José Antonio Lacayo de Briones y Palacios

José Antonio Lacayo de Briones y Palacios (1679–1756) held the position of Governor in two countries in Central America during the Spanish colonial period. He was Governor of Costa Rica from 1713 to 1717 and Governor of Nicaragua from 1740 to 1745. He also held the post of Commander in Chief of the Army and strengthened the defenses of these two countries against foreign invasion.

The family name Lacayo de Briones originates from the town of Briones located in the province of La Rioja. The town is close to the city of Viana in the province of Navarre, where Jose Antonio was born.

Because Lacayo de Briones held important administrative and military responsibilities in the two Central American countries he governed during Spanish colonial times, it is important to learn about the history of the regions, La Rioja and Navarre, from which his ancestral family members came, a history characterized by a constant struggle against foreign invasions and an effort to maintain order and tradition. José Antonio´s direct ancestors, as well as José Antonio himself, undoubtedly had their character moulded by this ancient history, as their high public offices in military and civilian responsibilities shows.

The name Briones comes from the Berones, ancient inhabitants of La Rioja and a pre-Roman Celtiberian people of Spain who lived north of the Celtiberians and close to the Cantabrian Conisci in the middle Ebro region between the Tirón and Alhama rivers. The ancestors of the Berones were Celts who migrated from Gaul to the Iberia peninsula around the 4th Century BC to settle in La Rioja and the southern parts of the Soria, Alava and Navarra provinces.

Allies of the Autrigones, the Berones appear to have kept themselves out of the Celtiberian confederacy throughout the 3rd-2nd centuries BC but later came under pressure of the Vascones. Their earliest contact with Rome might have occurred during the early 2nd century BC, when they allegedly fought as allies of the Celtiberians at the battle of Calagurris in 186 BC, being defeated by Lucius Manlius Adicinius.

According to a Roman ephigraphic source, the Ascoli-Picenum bronze (now at the Museo Capitolino, Rome), Beronian mercenary cavalrymen later entered Roman service at the Social War (91–88 BC), fighting alongside other Spaniards in the Turma Saluitana as auxiliary cavalry in Italy though they subsequently aided their Autrigones’ allies in the defence of their respective territories in northern Celtiberia against Sertorius’ invasion attempt in 76 BC.

By 19 BC, however, Emperor Augustus, after the Cantabrian Wars, was able to complete Hispania's conquest. All of Hispania's provinces became, for the next 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road. But the impact of Hispania in the newcomers was also big. Caesar wrote on the Civil Wars that the soldiers from the Second Legion had become Hispanicized and regarded themselves as hispanicus. In the 4th century, Latinius Pacatus Drepanius, a Gallic rhetorician, wrote: "This Hispania produces tough soldiers, very skilled captains, prolific speakers, luminous bards. It is a mother of judges and princes; it has given Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius to the Empire."

During the 4th century, the Western Roman Empire was disintegrating as Germanic tribes invaded the Roman Provinces. The Suebis and the Vandals were joined and later superseded by the Visigoths in taking control of Hispania. By the 6th century, a small, elite group of Visigoths came to dominate the governance of that region at the expense of those who had previously ruled there, particularly in the Byzantine province of Spania and the Kingdom of the Suebi. In or around 589, the Visigoths under Reccared I converted from Arianism to Nicene Christianity, gradually adopting the culture of their Hispano-Roman subjects.[4]

In 711 or 712, a force of invading Arabs and Berbers defeated the Visigoths in the Battle of Guadalete. Their king and many members of their governing elite were killed, and their kingdom rapidly collapsed. Gothic identity survived, however, especially in Marca Hispanica and the Kingdom of Asturias, which had been founded by the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius of Asturias after his victory over the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga.

Briones was affected in 740 by a strategy implemented by King Alfonso I of Asturias that helped consolidate the beginning of the Reconquista, a process that was to take almost eight centuries.

