Diego de Almagro

More impulsive and passionate

While Pizarro was usually patient and calculating, Almagro was more emotional. When something seemed unjust to him, he tended to react quickly.

He was a man of action.

Brave

Few doubted his personal courage. He participated directly in battles and endured the same hardships as his men.

His expedition to Chile is a good example: he crossed the Andes Mountains in extreme conditions, losing men, horses, and supplies.

Generous with his soldiers

Many chroniclers mention that he was closer to his men than other captains.

He was known for sharing hardships with them and rewarding loyalty whenever possible.

Proud

One of the traits that most defined his life.

He believed he had contributed as much as Pizarro to the conquest of Peru and expected to receive equivalent recognition.

When he felt sidelined by the Crown and the Pizarros, his resentment grew until it erupted into civil war among the conquistadors.

Persistent

He was not one to easily abandon a goal.

Even after the disappointing outcome of the expedition to Chile, he returned determined to reclaim what he considered his.

Temperamental

While Pizarro projected calm, Almagro gave the impression of experiencing emotions with greater intensity.

He could be cordial and generous, but also easily enraged when he felt betrayed.

Height: Of average height or slightly above average for his time, approximately 1.68–1.73 m (5'6"–5'8").
Build: Strong and resilient. He spent much of his life as a soldier and explorer, enduring long campaigns and extreme conditions.
Hair: Dark brown or black in his youth; gray in his later years.
Beard: He is usually depicted with a full beard or a short, thick beard.
Eyes: Dark. A very distinctive feature is that he lost an eye during a fight in his youth in Spain, so in many depictions he appears with his left eye damaged or covered.
Face: Broad, with strong features and a stern expression. The loss of his eye gave him a particularly intimidating appearance.
Skin: Tanned by the sun after decades of campaigns in the Caribbean, Panama, Peru, and the expedition to Chile.

Upon returning to Peru in 1537, Almagro occupied the city of Cuzco and, in the Battle of Abancay on July 12, 1537, took Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro prisoner , claiming the city belonged to his governorship. Francisco Pizarro negotiated with Almagro for his brothers' exile, but in reality, Pizarro was merely trying to buy time and somehow overrule the king, who had ruled that Cuzco was Almagro's property.

Feeling secure, Pizarro, far from honoring the agreement, gave command of the troops to his brothers. Almagro was ill at the time of the betrayal and gave command to Rodrigo Orgóñez . The Almagro faction was defeated in April 1538 at the Battle of Las Salinas . In this same battle, the loyal Gonzalo Calvo de Barrientos , Pizarro's earless squire , died . Taken prisoner, Almagro was humiliated by Hernando Pizarro and was unable to appeal to the king. Feeling lost, Almagro begged for his life, to which Hernando Pizarro replied :

You are a gentleman and have an illustrious name; show no weakness; I marvel that a man of your spirit fears death so much. Confess, for your death is inevitable.
He was executed on July 8 of that same year in prison by garrote , and his decapitated corpse was displayed in the Plaza de Armas of Cuzco . Malgarida, his faithful black servant, took her master's body and, in her capacity as a benefactor of the Mercedarian order, buried it in the Church of La Merced in that city.

His son, Diego de Almagro the Younger, attempted to avenge his father; however, Francisco Pizarro died in the palace of Lima in 1541 at the hands of Juan de Rada . Hernando Pizarro went to Spain to justify his conduct before the king and was imprisoned for more than 20 years in the fortress of Medina del Campo . Gonzalo Pizarro was beheaded after suffering defeat at the hands of Pedro de la Gasca on April 9, 1548, while being led by Pedro de Valdivia against the Pizarrist Francisco de Carvajal at the Battle of Jaquijahuana.

The most total disrepute plunged the lands of Chile (Chili or Chilli), associating its name with failure, so it would be until 1540 when Pedro de Valdivia, reviewing some notes of Almagro, gave Chile a great personal value and decided to carry out his own conquest.

Finally, the rest of the column reached Copayapu (Copiapó Valley) with 240 Spaniards, 1,500 yanaconas (indigenous laborers), 150 Black people, and 112 horses. Among the Black people was a woman loyal to Almagro named Malgarida . More than 70% of those who began the march died during the journey; 10 Spaniards, 50 horses, and hundreds of Indigenous allies or auxiliaries perished due to the scant clothing they carried.

After a period of rest and recovery, the order was given to resume the march toward the Copiapó Valley; however, a multitude of yanaconas deserted, leaving the Spaniards practically without servants. Almagro hardened his hand and ordered several Indians guilty of killing Spaniards to be burned alive; these Indians had murdered the three soldiers sent in the vanguard who had arrived in Chile .

As a lesson to them, Almagro decided to inflict a cruel punishment by gathering all the important chieftains of the region, confronting them with their crime, and condemning them to die at the stake. During the execution of the punishment, he received news from the chieftains of the Aconcagua region , who wished to establish friendship with the whites. This was due to a couple of self-exiled Spaniards, renegades from Pizarro, who had been in the region for years.

