Miguel López de Legazpi

Miguel López de Legazpi
Portrait of Miguel López de Legazpi in La Hormiga de Oro
Born	1503? Zumárraga, Gipuzkoa, Crown of Castile
Died	20 August 1572 Manila, Philippines, New Spain
Occupations	Administrator Alcalde mayor Chief scrivener Councillor
Office	Governor and Captain General of the Philippines
Predecessor	new office
Successor	Guido de Lavezaris
Military career
Allegiance	Spanish Empire
Branch	Spanish Navy
Rank	Admiral, conquistador governor and captain general of the Philippines
Nicknames	El Adelantado and El Viejo
Conflicts	Conquest of the Philippines Conquest of the Marianas
Native language	Castilian Basque

Miguel López de Legazpi (1502–1572), known as "the Adelantado" and "the Old Man", was a Spanish mariner who rose to the rank of admiral. The first Governor of the Captaincy General of the Philippines, he was the founder of the cities of Cebu in 1565 and Manila in 1571.

Biography

Miguel López de Legazpi was born in the Gipuzkoan town of Zumárraga, in what was then the Crown of Castile and is now the Basque Country in Spain; there are doubts about his year of birth, which could be 1502, 1503, 1504, 1505 or even 1510. He died in Manila, then the Captaincy General of the Philippines, part of the Spanish Empire and now the Philippines, on 20 August 1572. He came from a family of the minor Gipuzkoan nobility, with the title of hidalgo, and was the second son of Juan Martínez López de Legazpi and Elvira de Gurruchategui. His birthplace, called Jauregi Haundia (the Great Palace in Basque), but much better known as Legazpi dorretxea (Legazpi Tower-House), is preserved in Zumárraga.

His father fought in Italy and in Navarre with the troops of the Crown of Castile. Legazpi studied law, which enabled him to hold the post of councillor in the Town Council of Zumárraga in 1526, and the following year that of scrivener in the alcaldía mayor of Areria (Gipuzkoa), which he took up on his father's death and in which he was confirmed by the King on 12 April 1527. The Viceroy of Mexico, Luis de Velasco, describes him in one of his letters as a well-known hidalgo of the house of Lazcano.

Journey to New Spain

In 1545 he moved to New Spain, where he lived for twenty years. He held various posts in the administration of the Viceroyalty of New Spain; he was chief scrivener in 1551 and alcalde mayor of Mexico City in 1559. Before that he had worked at the Mint in positions of responsibility.

He married Isabel Garcés, sister of the Bishop of Tlaxcala Julián Garcés, and nine children were born of this union (four sons and five daughters). From 1528 to 1564 he lived in New Spain, carrying out various business activities while also serving as an official of the Viceroyalty, which allowed him to amass a considerable fortune.

Legazpi's house in the Aztec capital was one of the most important, and many newcomers from Spain went to it to seek help and advice. His son Melchor described his father's house in this way in a letter addressed to the King:

many poor hidalgos and gentlemen who came from these kingdoms went to his house without knowing him, because of the old custom that had always prevailed there, and because such persons were always given food and clothing and whatever they needed there. This has been a very well-known and acknowledged thing throughout that whole kingdom.

Previous expeditions had not managed to accomplish the return route across the Great Gulf, as the Pacific was then called, to Mexico. Philip II determined that the route from New Spain to the Moluccas had to be explored and entrusted an expedition of two ships to Luis de Velasco, second Viceroy of New Spain, and to the Augustinian friar Andrés de Urdaneta, a relative of López de Legazpi, who had already sailed those seas. The letter in which the King asks Urdaneta to join the expedition reads as follows:

The King: Devout Father Friar Andrés de Urdaneta, of the Order of Saint Augustine: I have been informed that you, while still a layman, went with the Armada of Loaísa and passed through the Strait of Magellan to the Spice Islands, where you spent eight years in our service. And because We have now charged Don Luis de Velasco, our Viceroy of that New Spain, to send two ships to the discovery of the islands of the West, toward the Moluccas, and to instruct them in what they are to do, in accordance with the instruction that has been sent to him; and because, given the great knowledge that you are said to have of the things of that land, and since you understand well its navigation and are a good cosmographer, it would be of great effect for you to go on the said ships, both as regards the said navigation and for the service of God Our Lord and our own: I beg and charge you to go on the said ships and do there whatever the said Viceroy orders you, for besides the service you will render to Our Lord, I shall be very well served, and I shall order that it be taken into account so that you may receive favor wherever there is occasion.

