's viceroys",Tantaleán Arbulú, Javier. El Virrey Francisco de Toledo y su tiempo. 2 T. Universidad de San Martín de Porres. Lima. 2011. http://www.librosperuanos.com/libros/detalle/11817/El-Virrey-Francisco-de-Toledo-y-su-tiempo.-2-T he is also often focused for the devastating impact his administration had on the American Indians of Peru.
Toledo brought stability to a tumultuous viceroyalty of Spain and enacted administrative policies which changed the character of Spanish colonial rule and the relationship between the American Indians of the Andes and their Spanish colonial overlords.Viceroyalty of Peru|historical area, South America", https://www.britannica.com/place/Viceroyalty=of=Peru#ref76658, accessed 6 July 2016 With a policy called "reductions", Toledo forcibly relocated many of the American Indians of Peru and Bolivia into new settlements in order to enforce their Christianization, collect tributes and taxes, and gather American Indian labor to work in mines and other Spanish enterprises. He has also played a role in for the reductions, expanding the forced labor demanded of the American Indians under the mit'a of the Inca Empire, and executing Túpac Amaru, the last Inca chief of the Neo-Inca State in Vilcabamba.Luis E. Valcárcel: The viceroy Toledo, great tyrant of Peru: a historical review. Lima, National Museum Press, 1940.
Toledo held the position of viceroy from November 30, 1569, until 1 May 1581, a total of eleven years and five months. He has been praised as the "supreme organizer" of the immense viceroyalty, giving it a legal structure and strengthening institutions by which the Spanish colony functioned for more than two hundred years.Roberto Levillier: Don Francisco de Toledo, Peru supreme organizer. His life, his work [1515–1582]. Buenos Aires, Espasa-Calpe, 1935 to 1942 Scholar John Hemming described Toledo as "one of the world's great colonial administrators". He also described him as "honest and honorable but cold and unfeeling...autocratic" and "with the temperament of an ascetic."
Birth and early years
Francisco de Toledo was born on 15 July 1515Francisco de Toledo, Viceroy of Peru by Debbie Wells. http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=632 in Oropesa, Castile belonging to the noble family Álvarez de Toledo. He was the fourth and last child of Francisco Álvarez de Toledo y Pacheco, II Count of Oropesa, and María Figueroa y Toledo, eldest daughter of Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, II Count of Feria and María Álvarez de Toledo, daughter of the I Duke of Alba de Tormes. The death of his mother would influence his disposition, making him serious and taciturn. His mother's aunts, Mary and Elizabeth, were responsible for his upbringing.
At the age of eight he moved to the court of King Charles I of Spain, to serve as a page to the queen consorts Leonor and Isabel. He learned Latin, history, rhetoric and theology, fencing, music, dancing and courtly manners.
Serving the Emperor Charles V
Francisco de Toledo was fifteen years old when in 1530 King Charles I accepted him at home, accompanying that emperor until his last days in the most varied circumstances of both peace and war. This personal contact with the monarch, who adopted the prudent policy, "Machiavellianism" and the tendency to seek balances between his partners, would serve as a useful experience for further governmental work.
In 1535, when he was twenty, he was invested with the habit of a knight of the Order of Alcántara, a religious-military order, and years later was given to this corporation the task of Acebuchar in 1551.
The first military action in which he intervened was the Conquest of Tunis (1535), a great triumph of the imperial troops over the Ottoman Turks who snatched the plaza in North Africa. Following the emperor on his tour of Europe, the young Álvarez de Toledo passed through Rome, where king Carlos I defied Francis I of France, which triggered another war with that country (the third of the reign of the emperor), between the years 1536–1538. Following the signing of peace, Álvarez de Toledo returned to Spain and later went to Ghent, in Flanders. Once participated in the expedition to the Ottoman Algiers in North Africa, campaign which ended in failure due to bad weather (1541).
In the following years he continued to serve the imperial arms, but also participated in the diets, boards and councils. It was a very turbulent time, as well as the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks occurred progress of Protestantism in Germany, region under imperial orbit. In all this time Álvarez de Toledo was near the emperor Charles V.
He met the Spanish negotiations with England to start a new war against France.
He dealt with the issues of Hispanic America interested about the legal status that should have the Indians. He was in Valladolid when Friar Bartolomé de las Casas appeared before a board of theologians the text of A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and knew of the writing of the New Laws of the Indies that caused such a stir in Peru.
He left Barcelona in 1543 with the emperor, for Italy and Germany during the fourth war against France. He participated in the battles of Gelderland and Düren.
In 1556 took place the abdication of Charles I and his consequent trip to Spain, and on November 12, on the way to Monastery of Yuste, entered the castle of Jarandilla de la Vera, which was hosted by its owner, 4th Count of Oropesa, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Figueroa, who was the nephew of Francis and who also received the old ex monarch. The stay lasted until February 3, 1557, when the works in Yuste were finished, final resting place of Charles I. They both served him until his death in 1558.
