Very
shortly after the death of Pizarro, Cristobal Vaca de Castro arrived in
Peru on a mission from the Court of Spain to investigate the causes of
the disturbances and warlike rumours which had reached the Mother
Country. De Castro found himself in opposition to the younger Almagro,
and a battle was fought. Almagro's forces were defeated, and he himself,
although he escaped for a while to Cuzco, was captured and executed.
In 1543 Blasco Nunez Vela, the first Viceroy appointed by Spain, arrived
in Peru, where he found de Castro in charge of the Government. Nunez
Vela's methods proved themselves arbitrary in the extreme. Scarcely had
he landed when he sent an abrupt command to de Castro to resign his
post, and to place himself forthwith in attendance on the new Viceroy.
This action roused the anger of the Pizarro faction. Its adherents
revolted and established themselves at Cuzco.
It was precisely at this moment that a totally new factor in the way of
officialdom presented itself in Peru. With the advent of the Royal
Audience, a court of judges, newly founded and sent out from Spain, the
situation grew still more wildly complicated. The Royal Audience, its
dignity and unanimity shattered by the turmoil in the midst of which it
found itself, divided its forces equally on either side.
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