Dominic Sandbrook

So there's a judge in Panama called Gaspard Espinosa, who's writing all the time to Charles V, basically sending him reports of what these guys are getting up to in Peru.

And he writes to Charles V and he says, the Spanish in Cajamarca are totally out of control.

Their greed is so great as to be insatiable.

The more the native chiefs give, the more the Spaniards kill or torture them to give even more.

He says, they should never have killed Atahualpa, a man who'd fallen into their hands and who'd done no harm to any Spaniard.

They could have sent him here to Panama with his wives and servants as his rank deserved.

We would all have honoured him and treated him like a great noble of Castile.

And actually,

This will surprise some listeners who have subscribed to the black legend of 16th century Spain as uniquely cruel and greedy and whatnot.

Most Spanish chroniclers agreed that Pizarro had done the wrong thing.

So this is Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo in the 1530s.

The killing of so great a prince was an infamous disservice to God and the emperor, an act of great ingratitude and outstanding evil.

And this is probably most influential of all the Spanish writers about Peru, Pedro Tieta de Leon in the 1550s.

The most evil deed the Spaniards have done in all the empire of the Indies.

It is widely vituperated and it's considered a grave sin.

And this is definitely what the king himself thought, Charles V.

Because when he wrote back to Pizarro, he said, we have been displeased by the death of Atahualpa since he was a monarch.

And particularly as it was done in the name of justice, we will seek more information about this matter and then order what is necessary.

And if you're Pizarro reading this, you surely think,

Oh no.