Juan de Mendoza, Marquis de la Hinojosa

Juan de Mendoza y Velasco, Marquis de la Hinojosa, Governor of the Duchy of Milan, 1612–1616, Viceroy of Navarre, 1620–1623, Spanish Ambassador in England in 1623 to discuss with the regnant father of the later king Charles I of England the requirements to be, eventually, met by the English politicians to get Prince Charles married to Maria of Austria, sister of the then 19 years old ruling king Philip IV of Spain. A knight of the Military Order of Santiago, deceased 24 December 1628, was awarded the title of marquis de la Hinojosa by king Philip III of Spain, on 11 February 1612. Although it is claimed his father was 5th Count of Castrogeriz, it seems under careful inspections that he rather came from a family of landed nobility squires, his father, reported as Antonio Gómez Manrique de Mendoza y Sandoval, being the 6th Sieur of Castrojeriz, and 4th Sieur of Villazopeque, who married first to a certain Isabel de Velasco y nríquez de Ribera, also, apparently, from a rather modest branch of rural proprietors albeit assuming some sort connections with this powerful de Velasco ducal family, (Dukes of Frías).

He was second of three males and another 4 sisters, all of them becoming nuns, something also matching the fate of young women born to rather modest rural proprietors or squires, at the time. Improving fortunes and contacts with more affluent relatives of the family led Juan de Mendoza y Velasco father, to marry again with a daughter of the 5th Count of Osorio having another 4 daughters also becoming nuns and the fifth one achieving marriage to the first count of Valverde. On becoming a widower again he married a village commoner girl, no issue, and finally with another lady of a rather modest social rank between "social achievers" getting 1 male, one girl, Antonia, who became a lady in waiting of Queen Consort Mariana of Austria and another nun. Thus, knight of the Order of Santiago, Juan de Mendoza y Velasco, 1st marquis of Hinojosa since 1612, Commander of Aledo and Totana, got no less than 9 female siblings praying for his soul, dead or alive.

In 1609 he fought in Larache, now in Morocco, against Nord African troops being one the Royal agents overseeing in 1610 the forced migration of the "moriscos" from the former Moorish kingdom of Granada, from the moorish non converted residents in the rest of Andalucía, including those of Hornachos, in Extremadura. The later settled in Salé, much further South, at the other side of the river, where the actual capital of Morocco, Rabat, is found. Living on seafaring exeditions, they declared themselves some sort of Republic in 1627, through Ibrahim Vargas, a Spanish family name from the province of Badajoz to be detected around there even today, being recognized at the time by some European countries, (England, France, Netherlands..., apparently).

In due time ge became also, marquis of San Germán, Member of the Private Chambers of the king, Viceroy of Navarre, 1620–1623, Captain General of the Spanish Artillery and President of the "Consejo de Indias", a Royal Political Bureau dealing with all the administrative events related with the administration, trade and tax collections of the most extensive American Territories, South, Center and North.