From Valladolid, 24 September 1559.
From Valladolid, 24 September 1559
I the King

The Philippines, which had been discovered during the first voyage around the world, carried out by Magellan and Elcano, fell within the Portuguese demarcation according to the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, but even so Philip II wanted to rescue the survivors of the earlier expedition of Villalobos (1542–1544), who was the one who named the archipelago Filipinas in honor of the then Prince Philip, the future King Philip II.

Statue of Legazpi in the city of Cebu (Philippines)

Velasco made the preparations in 1564, and López de Legazpi, by then a widower, was placed in command of the expedition on Urdaneta's proposal, being appointed by the King "Admiral, General and Governor of all the lands he might conquer", even though he was not a seaman. The expedition consisted of five vessels, and Urdaneta took part in it as pilot. Legazpi sold all his property, except for his house in Mexico, to finance the expedition, which suffered delays due to the attraction that Florida was beginning to exert among the Mexican settlers. He enlisted his grandson Felipe de Salcedo in the expedition, as well as Martín de Goiti as captain of artillery.

On 1 September 1564, the President and oidores of the Real Audiencia of Mexico gave Legazpi the document specifying the instructions and orders the expedition carried. The lengthy document, which ran to more than twenty-four pages, set out an entire code of rules of control, conduct and organization, as well as the recommendation to treat the natives well, and it even went so far as to indicate how rations were to be distributed and to prevent there being useless mouths:

... that there be in the said Armada no superfluous servants or serving boys... and if more people should go, especially useless ones...

Although it makes an exception regarding service, allowing a dozen persons assigned to those tasks while forbidding anyone else of that kind from boarding, the document says on this point:

Furthermore: you shall not allow, by any way or means, Indian men or women, Black men or women, or any women at all, married or single, of whatever quality and condition, to embark or go on the said ships, except for up to a dozen Black men and women for service, whom you shall distribute among all the ships as you see fit.

With the five ships and some 350 men, the expedition led by López de Legazpi set out from the port of Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, on 21 November 1564, after the flag and standards had been blessed on 19 November.

From the island of Guam to the Philippines

The expedition crossed the Pacific in 93 days and passed through the Marianas archipelago. On 22 January they landed on the island of Guam, known as the Island of Thieves, which they identified by the type of sails of the boats and canoes they saw. Legazpi ordered the following:

that no person of the Armada should dare to go ashore without his permission, and that those who did go ashore should not use force, nor do any wrong or harm to the natives, nor take anything from them, whether of their provisions or of other things, and that they should not touch their sown fields or crops, nor cut down palms or any other tree, and that they should not give or trade anything of any kind whatsoever with the natives, except through the hands of His Majesty's Officials, who were in charge of it, under heavy penalties; and the Captains who allowed it, under penalty of suspension from their offices.

They bought food from the natives, and he took possession of the island for the Spanish Crown. On 5 February they set out for the so-called Islands of the West, the Philippines. On the 15th they made landfall on the island of Samar, where the Chief Ensign, Andrés de Ibarra, took possession of it after reaching an agreement with the local leader. On the 20th of the same month they put to sea again and reached Leyte, where Legazpi drew up the formal act of taking possession, despite the hostility of its inhabitants. On 5 March they reached the port of Carvallán.

Route followed by the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi in the Philippine archipelago.

The shortage of food prompted the search for new bases, for which Spanish dominion was gradually extended over the various islands, coming to control a large part of the archipelago, with the exception of Mindanao and the Sulu islands. This expansion was achieved with relative ease, since the various peoples inhabiting the islands were at odds with one another, and because Legazpi established friendly relations with some of them, for example with the natives of Bohol through the signing of a "blood compact" with the chief Sikatuna. The abuses that Portuguese navigators had committed in the past at some points of the archipelago led some peoples to put up strong resistance to Legazpi.

