# Pedro Velaz de Medrano

Pedro Vélaz de Medrano y Manso de Zúñiga, 2nd Lord of Tabuérniga (Santo Domingo de la Calzada, La Rioja 28 July 1603 – Coimbra, c. 1659) was a prominent Spanish noble, knight of the Order of Santiago, and sailor during the reign of Philip IV. He served as Captain General of the Armada de Barlovento, custodian of the Spanish treasure fleet, Sergeant Major, Governor of the Tercio of Álava, Governor of five galleons from Naples, squadron admiral and general of the Spanish Empire. Pedro Vélaz de Medrano is famous for leading a French corsair flotilla in the Caribbean as Captain, with the intention of capturing the Spanish treasure fleet for King Louis XIV of France.
He married María de Altamirano y Ponce de León. His son Antonio Velaz de Medrano y Altamirano, Governor of the strategic city of Nieuwpoort became the I Marquis of Tabuerniga, granted by King Carlos II of Spain in 1682.

## Early life

Pedro Vélaz de Medrano y Manso de Zúñiga was the son of the noble Antonio Vélaz de Medrano y Hurtado de Mendoza, a knight of the Order of Santiago, and María Magdalena Manso de Zúñiga y Solá, 1st Lady of Tabuérniga. He was born in Santo Domingo de la Calzada in 1603, and baptized in the Cathedral of Calceatense.
Pedro's father Antonio Vélaz de Medrano served as a soldier in Naples and Sicily and would later become magistrate in the towns of Malaga (1609–12), Cuenca and Huete (1612–14).
Pedro Vélaz de Medrano comes from a vast noble family in La Rioja. The Medrano family is a lineage that is very widespread in the Rioja lands and the nearby regions of Navarre and Soria.

## Royal page for Philip III of Spain (1615–1623)

Pedro Vélaz de Medrano entered the direct service of King Philip III of Spain as a royal page in 1615. He remained there until his entry into the Carrera de Indias in 1623. This was a common departure for pages of the sovereign back then.

## Military career

In 1623, he left the House of Pages and joined the Army of the Strait of Gibraltar. In it, he participated in a minor action at Cape San Vicente.

### Enlistment under Fadrique de Toledo, 1st Marquess of Valdueza

His seafaring skills caught the attention of Fadrique de Toledo, Captain General of the Navy of the Atlantic Ocean and of the Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Portugal, who enlisted him in the journey to Brazil that recovered Bahia from the Dutch in 1625. For two decades, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano took part in the recovery of Bahia (Brazil), from the Dutch, and fought on the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and wherever his services were required. In 1629, still under his command, he participated in the actions of the islands of San Cristóbal and Nieves.

### Promotions

His promotions continued in the 1630s: sergeant major and governor of the Alava Tercio, governor of five galleons of the Naples Navy, and squadron Admiral and General. In 1631, however, he excused himself from participating in the expedition that attempted to recover Pernambuco because he was ill.

### Siege of Fuenterrabía (1638)

In 1638 Pedro Vélaz de Medrano came to the aid of Fuenterrabía commanding his Tercio from Alava in the Franco-Spanish War. On 7 September, the Spanish army led by Juan Alfonso Enríquez de Cabrera, 9th Admiral of Castile, relieved the city and defeated the French forces.

### Battle of the downs (1639)

In 1639 Pedro Vélaz de Medrano participated in the Battle of the Downs (1639) commanding the ship Orfeo, which pitted Spain and Holland against the English coast of Kent, in the so-called 'Eighty Years' War'. At the end of August 1639, General Pedro Vélaz de Medrano and his 5 galleons of Naples arrived at La Coruña with Antonio de Oquendo, anchoring outside the port to prepare for war.
Orfeo fought for the Kingdom of Naples under the command of Pedro Vélaz de Medrano. Medrano's 44-gun ship was lost on the Goodwin Sands, Kent, on 31 October 1639.

### Prisoner of the French (1640)

The defeat had the aggravating circumstance of Medrano taken prisoner in France. Pedro Vélaz de Medrano was prisoner of the French in Paris after running his ship aground on the Gallic shores, but Medrano was freed in 1640 and returned to Spain.

### Appointment as Captain General of the Armada de Barlovento (1644)

In 1644, he held the position of captain general of the Armada de Barlovento and custodian of the Spanish treasure fleet.

## Captain General of the Armada de Barlovento and custody of the Spanish treasure fleet (1644–1648)

In 1635, King Philip IV of Spain created the Armada de Barlovento (Windward Fleet), a military formation that consisted of 50 ships to protect its overseas American territories and Spanish treasure fleet from attacks against its European enemies, as well as attacks from pirates and privateers. It was dissolved around 1620 but was later reformed around 1640 to safeguard the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

### Appointment as Captain General of the Armada de Barlovento

In 1644, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano was appointed Captain General of the Armada de Barlovento and was in charge of the custody of the New Spain Fleet (Spanish treasure fleet) that successfully entered the port of Veracruz on July 17, 1644.

