Francisco de Carvajal Francisco de Carvajal ( 1464 – April 10 , 1548 ) was a Spanish military officer , conquistador , and explorer remembered as " " the demon of the Andes " " due to his brutality and uncanny military skill in the Peruvian civil wars of the 16th century . Carvajal ' s career as a soldier in Europe spanned forty years and a half - dozen wars . Fighting in Spain ' s Imperial armies — the famous " tercios " — he served under Charles V ' s principal commanders in the Italian Wars : Pedro Navarro , Fabrizio Colonna , and the illustrious " Gran Capitán " , Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba . He took part in the memorable Spanish victory at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 and acquired a small fortune when the Imperial armies sacked Rome two years later . In the 1540s , the octogenarian Carvajal travelled to the Spanish West Indies and from there accepted a military commission with the Pizarro brothers in Peru , eventually backing Gonzalo Pizarro ' s unsuccessful rebellion against the officials of the Spanish Crown . Carvajal proved a tireless soldier and successful strategist . He was ultimately captured in battle by royalist forces on April 9 , 1548 and executed at the age of 84 . Life and military career . Born " Francisco López Gascón " in Rágama de Arévalo , Salamanca , Carvajal was admitted to the University of Salamanca only to return home in disgrace after a series of public scandals . Disinherited , Carvajal enlisted in the Castilian infantry bound for Italy to fight in Charles V ' s wars . He was present as an " alférez " when the mutinous Imperial army stormed Rome in 1527 . However , instead competing in the violent plunder for gold and valuables , Carvajal seized legal documents belonging to a ranking Roman notary and ransomed them for a small fortune . Carvajal later used these funds to journey to Mexico as an aide to its first Spanish viceroy , Antonio de Mendoza . In 1535 , he was dispatched to Peru to the relief of newly founded Lima , then under siege by an Inca army . Carvajal led reinforcements to Governor Francisco Pizarro and thereafter played a key role in reestablishing Pizarro ' s rule against the rival faction of conquistadors led by Almagro the Younger . He continued to lead his cavalry from the front ranks despite his age and obesity and became something of a local legend for his composure in battle . At Chupas , seeing the Spanish Imperial infantry giving way before a hail of fire from Almagro ' s massed cannons and harquebus iers , Carvajal is said to have ridden to the front of the line and , casting his helmet and cuirass to the ground , exclaimed , Inspired by their corpulent commander , Carvajal ' s men advanced on the enemy guns and carried Almagro ' s troops before them . Campaign of 1546 . When the royal authority moved against Pizarro in 1546 , Carvajal , unable to quit the country due to the embargo on shipping , took command again in the field as Pizarro ' s lieutenant , or " Maestro de Campo " of Nueva Castilla ' s armies . In the campaign of 1546 Carvajal violently put down the royalist forces in the south of the colony , marching and countermarching from Quito to San Miguel , from Lima to Guamanga and back to Lima , from Lucanas to Cuzco , from Collao to Arequipa and from Arequipa to Charcas . Execution . Carvajal was sentenced to death by the royalists after being wounded and captured at the Battle of Jaquijahuana . American historian William H . Prescott collected a number of details about the execution , claiming that Carvajal was not gravely troubled by the sentence , remarking simply , " basta matar " " : " They can only kill me . " He refused confession offered by the priests and did not accept his last rites , asking : According to Prescott , Carvajal did admit guests throughout his last day but treated his interlocutors to his usual cutting sarcasm . When a former enemy , once vanquished in battle by Carvajal , came to offer his services to the condemned rebel , Carvajal rebuked him caustically : Carvajal ' s only complaint emerged when his executioners arrived to carry him to the place of execution . Upon being bound and forced into a narrow basket , Carvajal exclaimed , " " ¡ Niño en cuna y viejo en cuna ! " " — " Cradles for infants and now cradles for old men as well ! " Carvajal ' s decapitated head was exhibited on a pike next to Pizarro ' s at the gates of Lima . Carvajal remains a folkloric character in Peru : One legend made him the illegitimate son of the Spanish - Italian tyrant Cesare Borgia ; Ricardo Palma pointed out in the " Tradiciones peruanas " that Carvajal was in fact Borgia ' s senior by 10 years , their only parentage , he added , being " that of cruelty . "