Francisco de Carvajal - Life and Military Career

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 and, life, military and/or career:

    War is more like a novel than it is like real life and that is its eternal fascination. It is a thing based on reality but invented, it is a dream made real, all the things that make a novel but not really life.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    Sin their conception, their birth weeping,
    Their life a general mist of error,
    Their death a hideous storm of terror.
    John Webster (c. 1580–1638)

    “My ancestors were all famous for military genius.”
    My Lady smiled graciously. “It often runs in families,” she remarked: “just as a love for pastry does.”
    Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)

    John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)