### Journey to Veracruz (1644)

Pedro Vélaz de Medrano departed from Cádiz on April 22, 1644, and reached Veracruz on July 17 of the same year, accompanied by the Spanish treasure fleet and the Barlovento fleet, under his command. During the journey, they faced several storms and made stops in Puerto Rico and La Aguada. The fleet carried 6,160 tons of cargo and 1,405 quintals of mercury (for mining).
There are accounts from Pedro Núñez de Salamanca in 1644 and 1645, provided for the Barlovento fleet, under the command of Pedro Vélaz de Medrano.

### Return to Cádiz

The Spanish treasure fleet departed from Veracruz on April 15, 1645, with the Barlovento Fleet, commanded by Captain General Pedro Vélaz de Medrano. He arrived in Cádiz on August 9, 1645, escorted by the same fleet.

### Relocating the Armada to Havana

In 1648, the base of the Armada de Barlovento, previously in Veracruz, was relocated to Havana.

### Request for a Marquessate and other grants

Upon his return to the Iberian Peninsula in 1645, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano requested the monarch to reward him with a marquessate and other grants as a reward for his services.
However, the crisis in which the monarchy was plunged after the uprising of Catalonia and Portugal prevented large expenditures and did not obtain satisfaction to his demands. In 1648, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano left for Portugal.

## Betrayal of the Spanish crown (1648)

After receiving several refusals in his requests for grants and appointments, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano decided to go to Portugal in 1648, practically at the same time as the discovery of the Duke of Híjar's conspiracy. In Lisbon, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano offered his services to the rebels, ensuring that he could take over the New Spain Fleet, or the city of Cartagena de Indias. The news aroused deep concern in Madrid.
In 1648, after news of Pedro’s desertion to the Portuguese, his family was detained and placed under custody in the city of Atlixco. They were released in 1650. Spanish officials feared that Pedro Vélaz de Medrano might attempt to lead an insurrection to restore Navarre’s independence, especially given that García de Medrano was serving as Regent of Navarre at the time. Alternatively, if Pedro did not pursue rebellion in Navarre, he was feared to be planning a campaign in the Americas, with the backing of the Portuguese and English, to seize Santo Domingo or even launch an invasion of Peru.
The Portuguese monarch considered sending him at the head of a fleet to reconquer the Brazilian provinces of Maranhâo and Grâo Pará. However, the Portuguese rebels were not prepared to launch such strong orders. Faced with the hesitations of the Portuguese, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano decided to offer his services to the main enemy of the Spanish crown: the Kingdom of France.

## Allegiance to the French crown and raids in the Caribbean

In the Kingdom of France, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano found the welcome he had been seeking. Frustrated by Portuguese procrastination, he offered his services as a corsair to King Louis XIV of France, who granted him a letter of marque and sent him to the Caribbean in command of three ships. Leading this squadron, he appeared off the Cuban coast in 1650, where he made several captures.

### Medrano's attempt to capture the Spanish treasure fleet (1651)

In 1651, Captain Pedro Vélaz de Medrano commanded five warships against Philip IV for France to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet in the Caribbean. On 18 March 1651, Philip IV of Spain sent a letter to the Viceroy of New Spain, notifying him of the departure of Pedro Vélaz de Medrano with five warships (from France) to waylay the Spanish ships travelling from Vera Cruz to Havana; and instructing the Viceroy to take the necessary precautions. He punished the Cuban coasts and allied himself with the French corsair Ponthezière. In July 1651, Medrano and Ponthezière attacked the port of La Guaira but was repulsed. Between the two, they gathered 12 ships for their corsair raids, including against the port of La Guaira, in Venezuela, where they were defeated.
The Spanish fleets wintered that year and waited for Pedro Vélaz de Medrano's reinforcements to leave the following year, forcing him to end up with not enough strength to face them. The failure of his corsair expeditions to the Caribbean must have alienated the confidence of the French king in 1656.

## Death

Pedro died around 1659, already retired from active military life, leading a hermit life and under the name of Pedro de Jesús, in an undetermined convent in the region of Coimbra, Portugal.

## Marriage and issue

Pedro Vélaz de Medrano y Manso de Zuniga married María de Altamirano y Ponce de León and together they had a son named Antonio Velaz de Medrano y Altamirano (Labastida , 1637- Spa , 1683) a prominent nobleman and military officer in the reign of Charles II, who served as governor of the strategic city and municipality of Nieuwpoort in Flanders. Pedro's son married a lady from the House of Hurtado de Mendoza, a lineage that included García Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Marquess of Cañete. The title of Marquess of Cañete would later be inherited by Pedro Vélaz de Medrano's great-grandson, Fernando Vélaz de Medrano, 15th Marquess of Cañete.

