MANY PACHECO FAMILY COAT OF ARMS WITH ONE COMMON DENOMINATOR.

Escudo de plata, dos calderos jaquelados de oro y sable.  Bordura jaquelada de lo mismo.

Thanks to; http://www.vicentepacheco.com/escudo.html and others.

History of the Pacheco Family Name in Spain.

[150] One Mendoza was not willing to abdicate the role of leader. While the family in Guadalajara accepted the inevitability of this changing intellectual leadership with a graciousness verging on indifference, the count of Tendilla in Granada fought against the trend. Conservative by nature and alienated from his Guadalajara cousins by property disputes, Tendilla's family loyalties were directed toward the ancestral reference group rather than to the extended family of his own day. From Tendilla's point of view, the family's political power, its place in society, its heroes all were associated with the Trastámara revolution and with the view of Castilian politics and history laid out by Pedro López de Ayala. Tendilla's adherence to the family's tradition, even at the expense of family unity, was reinforced by his two journeys to Renaissance Italy and by his isolation from the new intellectual centers of Castile. When Tendilla tried to persuade the consejo real to adopt his policies, however, it was not just an academic dispute over intellectual issues. For Tendilla, as royal governor of Spain's largest convert population in a period of political and religious upheaval, every royal decree held life and death implications. Tendilla did not realize until too late that in a society that had come to regard tolerance and moderation as deviance, it was no longer profitable to maintain the Mendoza family tradition.

Iñigo López de Mendoza, second count of Tendilla, was the eldest son and namesake of the first count of Tendilla (d. 1479). He was educated in the household of his paternal grandfather and namesake, the first marquis of Santillana. He received his political and military [151] apprenticeship in the households of his father and his uncle, cardinal Mendoza. His father inherited one of the mayorazgos created by Santillana; but with three sons and two daughters to provide for, he tried to increase his estate by service to the king. He was one of the staunchest supporters of Enrique IV and served as the king's ambassador to Nicholas V in 1454 and to Pius II in 1458. Tendilla, then sixteen years old, and his younger brother, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, accompanied their father to Florence and Mantua on this second embassy. In 1467, the father was rewarded for his services with the title of count of Tendilla, and he was appointed tutor of the king's daughter, Juana, who was taken to live in the Mendoza family residence in Buitrago.

After Enrique disavowed Juana's rights to the throne in 1468, the first Tendilla and his brother, the future cardinal, appealed to the papacy for a restitution of her rights and publicized this appeal by nailing copies of it to the doors of the churches in several important towns. When the appeal failed, the elder Tendilla handed Juana over to her new tutor, Juan Pacheco, and seems to have retired from active public life. Young Tendilla and his brother, Diego Hurtado, then entered the household of their uncle, the cardinal, and formed part of his entourage during the summer of 1472 when he entertained the papal legate, Rodrigo Borgia, and arranged Mendoza support for Isabel as heiress of Enrique. Tendilla and his father stayed out of the early stages of the ensuing succession war, and they are the only Mendoza not mentioned in Isabel's statement of gratitude for the family's support in 1475. Apparently the elder Tendilla remained loyal to Juana, but he also refused to support Juana against his own family and stayed out of the conflict in order to preserve the family's unity.

The second Tendilla inherited his father's title and estates in 1479; and in the next twenty-five years, he more than compensated for the disadvantages of having withheld early support from the winning side. He did this through the Mendoza's traditional route to power and wealth -- outstanding military service in the wars against the Muslims, heavy investment of his private fortune in the diplomatic and administrative service of the crown, and a politically and financially profitable second marriage. In addition, he and Diego Hurtado were favorites of their uncle the cardinal; and through the cardinal's patronage, Diego Hurtado became bishop of Palencia (1473), president of the consejo real (1483-1486), and archbishop of Seville (1485). Diego Hurtado followed in the footsteps of his uncle in more ways than one: he too fathered illegitimate sons, became cardinal of Santa Sabina, and resided at the royal court as protector of the family interests. With such [152] alliances, Tendilla's career was bound to be favored by the Catholic Monarchs; but Tendilla himself was a man of exceptional political and military talents and had all the personal characteristics that modern historians consider typical of the Mendoza at their best -- charm, courage, boundless pride, lively intelligence, sparkling wit, shrewdness, and prudence. Above all, Tendilla displayed a flair for cutting the Gordian knot with a wit and ingenuity that made him a legend even in his own lifetime.