Alfonso I of Asturias, called the Catholic (el Católico), (c. 693 – 757) was the third King of Asturias, reigning from 739 to his death in 757. His reign saw an extension of the Christian domain of Asturias, reconquering Galicia and León. As the son of Duke Peter of Cantabria, Alfonso held many lands in that region. He married Ermesinda, daughter of Pelagius, who founded Asturias after the Battle of Covadonga in which he reversed the Moorish conquest of the region. He succeeded Pelagius' son, his brother-in-law, Favila of Asturias, on the throne after the latter's premature death. He began a lifelong war against the Moors. In 740, he conquered Galicia and in 754, León. He went as far as La Rioja. However, the few urban populations of these frontier regions fled to his northern dominions, leaving a depopulated buffer between the Christian and Muslim states.

This created the so-called Desert of the Duero, an empty region between the River Duero and the Asturian Mountains. Alfonso intended it this way; he wished to leave such a zone where any invading army would find it too difficult to survive. Besides the martial, the demographic and cultural effects of this policy on later Asturian, Spanish and Portuguese history is large. It was over a hundred years before the region was repopulated (an event known as the Repoblación), when the region, including Briones, was no longer under Saracen control.

Briones belonged to King Ordoño II of León since the beginnings of the 10th century. Briones also belonged to the Castilla County, which had been repopulated with Basques and was a frontier between Castilla and Navarra. After Sancho el de Peñalén was murdered the 4th of June of 1076, Alfonso VI took over La Rioja and Briones became part of the Haro's Signiory.

The territory of La Rioja (the name appeared in a charter of 1099) was formerly known as the province of Logroño for the fortified site around which it developed. The 12th-century church Iglesia de Santa Maria de Palacio recalls its origin as a chapel of the administrative palace. Logroño was a borderland disputed between the kings of Navarre and the kings of Castile starting in the 10th century; the region was awarded to Castile in a judgement by Henry II of England and annexed in 1173 (1177?). Part of its importance derived from the fact that here the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino de Santiago, crossed the River Ebro on the stone bridge, the Puente de Piedra.

On the 18 January 1256, Alfonso X of Castile gave Briones the regional laws from Vitoria, as a guarantee of the Castillian repopulation. In 1293 Sancho IV gave Briones royal privilege.

During the Basquisation in 1536 there were thirty Basque surnames in Briones, among which was the Lacayo last name. Possibly around that year (there is no confirmed date), Don Francisco Lacayo de Briones, one of José Antonio´s earliest documented ancestors, was born. He was from noble origins and his manorial house in Briones had his coat of arms carved in stone at its entrance.

Don Francisco married Doña Francisca Domínguez y Rodríguez in Miranda, Navarra, where they established their home. She was also of Basque origin, being from the Village of Riezu, next to the city of Estella, both places in Navarra. Several of Don Francisco's descendants held high public offices, usually related to maintaining order and public peace. His great grandson, Don Marcos Lacayo de Briones y Orive in 1651 was named Mayor of Briones' Santa Hermandad del Estado de Hijosdalgo. Santa Hermandad, literally "holy brotherhood" in Spanish, was a type of military Peacekeeping association of armed individuals, which became characteristic of municipal life in medieval Spain, especially in Castile and they were for the most part religious confraternities with a military structure and ethos. Don Marcos was also Regidor for the same Estado de Hijosdalgo in the city Estella in 1671.

Don Marcos' son, Don Josef Lacayo de Briones y García de Aragón, who was the father of José Antonio Lacayo de Briones y Palacios, was a Lawyer in the Reales Consejos and was also named Regidor in the Estella in 1677. On January 29, 1679, Don Josef became Mayor of Briones´ Santa Hermandad del Estado de los Caballeros Hijosdalgo. In 1693 and 1695, Don Josef was Governor and Jury of the city of Estella.

Most certainly, the services rendered by José Antonio´s direct ancestors to their regional governments and to the Crown, influenced his character and formed the basis for his distinguished and honourable performance in the high positions he held in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The times and conditions when José Antonio served, resembled in many ways those his ancestors had to confront.

José Antonio Lacayo de Briones y Palacios, was born into a noble family on August 13, 1679 in Viana, Navarre. He was the son of Josef Lacayo de Briones y García de Aragón and Teresa Palacios Amescua. He married Bárbara Rosa de Pomar y Villegas in 1711 in Granada, Nicaragua. Bárbara Rosa was also a native of Viana.

In about 1700, Lacayo entered the military service as a sergeant major in the service of the crown. He emigrated to Peru, then traveled to Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. He ultimately settled in the city of Granada, Nicaragua. He became the progenitor of the Lacayo family of Nicaragua.