The following years were spent by Álvarez de Toledo in activities related to the Order of Alcántara. Between 1558 and 1565 he remained in Rome, where he participated in the discussion and definition of the Statutes of the Order, as attorney general.
Viceroy of Peru Toledo became the fifth viceroy of Peru (which included at the time Bolivia) in 1569. He was appointed viceroy by Philip II of Spain. Peru was the "jewel" of Spain's colonial empire. The conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro in 1532-1533 had given Spain enormous wealth, but Toledo inherited a chaotic situation. The problems facing Toledo included conflicts between and among the Spanish conquerors and the secular and religious authorities in Peru. Corruption by colonial officials was endemic. The Peruvian population of indigenous people, Andeans, had declined by about 75 percent (from 10 million to 2.5 million) from 1520 to 1570 due to conflicts and epidemics of European diseases. A rump state of the Inca Empire still existed outside Spanish control in Vilcabamba. Most seriously, from the viewpoint of Spain, was that the production of silver, a major contributor to Spain's finances, was declining.
Until the arrival of Francisco de Toledo as Viceroy, Spanish rule of the Andean population had largely been indirect. Except for Roman Catholic priests, Spaniards were forbidden from living among the Indians and the Spanish extracted tribute and labor from the Andean population through their indigenous leaders, the caciques or kurakas. Other than the often brutal demands of the Spanish colonists for labor and tribute, the Andean Indian cultures remained in many ways little changed from the days when the Incas ruled.
Toledo conceived and implemented an ambitious program to "put down neo-Inca insurrection, strengthen colonial government and legal institutions, indoctrinate the native populace in Catholicism, and shore up faltering revenue streams" from mining.Wernke, Steven A. (2007), "Negotiating Community and Landscape in the Peruvian Andes: A Transconquest View", American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 109, No. 1, p. 132. Downloaded from JSTOR.
General Inspection (Visita General)
Following the recommendations of the king, Álvarez de Toledo set out to visit the territories under his charge—a task never previously attempted due to the vast extent of the Viceroyalty of Peru and one that would undoubtedly prove arduous. This undertaking aimed to reshape the economy, territory, and Andean society within the Kingdoms of Peru and established the following objectives:
• Develop a new tax rate ledger.
• Strengthen the administration of justice to protect indigenous people.
• Gather indigenous populations into settlement towns.
Fulfilling his duties, he left Lima on October 22, 1570, accompanied by his secretary Álvaro Ruiz de Navamuel and other knowledgeable men, including cosmographer and historian Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa and naturalist Tomás Vásquez. Later joined by Juan Polo de Ondegardo, Juan de Matienzo, and the religious chronicler José de Acosta, these companions were general visitors who received orders and instructions aligned with these objectives and were empowered politically to intervene in judicial matters within regional locales to restore social peace following the turmoil of recent wars.
These officials were tasked with curbing excesses in tribute rates (which powerful encomenderos, indigenous chiefs, and other figures collected illegally) and resolving disputes over land rights and cases of abuse against commoners and indigenous people, mediating or arbitrating where necessary. More specifically, they were instructed to act against anyone who mistreated or wronged indigenous people:
"[…] in any way, to proceed against them, conducting the necessary investigations to uncover the truth, punishing the guilty, and adjudicating any indigenous lawsuits, whether newly initiated or pending before any courts."
Over the five-year inspection, Viceroy Álvarez de Toledo traveled an impressive 4,971 miles, which he divided into two stages. The first stage's route was Lima - Huarochirí - Jauja - Huamanga and Cusco. After two years in Cusco, he proceeded with the second stage, heading to Charcas Province along the route: Checacupe - Chucuito - Juli - La Paz - Potosí - La Plata. After an unfortunate expedition against the Chiriguanos in southeast Charcas, he returned to Lima via Arequipa and the sea.
The lengthy inspection had notable events. Entering the highlands through Huarochirí on November 20, 1570, he arrived in Jauja, where he established new indigenous towns and resettlements. Shocked by the numerous judicial records from local disputes, he demonstrated his pragmatism by burning all the files, considering them useless. He then constructed churches, rectified injustices, and worked to revive traditional Inca customs.
On December 15, he entered Huamanga (modern Ayacucho), where he attended to various projects, including focusing on the famous Huancavelica mercury mines. He ordered the construction of Villa Rica de Oropesa (modern Huancavelica) and the consolidation of indigenous settlements.
In Cusco from mid-February 1571 until October 5, 1572, he witnessed the grandeur of its architecture and population, aiming to restore Inca institutions and laws, recognizing their value and adapting them for governing indigenous people. He expanded settlements, distributed land ownership, planned the construction of churches, schools, and hospitals, and approved the creation of indigenous councils, allowing self-governance. He also addressed the situation of encomenderos (those collecting indigenous tribute), ensuring their duty to care for and instruct the indigenous people, provide education, and even cover service costs if needed.