Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga
Catholic cardinal
Don Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga (1489 – 9 June 1535), cardinal, archbishop of Burgos and bishop of Coria, was a Castilian clergyman and diplomat in the service of Emperor Charles V.
Biography
Don Íñigo was born in Aranda de Duero, the second son of Pedro de Zúñiga y Avellaneda, 2nd Count of Miranda del Castañar, and Catalina de Velasco, daughter of Pedro Fernández de Velasco, 2nd Count of Haro. Although a Zúñiga, he was named Mendoza after his maternal grandmother Mencia de Mendoza.
His brother was Francisco de Zúñiga Avellaneda y Velasco.
In 1526 he went as ambassador for Charles V to England. On his way there, he was arrested for 4 months by the French. In 1528 he was imprisoned by the English because of deteriorating relations between Charles and Henry VIII. He was only rarely allowed to send letters. After this, he asked for his recall, both because of bad health, and because the English didn't trust him. He was allowed to quit England in May 1529 and was succeeded in his post by Eustace Chapuys.
After that he went to Italy, where he witnessed Charles' coronation as Holy Roman Emperor at Bologna in 1530. That same year he was also made a cardinal.
“Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga” enters the record as catholic cardinal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Íñigo, López and Mendoza can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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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 Jun 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2518060. VIAF identifies the subject as 314151246517644131339. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1489, 1535, 1526 and 1528.
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