In 1480, Tendilla married Francisca Pacheco, a daughter of Juan Pacheco, his father's rival as tutor to the princess Juana. This marriage culminated a series of moves taken by the Mendoza in 1478-1480 to prevent the destruction of the Pacheco Family by Isabel in the succession war. By this marriage, the Mendoza allied themselves with their traditional rivals in order to preserve that balance of powers within the kingdom typical of the Enriquista political structure; and Tendilla allied himself with a family already powerful in Andaluda and active proponents of war against Granada.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez

Spanish painter, b. at Seville 5 June, 1599 (the certificate of baptism is dated 6 June); d. at Madrid, 7 August, 1660. His father, Juan Rodriguez, belonged to the Portuguese family of Silva; the child took the name of his mother, Gerónima Velazquez. He entered the studio of the aged Herrera, but could not stand his temper, and soon left for the studio of Francisco Pacheco, whose school at Seville was the most frequented. Although one of the most tiresome of romanticizing painters, Pacheco was a cultured mind, appreciative of a genius opposed to his own. As a critic, poet, and man of the world, Pacheco was the centre of the first literary salon in the city, and from this society young Velazquez received an education through contact and conversation with superior men. Before he was twenty he had married Pacheco's daughter Dona Juana. Two daughters were born to him before 1622, when the young painter decided to seek his fortune at Madrid.

Here, through Canon Fonseca, a friend of his, who held a post at Court, he was enabled to visit the royal collections at the Alcazar, Prado, and especially the Escorial, with its matchless collection of Tintorettos and Titians. This was the sole benefit of his visit, and after some several months Velazquez returned to Seville. When Philip IV raised the Sevilian Olivarez to power, Fonseca summoned Velazquez back to Madrid, and he obtained permission to paint the king's portrait in the court of the riding school. This portrait, now lost, was an event. Thenceforth Velazquez had the exclusive right to paint the person of the king. By a patent of 31 October, 1623, he was appointed painter of the chamber, with a salary of twenty ducats payable out of the appropriation for court surgeons and barbers.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ESTEPONA (Costa del Sol)

Its history involved the Phoenicians, the Romans and the Arabs. The latter, who settled in this region the longest, left us numerous vestiges of which very few have unfortunately been saved (fortifications, watch towers, etc.).

In the strictest historical sense, however, we are obliged to admit that it is not known when the town was founded. This might well fall within the time of the Phoenician settlements, and there are considerate grounds to believe that it might have been during the Roman era. It is therefore assumed that the Estepona of old existed a good deal earlier than the Arab "Estebbuna" and "Alextebuna".

The town was captured from the Arabs during the hostilities ordered by King Henry IV of Castilla in the year 1456. It is from this moment on that the history of Estepona as it is known today began, with the very same King Henry ordering the reconstruction of the castle at the request of his intimate friend and advisor, Don Fernández Pacheco, the Marquis of Villena.

In the absence of the Catholic Kings, during the reign of Doña Juana La Loca, or "Mad Jane", the village remained under the jurisdiction of Marbella.

With more than 600 inhabitants, Estepona obtained its complete and unrestrained independence under King PhiIlip V, "In perpetuity and for always without end in all manner of civil and criminal matters of the first instance within the town and its municipal district", as is recorded literally in the town Charter signed by the King himself in Seville on the 21 April 1729 and which is kept in the town archives.

From this moment on its development began in earnest using its own natural resources, the sea (fishing) and the countryside (crops), until today and the beginning of the tourist phenomenon.

The Writings of Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644).

'To write history properly has always been difficult'. With these words Francisco Pacheco, painter and writer in Seville, described the task of writing an account of the life of the humanist Benito Arias Montano and, generally, of other eminent personalities of his times. Francisco Pacheco, otherwise known as the master of Diego Silva y Velázquez, was a diligent writer. As sometimes happened in seventeenth century Spain, Pacheco never saw his books printed while he was alive. The Arte de la pintura (Seville 1649) had no influence until the eighteenth century onwards, whereas the manuscript-book, Libro de descripción de verdaderos retratos de ilustres y memorables varones (dated Seville 1599 in the frontispiece) was quite renowned among scholars and writers of the time, but never got to the press until the end of the nineteenth century.

