Assassination of Francisco Pizarro (1541) in Lima

The assassination of Francisco Pizarro took place on 26 June 1541 in Lima, the capital of Spanish Peru. The conqueror of the Inca Empire was killed in his own residence by a band of followers of his former partner Diego de Almagro, who sought revenge for Almagro’s execution three years earlier. The murder plunged Peru into a new round of civil war among the Spaniards.

Background: the Almagrist grievance

Pizarro and Almagro had led the conquest of Peru together, but quarrelled over rewards and over control of Cusco. After the Pizarrist victory at the Battle of Las Salinas in April 1538, Almagro was executed in Cusco on Hernando Pizarro’s orders.

His followers, known as “the men of Chile” because many had joined Almagro’s Chilean expedition, were left poor and excluded from grants of land and Indigenous labour. Many gathered in Lima around Almagro’s son, Diego de Almagro the Younger, born of a Spanish father and an Indigenous mother from Panama. They were watched with suspicion, and rumours spread that the governor intended to have them killed. The Almagrists in turn hoped for justice from a royal judge, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro, who was on his way to Peru, but his arrival was delayed.

Pizarro’s position in 1541

By 1541 Francisco Pizarro held the title of marquis, granted by Charles V, and governed a vast territory from his house on the main square of Lima, the coastal city he had founded in 1535. He controlled the distribution of encomiendas, the grants of Indigenous labour and tribute that were the main source of wealth for Spanish settlers, and he gave the best of them to relatives and loyal followers.

This system of patronage left the Almagrists with almost nothing. Later chroniclers describe them as so poor that a group of them supposedly shared a single cloak to go out in public. Pizarro’s secretary and friends repeatedly urged him to arrest their leaders or send them away, but he preferred to wait for the royal envoy and reportedly dismissed the danger. That confidence proved fatal.

The attack

Warnings of a plot reached Pizarro, but he did not take them seriously. On Sunday 26 June 1541, around midday, about twenty armed Almagrists led by Juan de Rada, an experienced soldier and the young Almagro’s guardian, crossed the main square of Lima and forced their way into the governor’s house, shouting for the death of the tyrant.

Many of Pizarro’s guests fled. Pizarro, then about 63 to 70 years old, defended himself with a sword together with a few companions, including his half-brother Francisco Martín de Alcántara, who was also killed. Pizarro was eventually struck down by several blows, including a wound to the throat. According to some accounts he called for confession and traced a cross on the floor before he died, but these details are uncertain.

Aftermath

The conspirators proclaimed Diego de Almagro the Younger governor of Peru and took control of Lima, seizing the property of Pizarro’s supporters. Pizarro’s body was buried quietly in the cathedral. His brother Gonzalo was away east of the Andes on the expedition from which Francisco de Orellana separated, and learned of the killing only on his return.

Vaca de Castro, the royal envoy, rallied loyalists in the north and marched against the Almagrists. On 16 September 1542 his army defeated the young Almagro at the Battle of Chupas, near Huamanga (Ayacucho), one of the bloodiest battles among Spaniards in Peru. Almagro the Younger was captured and beheaded in Cusco soon afterwards.

The disorder convinced the Spanish Crown that the conquerors of Peru had to be brought under firmer control. The New Laws of 1542 and the appointment of Peru’s first viceroy followed, which in turn led Gonzalo Pizarro into open rebellion.

Key people

• Francisco Pizarro, governor of Peru and founder of Lima.
• Juan de Rada, leader of the assassins; he died during the campaign of 1542.
• Diego de Almagro the Younger, in whose name the killing was carried out; executed in 1542.
• Cristóbal Vaca de Castro, royal judge who restored Crown authority.

Legacy

For a long time a mummified body displayed in Lima Cathedral was presented as Pizarro’s. In 1977 workers in the cathedral’s crypt found a lead box with a skull and an inscription naming Pizarro. Forensic examinations in the 1980s found the skull had multiple sword wounds consistent with the accounts of the attack, and the remains were moved to his chapel.

Timeline

• 1535, January: Pizarro founds Lima as the City of Kings.
• 1538, 6 April: The Pizarrists win at Las Salinas.
• 1538, 8 July: Diego de Almagro is executed in Cusco.
• 1541, 26 June: Pizarro is killed in Lima.
• 1542, 16 September: Vaca de Castro defeats Almagro the Younger at Chupas.
• 1542, September: Almagro the Younger is executed in Cusco.
• 1977: Remains attributed to Pizarro are found in Lima Cathedral.

Why it matters

Pizarro’s assassination showed how fragile Spanish rule in Peru still was a decade after the conquest of the Inca Empire. The cycle of revenge among the conquistadors pushed the Crown to replace them with royal officials and to rethink how the colony was governed.