Pedro Fajardo

The title of Marqués de los Vélez was awarded to the powerful military Fajardo family, to Pedro, the first male child born to a "Luisa Fajardo y Manrique ", female, being married in 1477 to a powerful Royal Accountant and financier named "Juan Chacón", a new nobleman jure uxoris, allowed by the Catholic Monarchs to use, as a privilege, his family name as "Pedro Fajardo y Chacón". This Luisa Fajardo y Manrique, Lady of Cartagena, came from an important military family, with institutional powers over conquered muslim lands in Murcia, Granada and Almeria. The marquisate was awarded on 15th October 1507 by Queen Joanna I of Castile, and the awarded title of Grandee of Spain was given to the Fajardo family in 1535 by her eldest son, King Charles I of Spain

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Pedro Fajardo de Zúñiga y Requesens (Mula, region of Murcia, 1602 -Palermo, Sicily, 1647), Viceroy of Valencia, 1631–1635, Viceroy of Navarre, 1638–1640, dismissed Viceroy of Catalonia, 1640–1642, to be replaced as Viceroy of Catalonia by Pedro Antonio de Aragón, 1642–1644, Ambassador at Rome, and Viceroy of Sicily, 1644 - Palermo, Sicily, 3 November 1647, was a Spanish soldier and aristocrat notable for his command of Spanish forces during the Catalan Revolt, after 1640. He was 5th Marqués de los Vélez since 1631, and Grandee of Spain. He was a great-grandson of Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens and the son of Luis Fajardo Requesens y Zúñiga, Marqués de los Vélez, (1576–1631), the preceding Viceroy of Valencia, 1628–1631, deceased 1631, 4th Marqués de los Vélez.

Vélez Blanco or Vélez Rubio Castle is located in the Province of Almería, Spain, 37° 41′ 27″ N, 2° 05′ 54″ W

He joined the Spanish army and rose up the ranks to General. He was Viceroy of Valencia, 1631–1636, Viceroy of Navarre, 1638–1640. In 1641 when the Catalan Revolt broke out, he led a Spanish force into Catalonia which aimed to capture Barcelona and crush the revolt. He was defeated at the Battle of Montjuïc in 1641, and forced to withdraw along the coast to Tarragona which proved a devastating defeat to Spanish morale. He was dismissed and replaced as Viceroy of Catalonia by Pedro Antonio de Aragón, 1642–1644. Afterwards he was also a Viceroy of Sicily, 1644 - 1647.

He married Ana, a daughter of Fernando Afán de Ribera y Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Alcalá de los Gazules, Viceroy of Naples, deceased 1636, but when he died in 1642 there was no issue from this marriage, although there was issue from a second marriage with Mariana Engracia Älvarez de Toledo y Portugal, from the family of the 6th Counts of Oropesa not to be confounded with those älvarez de Toledo being Dukes of Alba or those being Marquisses of Villafranca del Bierzo, for instance:

He was thus, from his second marriage, the father of Fernando Fajardo y Alvarez de Toledo, a.k.a. Fernando Joaquín Fajardo de Zúñiga Requesens, 6th Marquis de los Vélez, ( before 1642 - Zaragoza, Spain, 1693), 6th Marqués de los Vélez since 1647, Viceroy of Sardinia, 1673–1675, and Viceroy of Naples, 1675 - 1683.

References

• http://www.grandesp.org.uk/historia/gzas/alcala.htm

Government offices
Preceded by Girolamo Carraffa e Carrascciolo	Viceroy of Aragon 1635–1638	Succeeded by Francesco Maria Carraffa e Carraffa
Preceded by Fernando de Andrade y Sotomayor, Archbishop of Burgos	Viceroy of Navarre 1638–1640	Succeeded by Francesco Maria Carraffa e Carraffa
Preceded by Enrique de Aragón Folc de Cardona y Córdoba	Viceroy of Catalonia 1640–1641	Succeeded by Pedro Antonio de Aragón
Preceded by Juan Alfonso Enríquez de Cabrera	Viceroy of Sicily 1644–1646	Succeeded by Vicente de Guzmán

Persondata
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Date of birth	1602
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Date of death	1647
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