Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera
Encyclopedia
Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera Bobadilla Cerda y Mendoza, 4th Count of Chinchón (1589, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

—October 28, 1647, Madrid) was a Spanish nobleman and captain general and viceroy of Peru, from January 14, 1629 to December 18, 1639. His wife, Ana de Osorio (1599-1625), is credited as being one of the first Europeans to be treated with quinine
Quinine
Quinine is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic , antimalarial, analgesic , anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. It is a stereoisomer of quinidine which, unlike quinine, is an anti-arrhythmic...

, and as the person who introduced that medicine into Europe.

Birth

Fernández de Cabrera Bobadilla was born in Madrid in 1589 (or perhaps 1590), into a family close to the Spanish throne. His parents were Diego Fernández de Cabrera, third Count of Chinchón and Inés Pacheco, the daughter of the marquis of Villena and 3rd Duke of Escalona
Duke of Escalona
Duke of Escalona is a Spanish noble title given by Henry IV of Castile in 1472 to Juan Pacheco, first Marquis of Villena.The name Escalona refers to the village Escalona del Alberche, in the Province of Toledo....

, Diego López Pacheco, and Luisa Bernarda de Cabrera Bobadilla, third marquesa of Moya. Don Luis's parents were first cousins.

Viceroy of Peru

He became viceroy of Peru in 1629. During his government, he suppressed an insurrection of the Uru
Uru
Uru may refer to* URU, a determinative in mesopotamian cuneiform script; see Cities of the Ancient Near East* Uru, São Paulo, a city in Brazil* Mekanika Uru, a submachine gun* Uru , an ancient trading vessel* Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, a computer game...

 and Araucano Indians. He also sent out the third expedition to explore the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...

, under Cristóbal de Acuña. (It was part of the return leg of the expedition of Pedro Teixeira
Pedro Teixeira
Pedro Teixeira was a Portuguese explorer who became, in 1637, the first European to travel up the entire length of the Amazon River....

.) He expanded the colonial navy and fortified the port of Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...

.

Among his other official acts were the prohibition of direct trade between Peru and New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...

 (Mexico) and the persecution of Portuguese Jews, the principal traders in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

.

He also founded two chairs of medicine in the University of San Marcos.

Quinine

In an account published in 1663 by Sebastiano Bado, an Italian, the following claim was made: In 1638, the Countess of Chinchon became severely ill with tertian fever (malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

). Juan López de Canizares, governor of Loxa, wrote the viceroy, explaining that he had recently been cured by the bark of the quinaquina tree, and recommending the same remedy to the vicereine. The governor was summoned to Lima, the medicine was administered, and the countess was cured. In 1639, according to Bado, the countess returned to Spain, bringing a large quantity of the bark with her. This was the first introduction of quinine into Europe.

However, the official diary of Viceroy Fernández de Cabrera was discovered in 1930. This diary contradicts many of the claims made by Bado. It states that Ana de Osorio, his first countess of Chinchón, died in Spain at least three years before her husband was named viceroy of Peru. It was his second countess, Francisca Henríquez de Ribera, who accompanied the Count to South America, where she enjoyed excellent health. The count himself had several episodes of fever, but was never treated with bark. Neither did the second countess ever returned to Spain; she died in the port of Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...

 during the return voyage.

In light of these much later revelations, Bado's account is now discredited among historians. Jesuit Barnabé de Cobo (1582-1657), who explored Mexico and Peru, is now credited with taking cinchona bark to Europe. He brought the bark from Lima to Spain, and afterwards to Rome and other parts of Italy, in 1632.

Carolus Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...

 called the genus of quinine-producing trees Cinchona in honor of the countess.

See also Jesuit's bark
Jesuit's bark
Jesuit's Bark, also called Peruvian Bark, is the historical name of the most celebrated specific remedy for all forms of malaria. It is so named because it was obtained from the bark of several species of the genus Cinchona, of the order Rubiaceae, that have been discovered at different times and...

.

Return to Spain

At the conclusion of his term as viceroy in 1639, Fernández de Cabrera returned to Spain, where he became a counselor of state and accompanied King Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

 on campaign in Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

, Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

 and Valencia. He died in 1647 in Madrid.

External links

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