At a meeting they decided to set up a camp to spend the winter on the island of Cebu, which was densely populated and well supplied with food, and which they reached again on 27 April. They judged that...

if the natives of the land should not wish to give them provisions at fair and customary prices and to be our friends, as the general intended, war may justly be made upon them.

His desire for peace ran up against the mistrust of the local ruler, Rajah Tupas, who was the son of the man who years earlier had killed 30 men of Magellan's expedition at a treacherous banquet. Legazpi tried to negotiate a peace agreement, but Tupas sent a force of 2,500 men against the Spanish ships. After the battle, Legazpi again tried to arrange a peaceful settlement and was again rebuffed.

The Spanish troops landed in three boats under the command of Goiti and Juan de la Isla, and the ships fired their cannons at the settlement, destroying some houses and making the inhabitants flee. The Spaniards, who were in urgent need of supplies, searched the town without finding anything that could be of use to them.

During the search, a man from Bermeo found in a hut the image of the Child Jesus (which they would call the Invention of the Child Jesus and which is now in the church later built by the Augustinians in Cebu), which must have come from some earlier expedition. Legazpi ordered work to begin on the fort, which started with its layout on 8 May. In view of these events, King Tupas, accompanied by Tamuñán, presented himself to Legazpi, who received them on his ship La Capitana, to agree on peace. The blood oath was performed, which consisted in that

the governor drew blood from his chest into a cup, and Tupas and Tamuñán did the same, and the blood drawn from all three was mixed with a little wine, which was poured into three cups, as much in one as in the other, and all three drank it at the same time, each his own share

and he founded there the first Spanish settlements: the Villa del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús, appointing Pedro Briceño de Oseguera as its Regidor; and the Villa de San Miguel, today Cebu City, which would become the capital of the Philippines and the base for their conquest.

Legazpi sent his grandson Felipe de Salcedo back to New Spain, taking Urdaneta as cosmographer, who reported the discovery of the sailing route across the northern Pacific eastward and opposed its conquest because it fell within the domains assigned to the Portuguese. The Portuguese sent a squadron to conquer the newly founded Villa de San Miguel, but it was repelled on two occasions, in 1568 and 1569.

Monument to Legazpi in Zumárraga.

In response to the Spanish expulsion from the Moluccas, Philip II decided to maintain control over the Philippines. To that end he appointed Legazpi Governor and Captain General of the Philippines and sent reinforcement troops.

In Cebu, Legazpi had to face an uprising by some of the gentlemen, who ended up defeated and on the gallows. In 1566 the galleon San Gerónimo arrived from Mexico, with which the route was definitively confirmed. In 1567, 2,100 Spaniards, soldiers and workers, arrived in Cebu by order of the King. They founded a city and built the port of Fortaleza de San Pedro, which became their outpost for trade with New Spain and for protection against hostile native rebellions and attacks by the Portuguese, who were definitively repelled. The new possessions were organized under the name of the Philippine Islands.

Legazpi stood out as administrator of the new dominions, where he introduced the encomiendas, as was done in America, and stimulated trade with neighboring countries, especially with China, for which he made use of the colony of Chinese merchants settled in Luzon since before his arrival. Religious matters were left in the hands of the Augustinians led by Friar Andrés de Urdaneta.

The conquest continued through the remaining islands: Panay (where he established his new base), Masbate, Mindoro and, finally, Luzon, where he met great resistance from the Tagalogs.

Founding of Manila

The prosperity of the settlement of Maynilad attracted Legazpi's attention as soon as he learned of its existence in 1568. To conquer it he sent two of his men, Martín de Goiti and Juan de Salcedo, on an expedition in command of some 300 soldiers. Maynilad was a Muslim enclave, located in the south of the island of Luzon, devoted to trade.

