Pedro de Villagra

Who was Pedro de Villagra?

Pedro de Villagra y Martínez was a Spanish soldier who participated in the conquest of Chile, being appointed its Royal Governor between 1563 and 1565.

His father was Juan de Villagra, a minor civil official. In 1537 he moved from Spain to Cartagena de Indias, then to Santa Marta and later Peru. He arrived in Chile with the expedition of Pedro de Valdivia.

With the founding of Santiago, Villagra held for 4 years the post of the city's mayor. Valdivia also granted him an encomienda in Tirúa. After the death of the governor, he moved back to Peru, where he married Beatriz de Figueroa.

He returned to Chile when his nephew Francisco de Villagra was governor for the first time. He fought in the Arauco War and took command of the southern forces when the governor became ill. In 1556 he commanded the forces that drove Lautaro back from Santiago in the Battle of Peteroa.

He again commanded forces under Francisco de Villagra when he became governor again in 1561. When Francisco de Villagra died on June 22, 1563, he left Pedro de Villagra as interim governor. This was later confirmed by the Viceroy of Peru, Diego López de Zúñiga y Velasco. His military strategy led him to concentrate his forces, vacating the fort Arauco in order to reinforce Angol and Concepción. Some of the worst Mapuche defeats would be suffered through the attack on Angol, where the garrisoning forces led by Lorenzo Bernal del Mercado inflicted over a thousand of casualties and killed the toqui Illangulién in the Battle of Angol. Later he headed a new campaign in the south, relieving the Siege of Concepcion and resulting in the victorious battles of Reinohuelen and Tolmillán against the Mapuches north of the Bio-Bio River. This series of defeats resulted in a few years of apparent peace between the Spanish and Mapuche.