When the Governor of Costa Rica died, then president of the Audiencia, Lorenzo Antonio de Granda y Balbín, named Lacayo as his replacement on December 11, 1712. Lacayo was, however, unable to assume his position immediately. He was preceded by two interim governors. Lacayo took office as Governor on May 11, 1713.

For several years, Lacayo held the position of Treasurer of the Seal of the provinces of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. As Sergeant Major, Lacayo endured a very difficult period in the area of Cartago near the Salto river, on the Costa Rican border of Nicoya and Nicaragua. There he encountered the Mosquito, Zambos and English invaders, and attacks by ships commanded by Irish pirates.

Friar Bishop Dr. Benito Garret Arlovi accused the Sergeant Major and Mayor Lacayo de Briones of conducting illicit commerce with the English along the north coast. The Audiencia entrusted the investigation to Pedro Martinez de Ugarrio. On May 14, 1715, the Cartago municipal council and the regular and secular clergy ruled in favor of Lacayo.

Friar Pablo de Otarola, abbot of the convent of San Francisco de Cartago, certified that the statement presented by the bishop was false and added that a great infamy had been committed. On November 15, 1718, due to the accusation by the interim government Lacayo was ordered by the Audiencia to leave Costa Rica. He left Costa Rica disguised as a Franciscan monk to avoid persecution. In June 1720, the order was rescinded and Lacayo was declared an honest, pure and justified minister, worthy of his Majesty's support. He was honored with employment by the Crown and rewarded for his service.

Lacayo built the San Francisco de Esparza convent at his own expense. His previously confiscated property and the initial 2,000 ducats which he had been fined were returned.

The Audiencia indicted Lacayo's accuser, Pedro Ruiz de Bustamante, and the Church excommunicated the monks who had perjured themselves.

After many years of service to the crown, in 1740 Nicaragua was attacked by Mosquitos and English General Handyse. On November 21, 1740, Lacayo was appointed governor of the province of Nicaragua. En route to León, the governor was informed of an insurrection of the mulatto Antonio Padilla, captain of the mulatto soldiers. Lacayo confronted him and sentenced him to prison and finally, condemned him to death. Since Padilla was in a chapel, there were disturbances and in the middle of the night, the governor ordered him to be clubbed. At the order of Lacayo, the mulatto Padilla was dismemberedand his head and leg were placed on public display. This was a clear message to those who did not want to obey the representatives of the crown. The governor was a very active man, conducting an inventory of all armaments and establishing quarters in León and Granada to confront the English invaders. The Audiencia reinforced the province with one hundred guns, fifty quintals of powder, six thousand bullets and other ammunition.

In spite of this, the English incursions caused terror in northern departments of the province. To deal with this, the Spanish Court responded by sending to Nicaragua 800 guns, twelve pieces of artillery, ammunition, money, one hundred soldiers of the line of Havana with officers, sergeants and artillerymen, a galley and other aid. King Felipe V ordered that they organize militias throughout the Province, and recognized the ability of Governor Lacayo by naming him Commander-in-chief of the army on May 4. 1745. With the ascent of Lacayo, he named Francisco Antonio de Caceres Molinedo as Civil Governor. The appointment of Lacayo, who was much hated in León, as the Commander-in-chief was the cause of a new secret uprising by Felipe Gamez the Master of a popular camp with the mulattos. Anticipating a new war, Lacayo was made Commanding General by Royal Decree on August 23, 1745, and permanently held the position until December of 1746. These last years were the height of diplomacy, economics, and politics for the Spanish crown, during the reigns of Felipe V and his son Fernando VI.

About this time, distinguished relatives of Jose Antonio Lacayo de Briones in Viana, kingdoms of Castile and Navarre attained prominent positions in society as illustrious personages. Among them were Faustino Lacayo de Briones who studied law in Alcala and Valladolid in 1705, Jose Lacayo de Briones, lawyer of the Royal Councils of Castile and Navarre, Manuel Lacayo de Briones also a lawyer of the Royal Councils of Castile and Navarre, and Rafael Lacayo de Briones, a lieutenant and captain of the General Staff in Burgos in 1751. All these Lacayo de Briones were enabled to study through a foundation of Isabel de Bedia of nearby Logroño, a relative of the Lacayos.