Salcedo and Goiti reached Manila Bay on 8 May 1570, after fighting several battles in the north of the island against Chinese pirates. The Spaniards were surprised by the size of the port and were received in a friendly manner, camping for some time near the enclave. Soon incidents broke out between the natives and the Spaniards, and two battles took place, the natives being defeated in the second of them, whereupon control of the area passed into Spanish hands after the corresponding peace protocols and ceremonies, which lasted three days. It was Rajah Matanda who handed Maynilad over to López de Legazpi.

Legazpi reached an agreement with the local rulers, the Rajahs Suliman, Matanda and Lakandula. It provided for the founding of a city that would have two mayors, twelve councillors and a secretary. The city would be a double one: the walled city (intramuros), Spanish, and the area outside the walls (extramuros), indigenous.

With the conquest of Maynilad, control over the island of Luzon, which Legazpi called the New Kingdom of Castile, was completed. Recognizing the strategic and commercial value of the enclave, on 24 June 1571 Legazpi founded the Ever Loyal and Distinguished City of Spain in the Orient of Manila and made it the seat of government of the archipelago and of the Spanish dominions of the Far East.

The building of the city—divided into two zones, intramuros and extramuros—was due to the royal order that Philip II issued from the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial on 3 July 1573, in which the intramuros zone was planned in the Spanish style of the time, with a defensive character according to plans by Herrera, architect of El Escorial, leaving the area outside the walls for the indigenous villages that would later give rise to new towns and would, over time, become part of the city of Manila.

Four years after its founding, Manila suffered an attack by the Chinese pirate Lima-Hong. Governor Guido de Lavezares and Maestre de Campo Juan de Salcedo, in command of 500 Spaniards, drove off the Chinese-Japanese mercenary fleet.

Death

Tomb of Miguel López de Legazpi in the Church of San Agustín, Intramuros, Manila.

After proclaiming Manila the capital of the Philippine Archipelago and of the Spanish dominions of the Far East, López de Legazpi moved his residence there. He remained in Manila until his death on 20 August 1572. Miguel López de Legazpi died of a stroke and in a precarious financial situation, without knowing that King Philip II had signed a Royal Cédula appointing him Governor for life and Captain General of the Philippines and granting him a salary of 2,000 ducats. He was buried in the Church of San Agustín, Intramuros, in Manila.

Friar Andrés de Urdaneta described Miguel López de Legazpi on 1 January 1561, in a letter addressed to King Philip II, as follows:

The Viceroy Don Luis de Velasco has appointed as general for this expedition Miguel López de Legazpi, a native of the province of Gipuzkoa and a resident of this city, where he has been married and is at present a widower; he has sons who are already grown men and married daughters who already have children, and other daughters already women of an age to be married; he is over fifty years of age, a known hidalgo, honorable and virtuous, of good habits and example, of very sound judgment and nature, prudent and composed, and a man who has always given good account of the matters of Your Majesty's service entrusted to him. I trust in God that he will be very well accepted in going as leader of the expedition.

During the conquest, he wrote several letters to the King, which are kept under the title Cartas al Rey Don Felipe II sobre la expedición, conquistas y progresos de las islas Filipinas (Letters to King Don Philip II on the expedition, conquests and progress of the Philippine Islands) in the Archive of the Indies in Seville.

His birthplace in Zumárraga

Legazpi's birthplace in Zumárraga.

The house "Jauregi Haundia", much better known as the Legazpi Tower-House or Legazpi Dorretxea in Basque, where Miguel López de Legazpi was born, is located in the Gipuzkoan town of Zumárraga. In 1947, the writer José de Arteche denounced the ruinous state of the building. In 1964, the Town Council of Zumárraga restored the building, which was inaugurated on the fourth centenary of the expedition, and a museum was installed. Today, the so-called Legazpi Tower houses a music school. In Zumárraga there stands a monument to Miguel López de Legazpi, and a painting of him is kept in the town hall. There are also monuments to him in Manila.

External links (and sources)

• Enciclopedia Auñamendi (ISBN 84-7025-147-3)
• Confirmation of Legazpi's title of Governor and Captain-General (in English)