A 'Morisco Assassin' in the Cathedral of Mexico City: Due Process and Honor in the Seventeenth Century

Friday, 12 March 1660 just before six o'clock in the evening, Viceroy Don Francisco Fernández de la Cueva Enríquez, the eighth Duke of Alburquerque, entered the cathedral of Mexico City.¹ As was his habit, he arrived to inspect the construction and to visit the Chapel of Our Lady of Soledad which had special significance for him. The viceroy, noted for his interest in the progress of the work on the cathedral, dropped by regularly. Moments after he had kneeled down, a soldier from the palace guard, don Manuel de Ledesma y Robles, burst into the chapel and struck Viceroy Alburquerque with his sword.² The attack took Alburquerque, his eyes closed in prayer, completely by surprise and he fell sharply to the floor. The viceroy then allegedly sprang to his feet and faced his attacker. In the presence of an audience the viceroy taunted Ledesma, calling him a morisquillo (little morisco or mulatto boy).³ Alburquerque also allegedly denied Ledesma's hidalguía (minor noble status) and rejected the implicit challenge brought by this young soldier. Ledesma's fury seemed to increase as the viceroy refused to en gage. Instead, the viceroy retained a defensive posture, ready to parry any further advance until his attendants came to his aid. As quickly as the attack began, it all came to an end. The viceroy's coachman Pedro Alvarez and stable master don Prudencio de Armentia sprang to defend their patron. Don Fernando de Altamirano, superintendent and treasurer of cathedral construction, joined the struggle, "grabbing [Ledesma] by the throat."⁴ Alvarez wrangled with Ledesma while Armentia struggled to take his weapon away.⁵

Almost immediately after Ledesma was taken into custody, the prosecution began its work of preparing for and carrying out the trial. With unusual speed, during the evening and early morning hours of 12 and 13 March, the Audiencia organized and completed a formal trial. By late morning on 13 March, the court pronounced and carried out a death sentence against Ledesma.⁶ Though legal and procedurally formal, the trial and execution of Ledesma had purposes that went beyond bringing to justice a soldier who, for whatever purpose, attacked the viceroy. Rather it served as a vehicle to repair the tarnished honor of the viceroy who was attacked publically by a common soldier. The symbolic and public nature of the punishment further aided the viceroy personally in restoring for the community of Mexico City his status as a patron and a leader. The trial also had bearing for the Council of the Indies and the residencia review process that followed all public servants.⁷ The sentence, carried out and made public with a massive procession and announced by the pregonero (public crier), was intended to communicate that the splendor and awe of the viceroy was undiminished after an assault by an inferior.

The social distance between Ledesma and Alburquerque, between a young soldier and the "living image" of the monarch, made the incident politically damaging to Alburquerque as an individual, but it also had ramifications beyond the immediate. The office of the viceroy, independently of Alburquerque, was an extension of the king. As such, an attack on the viceroy was indistinguishable from an attack on the monarch. As Alejandro Cañeque has persuasively argued, "the viceroy . . . is part of the prince's body," and thus he did not serve as "a mere royal agent or as an administrator or bureaucrat."⁸ The viceroy was effectively the embodiment of the king in New Spain, "his body, constantly exhibited through the streets of Mexico City, was made a visible announcement of the king's power."⁹ Although Alburquerque personally had a great deal to lose in this engagement, the damage done to the king's image most certainly influenced the nature of the prosecution.¹⁰

Law and Honor

For those who attended Alburquerque in the cathedral of Mexico City, the scene they witnessed must have struck them as profoundly unusual: A young soldier, dressed in his uniform who they had probably seen in the palace charged into a...