Life and Military Career
Born Francisco López Gascón in Rágama de Arévalo, Salamanca, Carvajal was admitted to the University of Salamanca only to return home in disgrace after a series of public scandals. Disinherited, Carvajal enlisted in the Castilian infantry bound for Italy to fight in Charles V's wars. He was present as an alférez when the mutinous Imperial army stormed Rome in 1527. However, instead competing in the violent plunder for gold and valuables, Carvajal seized legal documents belonging to a ranking Roman notary and ransomed them for a small fortune.
Carvajal later used these funds to journey to Mexico as an aide to its first Spanish viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza. In 1535, he was dispatched to Peru to the relief of newly-founded Lima, then under siege by an Inca army. Carvajal led reinforcements to Governor Francisco Pizarro and thereafter played a key role in reestablishing Pizarro's rule against the rival faction of conquistadors led by Almagro the Younger. He continued to lead his cavalry from the front ranks despite his age and obesity and became something of a local legend for his composure in battle. At Chupas, seeing the Spanish Imperial infantry giving way before a hail of fire from Almagro's massed cannons and harquebusiers, Carvajal is said to have ridden to the front of the line and, casting his helmet and cuirass to the ground, exclaimed,
| “ | For shame, Spaniards; do you give way now? I am twice as good a mark for the enemy as any of you!" | ” |
Inspired by their corpulent commander, Carvajal's men advanced on the enemy guns and carried Almagro's troops before them.
Read more about this topic: Francisco De Carvajal
Famous quotes containing the words life, military and/or career:
“This form, this face, this life
Living to live in a world of time beyond me; let me
Resign my life for this life, my speech for that unspoken,
The awakened, lips parted, the hope, the new ships.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The military mind is indeed a menace. Old-fashioned futurity that sees only men fighting and dying in smoke and fire; hears nothing more civilized than a cannonade; scents nothing but the stink of battle-wounds and blood.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)