Francisca Coya

Doña Francisca Coya, also known as María de Sandoval, or simply La Coya, was the last Empress of the Inca Empire during its collapse in the mid-16th century war with Spain. She was the daughter of Emperor Huayna Capac and his cousin Mama Runtu Coya. She was born in Cuzco, Peru in 1515 and died in Popayán, Colombia around 1543–44. Ecuadorian genealogist and historian Fernando Jurado Noboa described her as "the nurturing mother of Ecuador and Colombia."

Incan royal family

Chroniclers agree that Emperor Capac "left numerous descendants, but had few legitimate children." The parentage of Huáscar and Atahualpa remains uncertain but they are commonly believed to be Capac's descendants. The lineage of female figures such as Coya remains even more obscure. She is believed to be of Incan descent, but her mother is unknown. Some claim she was the daughter of a concubine. A lack of concrete evidence led historian Fernando Jurado Noboa to state the following about the Incan royal family: "The children of the Inca have not sought lawsuits of maternal origin: they were children of 'the Inca' and that's enough."

Biography

After Atahualpa's death at the hands of the Spanish in 1533, Sebastián de Benalcázar and Diego de Sandoval y la Mota invaded San Miguel de Piura. During 1535 the Spanish found a group of indigenous people in Chaparra in the Cañaris region of the Andes's western foothills, hiding and protecting Atahualpa's sisters Toctochembo, Marcachembom, Ascarpe, and Francisca (whose indigenous name is unknown). They were also Emperor Cápac's daughters. During the Spanish invasion, Coya and her people fled from Cuzco but she and her sisters were captured and taken to de Benalcázar, who "gave her to Captain Diego de Sandoval". The Incan noble became pregnant and marched with Sandoval to Quito where she gave birth to their only child. Coya later accompanied Sandoval to Popayán, where she lived near one of her sisters (whom Benalcázar had also taken for himself).

Francisca Coya was born in Cuzco around 1515 as the legitimate daughter of Huayna Cápac. Her mother was respected for being an older and principal woman in Cuzco, according to the testimony of Indian Pedro Inga, in Bogotá in 1575. The Indian Catalina, who witnessed her birth and was her maid, declared in Tunja in 1575, when 70 years old, that "Guaynacaba, her father, put her in another house, where she lived with the rest of his daughters and maidens". Francisca was called 'La Coya' by the first vecinos of Quito.

It was said that when La Coya went to mass, all of Quito's provincial chiefs and women accompanied her and when she left the city she was accompanied by two to three thousand Indians. Witnesses of that time said that the Chiefs of Quito put down blankets, feathers, and flowers in front of her so that her feet would not touch the ground. This description coincides with Canadian historian John Hemming's interpretation that "the natives of Quito venerated her with pathetic passion." According to the rituals and customs of the time, such veneration was expected for women of the Inca elite. Incan elite women were refined and were treated with great respect by the masses.

Children

In 1536, Francisca Coya gave birth to Eugenia de Sandoval Inca in Quito. She lived with her parents in Popayán and later, after her mother's death in 1544, moved to Anserma with her father. In 1545, Eugenia would receive the Royal Certificate of Legitimization from Charles V Holy Roman Emperor at her father Diego de Sandoval's request of "proof" ('probanza') so that she could in 1550, at the age of 14, marry Captain Gil de Rengifo Pantoja, born in Ávila, Spain. Between them, they had many descendants in Ecuador and Colombia. Eugenia died before 1575.

Genealogy

The Inca Emperor Huayna Cápac's daughter Francisca Coya, slave-wife of the Spanish conqueror Diego de Sandoval, gave birth to Eugenia de Sandoval Inca (the emperor's granddaughter) in Quito in 1536. Eugenia de Sandoval Inca became legitimized by the Spanish king and became the wife of the colonizer Gil de Rengifo. They had one daughter, María Rengifo y Sandoval (great-granddaughter of the Inca), born in Anserma, who became the Spanish Vicente Henao Tamayo's wife. Of them, Melchor Henao Rengifo (the Incan emperor's great-great-grandson), was born in Anserma around 1572. Around 1609, Rengifo married María Vivas in Cali. Gregorio Henao Vivas (the Incan emperor's fourth grandson), was born in Cali around 1610. He moved to the city of Antioquia where he married Jacoba Vásquez Guadramiros.

From Gregorio Henao Vivas, it is easy to follow Coya's Columbian descendants in the book titled Genealogies of Antioquia and Caldas, by Gabriel Arango Mejía. The line included people such as ex-president Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez, archbishops Arturo Duque Villegas and Aníbal Muñoz Duque, Braulio Henao, Anselmo Pineda, Abraham Moreno, José Tomás Henao and Braulio Henao Mejía, Tomás Carrasquilla; Luis López de Mesa; León de Greiff, and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. This line of descendants is confirmed by historian Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita.

The historical and cultural values inherited by her descendants in Ecuador, such as the ex-Presidents Luis Cordero, Juan León Mera, Antonio Borrero Cortázar, is an illustration of Doña Francisca Coya's important impact on history. Among other Ecuadorian historical figures that descend from her are: Luis A. Martinez, Miguel Angel León Pontón, Octavio Cordero Palacios, Alberto Maria Ordonez Crespo, Carlos Concha Torres, Luis Quirola Saá, Emiliano Crespo Astudillo, Jose Maria Borrero Baca, Alfonso Borrero Moscoso, Manuel Borrero González, Vicente Salazar y Cabal, José Gabriel Pino Roca, Pedro Cocha Torres, etc.

The genealogical works demonstrated how the Incan bloodline of Francisca enriched the elite (high and middle-high classes) of colonial and republican Ecuadorian and Colombian societies.

Further reading

Piedad Peñaherrera, Alfredo Costales & Fernando Jurado Noboa. (1982) "Los Señores Naturales de la Tierra: Las Coyas y Pallas del Tahuantinsuyo". (Compilation of two investigations in one book)

External links

• Los señores naturales de la tierra,
• Los señores naturales de la tierra: Las Coyas y Pallas del Tahuantinsuyo
• La princesa inca