My research on Pacheco's writings is focusing in the Libro de retratos and its relations with the historical and cultural history of Seville in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Seville was, then, one of the richest and most cosmopolitan cities of Europe, second only to cities like Naples and Paris. Nevertheless, Pacheco was living in an in-between age. The dawn of the seventeenth century would usher in the critical years of Spanish decadence and the loss of control over Europe by the Spanish empire. Through fifty-six portraits and biographies of eminent individuals in Spain at the turn of the century, Pacheco acquaints us with the cultural issues of his age, the social systems and hierarchies, and the changes brought in by the Counter-Reformation.

The book represents the diverse social ranks that were to be found in cultivated Spain: a King (Philip II), a town councillor (venticuatro), poets and writers, soldiers, preachers, painters, a doctor, a musician, a dancer, a goldsmith. Pacheco shows a dynamic society that travels to America as well to nearby Africa in search of gold, convents to Christianity, and mercantile contacts.

Several Spanish contemporaries of Pacheco knew about the existence of the book, such as the renowned writer Francisco Quevedo who mentioned the volume in a poem, and the historian and antiquarian Rodrigo Caro, who reflected in his Varones ilustres. Pacheco was probably aware of having introduced a new historical genre into his country: half-way between a chronicle and a collective biography, the Libro de retratos was forgotten until its facsimile publication by the bibliophile José Maria Asensio at the end of the nineteenth century. This edition was a success and was followed by two more in the 1980's.The book is still quoted by Spanish and non-Spanish historians alike who study personalities of the seventeenth century. Pacheco's book happens to be one of the handiest primary sources that still mentioned in essays and biographies. Nevertheless, the text by Pacheco has not been studied in depth. It still lacks a critical edition and a study of the author. Information contained in the Libro is cited regardless of his authenticity by scholars who are content to praise it as mine of data without subjecting it to any academic analysis.

My PhD is focused in the historical and biographical contents of the Libro de los retratos. A large part of my thesis is concerns Pacheco's writing technique, i.e. how did he select the individuals (eminent and otherwise) and how did he gather the data about them. From my consultation of sources in Madrid (Biblioteca Nacional, Academia de Historia, Biblioteca Lázaro Galdiano, Instituto Valencia de Don Juan), Seville (Biblioteca Capitular y Colombina, Archivo Nacional), London (British Library) and Oxford (Taylorian). I have identified a large number of Pacheco's sources, in both manuscript and early printed form. Pacheco's use of them is surprising to the modern reader; plagiarism is common, but not automatic. The Inquisition was a lively presence for the author when he was compiling the book: all allusions to heresy and heterodox views are removed. Nevertheless, I still need to look into further comparative material and to investigate into possible patrons of Pacheco's oeuvre and to establish Pacheco's links with the Church and the Inquisition (Pacheco's brother was, in fact, an inquisitor). I also wish to look into the historical genres of biographies, chronicles and histories of Seville. A detailed comparison with the contemporary historian and friend of Pacheco, Rodrigo Caro is crucial. Finally a comparison with Pacheco's second book, the Arte de la pintura is essential, and it should also highlight the differences between Pacheco the painter and Pacheco the writer. Marta Cacho Casal  martacasal@hotmail.com

Belmonte
The province of Cuenca is one of five provinces within the region of Castilla-La-Mancha, the other four being Guadalajara, Toledo, Albacete and Ciudad Real. The whole area has some of the most historic and beautiful lands within the whole of Spain. Remains of burial grounds dating from the Iron Age have been discovered as well as some major Roman settlements such as those at Saelices and Valeria.

A monumental town of great interest with many, well preserved architectural gems, not least of all its castle. It was Henri IV who gave the town to Juan Pacheco, the Marquis of Villena in 1456 . The castle was erected in the 15th century, on top of a hill in order to protect the Marquis's domain.

It was built by Juan Pacheco in 1456-1470 on the site of an earlier castle dated 1324. It was restored at one point and used as a private residence. The walled precinct whose 15th-16th century ramparts and gates connect the old town with the castle is particularly well preserved. Belmonte has more than its fair share of churches, palaces and convents. The hermitage of Nuestra Senora de Gracia, dated 17th century is certainly worthy of a visit.