Francisco de Bobadilla
Francisco de Bobadilla was the knight of Calatrava whom Ferdinand and Isabella sent to Hispaniola in 1500 as royal commissioner with full powers, who landed at Santo Domingo in August to find seven Spaniards hanging from a gallows and five more waiting, took over the government, arrested Christopher Columbus and his two brothers, and shipped the Admiral home in October in irons, which Columbus refused to have removed on the voyage and kept afterwards in his room. The sovereigns released and consoled Columbus, disowned the chains, and left Bobadilla in his post for two years, which is a fair measure of what they thought of the Admiral's government. The complaints had come from every side. The settlers of Hispaniola, a few hundred gentlemen and convicts who had come for gold and found labour, had revolted under Roldan while Columbus was away on his third voyage, and Columbus on his return had bought Roldan off with land and Indians, hanged others, and written to the crown for a judge. The crown, hearing from the returning colonists that the Genoese and his brothers were ruling like foreign tyrants and keeping the gold, sent a judge with powers Columbus had not expected. Bobadilla's commission of May 1499 let him take over the government if he found cause, and he found it at the quay. He moved into Columbus's house, seized his papers and his gold, and freed the colonists from the tribute and the restrictions the Admiral had imposed, letting them take gold and Indians for a twentieth part to the crown instead of a third, which made him popular for as long as the Indians lasted. Columbus's letter from the ship to a friend at court, in which he wrote that he had been judged as a governor sent to a settled province and not as a captain sent to conquer a numerous and warlike people, is the best thing he wrote. Nicolas de Ovando replaced Bobadilla in April 1502 with a fleet of thirty ships and instructions to send him home to answer for his conduct, and he sailed in July in the flagship of the returning fleet with Roldan and the gold of two years; Columbus, on his fourth voyage and refused entry to the harbour, warned Ovando that a hurricane was coming. It came on 11 July, twenty ships went down with Bobadilla, Roldan and the gold, and the one ship that reached Spain was the one carrying Columbus's own share.
- Lived: 1450 CE – 1502 CE
- Nationality: Spanish
- Roles: governor, royal commissioner
