26 Facts About William Lamport

William Lamport was an Irish Catholic adventurer, known in Mexico as "Don Guillen de Lamport y Guzman".

William Lamport was tried by the Mexican Inquisition for sedition and executed in 1659.

William Lamport claimed to be a bastard son of King Philip III of Spain and therefore the half-brother of King Philip IV.

The main source for biographical information about William Lamport is his own declaration before the Inquisition; it is difficult to tell how much of it is true.

William Lamport was born in either 1611 or 1615 in Wexford, Ireland to a family of Catholic merchants.

William Lamport underwent an extensive educational experience where he acquired knowledge on a diverse set of topics.

William Lamport then received Catholic education from Jesuits in Dublin and London, and then at an Irish college in the great pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.

William Lamport is said to have fought for the French at the Siege of La Rochelle against the Huguenots.

In Spain, William Lamport came to the attention of the Marquis of Mancera, perhaps via Mancera's sister whose late husband had been posted to London and apparently knew William Lamport's tutor there.

William Lamport had prepared a flattering memorial of Philip IV's most important political adviser, the Count-Duke Olivares and became a member of the court as a propagandist.

William Lamport claimed that he was sent to New Spain to provide information to the crown about the political situation there, as a spy or independent source on events.

William Lamport said he was sent to determine if outgoing viceroy Cadereyta's information about creole discontent was accurate, but then to report on the new viceroy Villena.

Sometime around 1641, William Lamport began hatching a plot to overthrow the viceroy, attempting to persuade indigenous people, black people, and creole merchants to join in an uprising.

William Lamport divulged his plans to one Captain Mendez; rather than signing on with Lamport, Mendez denounced him to the Inquisition after initially attempting to denounce him to the Audiencia, the civil high court.

Mendez's testimony before the tribunal provides the information that William Lamport claimed to have ties to the Spanish royal family, but William Lamport's own testimony does not.

William Lamport languished in prison for eight years, but escaped for one day, Christmas Eve 1650, with his cellmate, one Diego Pinto Bravo, likely placed as a spy.

Rather than hightailing it to safety, William Lamport attempted to deliver a letter to the viceroy and failing that, plastered the central area of the capital with accusations against the Inquisition.

The inference can be that William Lamport's escape was anticipated and that the escape provided the rationale to prosecute him for more severe charges.

William Lamport proposed for New Spain political sovereignty under the rule of a monarch with limited powers popularly chosen by groups who actively supported rebellion and independence.

William Lamport already knew that viceroy Cadereyta had informed the crown about creole discontent.

William Lamport's replacement viceroy Villena, was a disaster, since he was the cousin of Joao Braganza, who became king of Portugal following their successful rebellion in 1640 from the Spanish crown, and in Mexico City, the viceroy appeared to favor the Portuguese merchant community, many of whom were conversos or crypto-Jews.

William Lamport focused on their grievances about Spanish trade restrictions on Mexican merchants trading directly with the Far East and with Peru.

William Lamport envisioned Mexicans retaining the wealth of their silver mines, which did bring some local prosperity, but which was the basis for the crown's wealth.

William Lamport had become friends with one Don Ignacio, a native nobleman of San Martin Acamistlahuacan, via the creole family with whom Don Guillen was living.

William Lamport diverged from 16th century Spanish thought on the popular concession of sovereignty to the monarch being irrevocable once conceded, and asserted that the people retained the right of rebellion if the monarch became a tyrant.

William Lamport expected only initially to retain the structure of the viceroyalty as a Spanish jurisdiction.