Almagro began his ascent of the Andes Mountains, following the Inca Trail from Shincal , an Inca way station near the present-day town of Londres , Argentina . The Spaniards, along with thousands of yanaconas (indigenous laborers) and people of color, totaling some 12,500 men, began to cross the first peaks of the Andes, heading towards Paso Comecaballos and then Portezuelo Pulido , reaching Peñasco de Diego and attaining altitudes above 4,000 meters above sea level. They stopped at way stations along the Inca Trail. During their advance through the mountains, the expedition suffered many hardships, exhausted by the cold wind and frostbite on their hands and feet, and by the difficulty of traversing the loose terrain, covered in small, sharp-edged pebbles that destroyed the soles of their shoes and the horses' horseshoes. The frigid climate of the mountain range killed a large number of the Yanacona Indians, whose remains they began to leave along the route, creating a trail of death. They lacked adequate clothing and traveled barefoot, and several of the Spaniards, upon removing their boots, found their toes frozen to the bone. Tradition and some sources indicate that Almagro made his ill-fated journey through what is now called the San Francisco Pass ; this assertion is currently under investigation. The hardships increased as they ventured deeper into that icy, inhospitable, and silent landscape, even bringing their advance to a halt due to a lack of morale.

The conquistador, concerned for the fate of his men, led an advance party with twenty other horsemen, which crossed the mountain range and, after riding for three whole days, reached the Copiapó Valley (then called Copayapu), and collected provisions supplied by the indigenous people, which he immediately sent to aid his men. Only 2,500 survivors arrived from Almagro's expedition.

From what is now Peru, Almagro rushed to Quito to confront the armies of Pedro de Alvarado , who sought to conquer the lands of the South Sea on his own. On that occasion, Almagro skillfully played a delicate diplomatic role, preventing a fratricidal conflict. Alvarado was arriving from Guatemala with a significant number of soldiers, intending to participate in the conquest of the Inca Empire. Almagro would join another conquistador, Sebastián de Belalcázar, who, by order of Pizarro, was supposed to be in San Miguel de Piura. However, upon receiving news of Alvarado's arrival, Belalcázar decided to head north to confront the indigenous army led by Rumiñahui . According to the Laws of the Indies, Almagro was required to secure the conquest of this territory by founding three settlements. For this reason, and to gain precedence over the conquistador arriving from Central America, he acted first and founded the city of Santiago on August 15, 1534, located in Liribamba (now called Riobamba), which is considered the first city in Ecuador. It was located in the central highlands, near Colta in the Liribamba plain.

Alongside Sebastián de Belalcázar, he would confront the indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Andes, led by three generals: Rumiñahui , Quizquiz, and Zocozopagua. They would pursue the first of these through the valleys, dodging the horse traps that had been constructed in the form of pits in the plains. However, the Cañari, with whom they had formed an alliance, alerted them to these traps and guided them along alternative routes to ambush Rumiñahui's camps.

Before he could defeat them, he had to receive Alvarado, who was arriving by sea with his entire army, and also the Franciscan friar Jodoco Ricke , who would bring wheat and barley for the city of San Francisco de Quito. The armies met in Moche, where Alvarado requested safe passage, realizing he was late and unable to confront them. For this reason, they reached an agreement at a meeting in the Balbanera Cathedral in the town of Santiago de Quito, whereby Alvarado would relinquish the founding of the city and sell part of his enterprise, including his ships, slaves, horses, and weapons, for only 100,000 pesos. Alvarado returned to Guatemala, signing a deed on August 26, 1534. Almagro would be in charge of this deed, leaving Belalcázar to continue with the founding of the remaining cities. Once the agreement was finalized, Santiago de Quito would be depopulated and Riobamba founded by order of Diego de Almagro. Belalcázar would continue his campaigns, founding San Francisco de Quito and Santiago de Guayaquil . Meanwhile, Almagro would found San Gregorio de Puerto Viejo , sending one of his captains, Francisco Pacheco, from San Miguel de Piura on March 12, 1535, ahead of Pedro de Puelles, who had been sent by Belalcázar for the same purpose.

Around that time, the partnership between Almagro, Pizarro, and Luque was formalized, and in early August 1524, they received the long-awaited permission to discover and conquer, on their own account, the lands located east of Panama , an undertaking that culminated in Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire.

