Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca (Toro, Zamora 1451 — Burgos, March 4, 1524) was a Spanish bishop, a courtier and bureaucrat whose position as chaplain to Queen Isabella enabled him to become a powerful counsellor to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs. These sovereigns entrusted him with building a colonial administration from as early as Columbus’ second voyage in 1493, which he organized. From that date he gained increasing influence over Castilian colonial policy and emerged as the crown’s de facto minister of colonial affairs.
Fonseca clashed early with Columbus who, he believed, was asserting too much independence from royal authority, and in 1499, Queen Isabella, influenced by Fonseca, removed Columbus as governor of the newly-found lands overseas. Fonseca then began to plan and organize a series of voyages, under such captains as Alonso de Ojeda, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, Diego de Lepe, and Rodrigo de Bastidas, which steadily expanded new discoveries and increased understanding of the islands and mainland of what quickly became known as a New World.
In 1503 Fonseca organized and supervised an important new institution called the Board of Trade which assumed major responsibilities over the management of the new overseas settlements. He also took the leading role in the evolving Council of the Indies, which in time became the most influential royal institution governing the new settlements. Upon the death of Queen Isabella in 1504, an aging King Ferdinand allowed Fonseca almost unlimited scope in administering the overseas colonies.
Upon Ferdinand’s death in 1516, Fonseca continued his work under the new sovereign, Charles I (Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor). He rounded off his career by sponsoring and organizing the epochal voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, the first one to circumnavigate the globe.
Over his long career, Fonseca inevitably made many enemies, most notably Bartolomé de las Casas, known as the Protector of the Indians, who denounced him for his indifference to the cruelties that Spanish settlers inflicted on the native population of the new lands. He also clashed with Hernan Cortés, conqueror of Mexico, which led to his removal from office in 1523, the year before his death.
Fonseca was successively bishop of Badajoz, of Cordoba, of Palencia, and, finally, of Burgos, one of Castile’s wealthiest diocese. He was also named titular archbishop of Rosano, in the Kingdom of Naples. In 1513 Ferdinand asked the pope to elevate Fonseca to a new title, that of Patriarch of the Indies, a position that would bring a cardinal’s red hat. But such a patriarch was not created until the year of Fonseca’s death, 1524.[1]