Pizarro's Death Led to Birth of Spanish Political Identity

On Sunday, June 26, 1541, Francisco Pizarro, 70-year-old governor of the Spanish colony of Peru, died on the floor of his home, minutes after learning that a group of 20 armed men had arrived to murder him. [1] The intruders had come to avenge the murder of their leader--Pizarro's old partner--Diego de Almagro, who Pizarro's brother had recently captured and executed during a brief colonial civil war. As 19th-century writer Sir Arthur Helps told the story in his The Spanish Conquest In America, the men entered Pizarro's house, encountering no opposition, and made their way to an upstairs dining hall, where Pizarro sat with some guests for lunch. Rumors of an assassination plot were circulating and might have been the reason Pizarro did not attend mass that day, but he seemed otherwise little concerned. When Pizarro's servants informed him of the armed party's approach, he, two guests, and two pages quickly grabbed some weapons and took position in a nearby room. The confusion that followed ended quickly with Pizarro's death from a throat wound and repeated bludgeoning. [2] Shortly thereafter, the assassins forced the Cuzco city council to proclaim Diego de Almagro's son Peru's new governor. [3]