Pizarro Murdered in Lima: Conquistadors Turn on Each Other
Supporters of Diego Almagro the Younger stormed Francisco Pizarro's palace in Lima on June 26, 1541, stabbing the 65-year-old conquistador to death. Pizarro fought back with a sword, reportedly killing one attacker before being overwhelmed. He traced a cross in his own blood on the floor as he died. The assassination was revenge for Pizarro's execution of Diego Almagro the Elder in 1538 after a civil war between the two former partners over control of Cuzco. Almagro the Younger seized power in Lima but was defeated and executed by royalist forces under Cristobal Vaca de Castro the following year. The civil wars among the conquistadors demonstrated that the men who conquered the Inca Empire were as brutal toward each other as they had been toward the Indigenous peoples they subjugated.
June 26, 1541
485 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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