Manuscript of the contract governing German conquistadors in Venezuela

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Nov 25, 2025

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• Lot Description
  [WELSER COLONY IN VENEZUELA] Capitulación de los Belzares [i.e. Welsers] con la corona de Castilla. Madrid: 27 March, 1528 [date from the final text leaf]. Manuscript on paper, self-wrappers, sewn. 12 x 8 1/2 inches (30.5 x 21.5 cm); 8 ff. (final 2 pp. blank but for later annotations regarding the contents), the document written in Spanish a fine, legible court hand of the period, approximately 50 lines to the page written in dark brown ink, on paper watermarked with a hand holding a cinquefoil, signed on f. 6 verso "Yo el Reyna," [and by other signatories at the foot]. Central fold throughout, some minor soiling, especially to the final two blanks, which appear to have been folded for use as wrappers throughout most of the life of the document. When Charles I of Spain sought to become Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, his claim to the throne was initially tenuous, and he succeeded only through the financial assistance of the Fugger and Welser banking families. This left him deeply indebted to them, and in 1528, he offered a Capitulación (contract) to the Welsers, granting them governorship of a territory in the New World situated in what is now Venezuela. The colony thus created was called Welserland or Klein-Venedig (i.e. Little Venice), and its heart lay near Lake Maracaibo. The Welsers were already deeply involved in New World trade and saw this as an extraordinary opportunity, not least because of the rumors of gold in the region. The present document outlines the complex arrangements for the colony between the Crown and the Welsers, appoints the German conquistadors (a source of some later discontent, as that role had been primarily held by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers), and dictates the behavior of the new German rulers to the native inhabitants. It demarcates the region to be occupied and provides a vast amount of detail about the prospective colony. Garcia de Lerma is appointed as the Governor of the region, and Ambrosius Ehinger [Alfinger] and other Germans are appointed to accompany him. The specifics in this document are exhaustive and provide an extraordinary insight into the motivations and methods of these early colonists. The German colony was not a success. Ehinger proved greedy and rapacious for gold, and his expeditions in search of it led to brutal extortion of the native populace, with entire villages laid waste. He died in 1533, struck by an Indian poison arrow. In general, the cruelty of the German occupiers exceeded that of the Spanish conquistadors before them, and it was met with resistance from the native inhabitants. The resentments of some of the Spanish administrators played a part in the failure. Philip von Hutten, a protegé of the Welsers, who had been part of the original expedition, was murdered at the hands of the then Interim Governor, Juan de Carvajal. This, and the reports of the barbarity of the German occupiers, led to the ultimate termination of the Welser contract. One version of this document is held in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, and the text of that example is reproduced in its entirety at https://www.cervantesvirtual.com A textual comparison of this version with our example demonstrates slight variations in text. The signatory here is Joanna of Castile, the Queen of Aragon, co-monarch with Charles I. She is commonly, and likely unjustly, referred to as Joanna the Mad, though her supposed madness seems to have been merely a pretext to usurp her power. Given the convenient fiction that she was insane, it is possible that this signature is in the hands of the regent. The hand and flower watermark used in this document saw wide use at the time, with many variants noted in Briquet and elsewhere, and it appears with some frequency in Spanish court documents. Various notations in 17th and 18th-century hands on the rear blank leaves that long served as wrappers (e.g. "Assiento de la Conquetta de Venezuela") demonstrate that the contents of the document remained of interest during the following centuries.

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