Knight, Judge, Viceroy
1448 – 1502
I sincerely tried to find good among the great explorers of the time, but time after time the core character of potential heroes tainted my perceptions and disqualified the character. I recognize I’m writing fiction, and all the records I access are five hundred years old, and, the historians of the time who kept the records don’t always agree, but I love to introduce historical characters and represent them as truthfully as I can. That is the fun part of the puzzle I am trying to put together. I also know that I didn’t live in the time so I shouldn’t judge them according to my modern perceptions. And when I meet these characters in the next life, my perceptions may be proven totally wrong – for that I am sorry.
So here I introduce you to another prominent character to whom my anger was immediately kindled. Yet later I softened a bit because of some of his tax policies to which I tend to agree.
Governor Francisco de Bobadilla. Bobadilla was well respected in Ferdinand’s and Isabella’s court. His daughter Maria was an intimate with the queen. In 1499, seven years after Christopher Columbus’ first voyage, complaints of Columbus’ policies, mishandling of enslaved natives, accusations of Columbus’ bribery, and shortchanging the Crown of their one-fifth of the plunder, were presented to Ferdinand and Isabella.
If Spain were being cheated, the monarchs had to do something, so they named Francisco de Bobadilla a judge with orders to investigate the reports from Hispaniola about Columbus’ alleged treason.
Immediately upon his arrival in Hispaniola, Bobadilla ordered Columbus’ youngest brother, who was governing the island, to leave the fortress claiming that he, Bobadilla was the person in authority.
Francisco de Bobadilla began his investigation, basing it on the accusations that had made their way to the Spanish crown, and he gathered a large number of complaints against the Columbus brothers, Bartholomew, Giacomo, and Christopher.
He claimed that their governance had been disastrous, with serious abuses of authority, and was angry at them for hanging five Spaniards who had committed atrocities against the natives. Bobadilla then ordered their arrest and commanded they be taken to Spain. He also seized all their assets.
The neutrality and accuracy of the accusations and investigations of Bobadilla toward Columbus and his brothers have been disputed by historians. Some say the persecutions were due to Bobadilla’s anti-Italian sentiment and Bobadilla’s desire to take over Columbus’ position.
On Bobadilla’s order, Christopher Columbus appeared before him in Santo Domingo. Columbus was then jailed in the fortress together with his other brother Bartholomew Columbus, who had returned to Santo Domingo after a campaign against the natives. The pair was sent to Spain in chains. Despite everything, the Monarchs treated Columbus cordially and ordered his release, saying that the accusations against him were insufficient to warrant his imprisonment.
According to Ferdinand Columbus, one of Christopher Columbus’ sons, who served Isabella, there were many factions fighting for position and control of the New World conquests. He wrote that Bobadilla “recognized and favored the rebels” upon arriving in Santo Domingo. Bobadilla bought the favor of the people by lowering taxes, easing the rents and royal tribute, and claiming to the people that the Monarchs only wanted the land, not the riches. This was a lie of course.
So there he was accusing Columbus of treason while he cheated the crown. He is said to have sold off lands Columbus held for the monarchs, below value price, and he gave native slaves to powerful people if they would share the slaves’ earnings with him. He cancelled the mining tax to stimulate gold production and then he pardoned a true rebel. So while Bobadilla is accusing Columbus of treason, and sending him to Spain in chains, he is cheating the crown and enriching himself.
But the initial event that introduced me to Bobadilla was when the ships of Captain Rodrigo de Bastidas, sunk off the shore of Hispaniola, Bobadilla arrested Bastidas for landing without permission. He confiscated Bastidas’ gold and sent him back to Spain as a prisoner.
Even as a fiction writer, I didn’t make this up.
Here is where payback was sweet. In a 31-ship convoy heading to Spain, Captain Rodrigo de Bastidas, as a prisoner, was being sent back to prison in Spain on one of the ships. The gold confiscated from Columbus was being shipped on another ship, and Bobadilla was among the passengers on yet another ship. A great hurricane arose and destroyed 20 of the ships. The weakest of the ships, the one Bastidas was on and the ship carrying Columbus’ gold, survived the hurricane. Governor Bobadilla was among those destroyed.
Some people accused Columbus of magically invoking the storm out of vengeance. Maybe.
Eventually, Columbus’ son Diego was appointed to serve as governor of the Indies.