Almagro remained in Panama to recruit men and obtain supplies, while Pizarro continued the expedition. Pizarro's successes prompted him to request royal permission to undertake the conquest of new territories on his own; although this was denied, it strained relations with the Pizarros. However, when Almagro arrived in Peru in 1533, Pizarro, with just over 160 men, had captured Atahualpa , the absolute ruler of the country, in Cajamarca , and was negotiating a fabulous ransom. Almagro, who had more than 200 men with him, hastened to join his companions and, on April 13, 1533, reunited with his former comrade. For this reason, because he was in charge of organizing the five expeditions between Panama and South America, he did not participate as one of the Thirteen of Fame who would later become the Knights of the Golden Spur. He would arrive after the capture of Atahualpa and would play a leading role in the conquest of the northern Inca Empire, alongside the other great conqueror Sebastián de Belalcázar.

The redemption of the Inca belonged solely to Pizarro's men, but the Inca Empire held many other treasures, and Almagro actively participated in its conquest. His presence was decisive on more than one occasion, from the march towards Cuzco to the capture of the capital, and at every juncture, the audacious captain demonstrated his skills as a fearless fighter. Even when faced with the arrival of other Spanish competitors, the adelantado took charge of the task.

In Cajamarca, in what is now the Republic of Peru, he met Atahualpa, and after his death, he continued the conquest by capturing and neutralizing Manco Capac. Later, when the military leader Quizquiz rose up against the conquistadors, Almagro took him prisoner and sent him south to Jauja, where he was met by soldiers of his own army who killed him. In that battle, he fought alongside Juan Pizarro and Hernando de Soto , who were in charge of the cavalry.

Almagro arrived in the New World on June 30, 1514, as part of the expedition sent by Ferdinand II of Aragon under the command of Pedro Arias de Ávila . The expedition landed in the city of Santa María la Antigua del Darién , where many other prominent future conquistadors were already present, including Francisco Pizarro .

Not much is known about Almagro during this period, but it is known that he accompanied several captains who left Santa María la Antigua del Darién between 1514 and mid-1515, although he mainly stayed in the city, eventually having an encomienda , building a house and dedicating himself to agriculture.

He carried out his first conquest on November 30, 1515, when he left Darien in command of 260 men, to found the town of Acla , located in the place of the same name, but he had to abandon his enterprise because he fell ill and had to return to Darien, leaving the mission of completing his plan to the lawyer Gaspar de Espinosa .

Almagro worked for some time with Vasco Núñez de Balboa , who was then in charge of Acla. Balboa, using materials from Espinosa's expedition, planned to build a ship, modify it, and rebuild it in the South Sea ( Pacific ). However, according to available information, there is no indication that Almagro participated in Balboa's expedition, and it is more likely that he returned to Darién.

Espinosa decided to lead a new expedition, departing in December with 200 men, including a now recovered Almagro and Francisco Pizarro, who for the first time held the title of captain. On this expedition, which lasted 14 months, he encountered Father Hernando de Luque , whom he had met previously. Although the famous partnership between the three was not yet established, they already demonstrated trust and friendship. He participated in the raids, settlements, and conquests in the Gulf of Panama , joining one of Espinosa's expeditions, which traveled on two of Balboa's ships.

All that is known of Almagro in this expedition is that he served as a witness on the lists that Espinosa had compiled for each event related to indigenous people. He remained in the newly founded city of Santa María la Antigua del Darién, helping to populate it. For four years he did not participate in any new expeditions, occupying his time with the administration of his and Pizarro's properties. His son Diego de Almagro the Younger was born during this time , whom he had with an Indian woman from the region named Ana Martínez.

The origins of Diego de Almagro remain obscure. He was born in 1475 in the Manchegan town of Almagro or Malagón , [ 1 ] in what is now the province of Ciudad Real , from which he took his surname, being the illegitimate son of Juan de Montenegro and Elvira Gutiérrez. To save his mother's honor, her relatives took the infant from her and moved him to the nearby town of Bolaños de Calatrava , where he was raised in both Bolaños and Aldea del Rey by Sancha López del Peral.

When he turned four, he returned to Almagro, where he was under the guardianship of his uncle Hernán Gutiérrez until he was fifteen. Because of his uncle's harshness, he ran away from home. He went to his mother's house, where she was now living with her new husband, to tell her what had happened and that he was going to travel the world, asking her for some bread to help him survive his poverty. His mother, distressed, found him a piece of bread and some coins and said, " Here, son, don't pressure me anymore, and go, and may God help you on your adventure ."

He went to Seville and, after probably stealing to survive, the young man became a servant of Don Luis de Polanco, one of the four mayors of the Catholic Monarchs and later their advisor, who was mayor of that city. While performing this job, Almagro stabbed another servant over some disagreements, leaving him with such serious injuries that a trial was brought against him.

Wanted by the law, Don Luis de Polanco, using his influence, persuaded Pedro Arias de Ávila to allow him to embark as a colonist on one of the ships sailing to the Indies from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda . The House of Trade required that men crossing to the Indies bring their own weapons, clothing, and farming implements, which Don Polanco provided to his servant. Diego de Almagro was a man of medium height and not particularly handsome, having suffered from acne and smallpox while in Spain.