Pizarro: Conqueror of the Inca

Stirling, Stuart

ISBN 10: 0750936827 / ISBN 13: 9780750936828

Published by Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2005

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # 027352

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Pizarro: Conqueror of the Inca
• Publisher: Sutton Publishing, Stroud
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0750936827
• ISBN 13: 9780750936828
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Plates and a map
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Francisco Pizarro is possibly one of the best known but least understood figures of world history. In 1530, at the age of fifty-four, he set out on his successful and bloody conquest of Peru, thus changing the future of a continent and its peoples forever. It was a long way from his humble beginnings as an illiterate, illegitimate pig-herder. Within these pages Stuart Stirling tells the story of adversity and tragedy which was the life of Francisco Pizarro.

By the standards of the time, Pizarro was an elderly man when he conquered Peru. He had served as a foot soldier in Spain's Italian wars and later earned a living as an Indian fighter and slaver. Audacious, ruthless and cruel, Pizarro had a surprising and almost fatalistic belief in the Indies as an escape from his illegitimacy. Luck also played a major part in his invasion of Peru - Pizarro's 200 men should not have been able to defeat the indigenous army of more than 30,000, but they did. However, the Spanish conquest saw few happy endings, even for Pizarro, who was now rich beyond his wildest dreams. Eleven years after the conquest, he was assassinated by his one-time Spanish allies.

Stuart Stirling's researches in the Archives of the Indies in Seville enable him to present an accurate portrait of Pizarro as a man of his time, and to place even his most infamous act - the killing of the Inca king Atahualpa - within context. This book brings the man to life against a turbulent background of exploration, discovery, empire building and a clash of cultures.

About the Author

Stuart Stirling was educated at Downside and at The Royal College of Art and was The Times correspondent in Buenos Aires. His previous books include The Last Conquistador, the life of, Mansio Serra de Leguizamon, (Sutton, 1999) and The Inca Princesses (Sutton 2004). He lives in Knightsbridge , London.