Manrique de Zúñiga, Alvaro (?–c. 1593)

Alvaro Manrique de Zúñiga (marqués de Villamanrique; d. ca. 1593), seventh viceroy of New Spain. Villamanrique is thought by some to have been the low point of viceregal government in Mexico in the sixteenth century. Governing from 1585 to 1590, Villamanrique is credited with having begun the process whereby the northern frontier was pacified. He sought to increase royal control over the distribution and sale of mercury, wine, and meat. In keeping with royal legislation of 1574, Villamanrique helped strengthen royal control over the Catholic Church. Because of these and other policies many residents of New Spain opposed the viceroy. In 1588 a jurisdictional dispute with the neighboring Audiencia of New Galicia was portrayed in Madrid as approaching a civil war, a prospect that prompted the crown to remove Villamanrique and to subject him to a judicial review. In 1589 he was arrested by the bishop of Puebla, don Diego Romano, and returned to Spain, suffering the sequester of his personal possessions.

See alsoMexico: The Colonial Period .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Richard Greenleaf, "The Little War of Guadalajara, 1587–1590," in New Mexico Historical Review 43 (1968): 119-135.

Additional Bibliography

Cañeque, Alejandro. The King's Living Image: The Culture and Politics of Viceregal Power in Colonial Mexico. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Rivera Cambas, Manuel. Alvaro Manrique de Zúñiga. Mexico City: Editorial Citlaltépetl, 1970, 1872.

                                      John F. Schwaller