### Heir

His son Antonio was made 1st Marquess of Tabuérniga (also called Marqués de Tabuérniga de Vélazar) in 1682 by Royal Decree, granted by King Charles II.
Antonio Vélaz de Medrano negotiated with the United Provinces of the Netherlands for the cession of Tobago as his principality, however he was awarded the Marquessate of Tabuérniga instead. During the Franco-Dutch War (1672), as Governor of Nieuwpoort, he played a key role in defending the city against the French, ordering the flooding of surrounding areas to halt their advance, despite economic damage.

## Ancestry
### Paternal ancestry

He is the paternal grandson of Juan Vélaz de Medrano and a lady from the House of Hurtado de Mendoza. His grandmother was the daughter of Íñigo Hurtado de Mendoza, a resident of Salinas de Añana (Álava).
The Medrano family coat of arms in La Rioja is described as a shield divided in the middle: on the right side, an argent field with a sable bend, crossing from corner to corner with a gules border with 8 argent crosses of San Andres; on the left side, a gules field with an argent cross fleury, surrounded by an Or border and the Ave Maria family motto written in sable letters.
His family was deeply intertwined in the navy. He was a contemporary and relative of Tomás Fernández de Medrano, Lord of Valdeosera, patron of the convent of San Juan de Acre in Salinas de Añana, and Secretary of State and War for the Dukes of Savoy; and Captain Diego de Medrano, who participated in the battle of Lepanto, the Conquest of the Azores, and numerous other battles. He also commanded 12 Spanish Galleys, leading them to the island of Terceira; later Diego de Medrano was appointed Squadron General and Captain of the 4 Galleys of Portugal, each with 50 guns, during the Spanish Armada of 1588.

### Maternal ancestry

Pedro's mother Maria Magdalena was the daughter of Juan Manso de Zúñíga y Medrano and Magdalena de Sola. Maria was a member of the powerful Manso de Zúñiga clan, a Riojan family originally from the town of Canillas de Río Tuerto to which the then bishop of Calahorra-La Calzada belonged. Pedro Vélaz de Medrano was the nephew of: Pedro Manso de Zúñiga, President of the Council of Castile and Patriarch of the West Indies, Martín Manso de Zúñiga, bishop of Oviedo and Osma, and Francisco Manso de Zúñiga y Solá, judge of the Council of the Indies, bishop, archbishop, the Vizcount of Negueruela and later given the title Count of Hervías by Philip IV of Spain, dated 26 May 1651.
Pedro Vélaz de Medrano's maternal grandfather Juan Manso de Zúñiga y Medrano, nicknamed “El Joven or El Mozo”, was the lord of the towns of Canillas, Cañas and Santorcaz, progenitor of the Counts of Hervías. Juan Manso de Zúñiga y Medrano was born in 1540, son of Juan Manso de Zúñiga y Arcos Belandia and Beatriz Martínez de Medrano. Juan Manso de Zúñiga y Medrano won a royal charter of hidalguía on 5 April 1582. He served the king in the armies of Santander and El Ferrol. Juan's brother Pedro Manso de Zúñiga y Medrano was the bishop of Calahorra and the archdeacon of Bilbao.

## Descendants

Pedro Vélaz de Medrano was the great-grandfather of Jaime Velaz de Medrano, III Marquis of Tabuérniga, an important soldier, noble courtier, and prominent conspirator during the reign of Philip V and Isabel de Farnesio. Jaime Vélaz de Medrano had a son and heir, Fernando Vélaz de Medrano y Bracamonte y Dávila, IV Marquis of Tabuérniga, VI Marquess of Fuente el Sol, etc.
Pedro Vélaz de Medrano was also the direct ancestor of José E. Romero, Philippine foreign minister, later first ambassador of the Philippines to the Court of St. James's in the UK.
Jose E. Romero's maternal grandmother was a great-granddaughter of Fernando Vélaz de Medrano y Bracamonte y Dávila, 4th Marquis of Tabuérniga, 15th Marquis of Cañete, 6th Marquis of Fuente el Sol, 8th Marquis of Navamorcuende, Grandee of Spain, 15th Lord of Montalbo, and a Knight of the Order of Malta, who was exiled to the Philippines in 1781. Through his maternal grandmother, Romero was a descendant of Alfonso XI of Castile through four of his sons: Peter of Castile, the twins Henry II of Castile and Fadrique Alfonso, 1st Lord of Haro, and Sancho Alfonso, 1st Count of Albuquerque. Through Peter of Castile's mother Maria of Portugal, he was also a descendant of Afonso IV of Portugal.