Sancho de Hoz, Pedro (?–1547)

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Sancho de Hoz, Pedro (?–1547)

Pedro Sancho de Hoz (also Pero; d. December 1547), Spanish conquistador, secretary to Francisco Pizarro, and author (at Pizarro's request) of a valuable account of the first phase of the conquest of Peru. He secured from Emperor Charles V the right to conquer territory south of the Strait of Magellan, which conflicted with the claim to Chile then being made by Pedro de Valdivia. At Cuzco, in December 1539, Pizarro persuaded the two men to jointly undertake the conquest of Chile. Sancho de Hoz, frustrated in an effort to assassinate Valdivia in the Atacama Desert, was permitted to remain with the expedition, with the Cuzco agreement rescinded. A plot to seize control of the newly established Chilean colony (1547) was also treated leniently. A third plot, soon thereafter, when Valdivia had left Santiago for Peru, caused Valdivia's lieutenant, Francisco de Villagra, to have Sancho de Hoz beheaded without trial.

See alsoConquistadores; Pizarro, Francisco.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

H. R. S. Pocock, The Conquest of Chile (1967).

Additional Bibliography

Páez, José Roberto. Cronistas coloniales. Quito: Corporación de Estudios y Publicaciones, 1989.

                                          Simon Collier

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Sancho de Hoz, Pedro (?–1547)

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