Fernando de Valenzuela, 1st Marquis of Villasierra
Spanish noble
Fernando de Valenzuela, 1st Marquis of Villasierra, Grandee of Spain (in full, Spanish: Don Fernando de Valenzuela y Enciso, Núñez y Dávila, primer marqués de Villasierra, Grande de España, Virrey de Granada; 8 January 1636, Naples – 7 February 1692), served as a trusted advisor and valido to Mariana of Austria, Queen Regent of Spain.
Valenzuela came from the lower ranks of Spanish nobility or hidalgos and his appointment was resented by the grandees, the upper nobility who dominated government appointments. In 1677, he was removed from office and imprisoned in the Philippines; released in 1688, he settled in Mexico City, where he died in 1692.
Life
Fernando de Valenzuela was born in Naples in 1636, only son of Francisco de Valenzuela and Leonora de Encisa y Davila. He was baptised in the church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi on 17 January 1636.
Originally from Andalusia, in Southern Spain, the Valenzuela were middle-ranking nobility or hidalgos who served across the Spanish Empire as soldiers and administrators. During the Reconquista in 1485, his great-great grandfather, Fernando de Valenzuela Baena, took part in the capture of Ronda and was rewarded with lands and offices. They remained a prominent local family; his grandfather Gaspar Juan y de Escalante de Valenzuela was the two governor.
In 1661, Valenzuela married Maria Ambrosia de Ucedo y Prado; their son Francisco de Ucedo de la Valenzuela became a government officer in the Mexican provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and New Navarre.
Career
Francisco de Valenzuela, the father of Fernando, served with the Spanish army in Flanders and Milan, before settling in the Kingdom of Naples, then part of the Crown of Aragon.
The public source identifies “Fernando de Valenzuela, 1st Marquis of Villasierra” as spanish noble. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fernando, Valenzuela and Marquis.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5445009. VIAF identifies the subject as 87781959. The Library of Congress control number is no2012038045. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1636, 1692, 1677 and 1688.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fernando de Valenzuela, 1st Marquis of Villasierra” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.