Portal:Holy Roman Empire/Article of the month/April

Philipp von Hutten

Philipp von Hutten was a German conquistador who, from 1535 to 1538, participated as a captain in an expedition by the Augsburg Welser Company into the interior of Venezuela in search of gold. At the end of 1540 he was appointed by Charles V as the military commander of the Spanish overseas province of Venezuela which was governed by the Welser family. On his return from a second expedition, which Hutten led between 1541 and 1546, he had his Spanish rival, Juan de Carvajal, murdered.

Little is known about the first thirty years of Philip von Hutten's life. It is documented that, when he was aged between twelve and fourteen, his parents placed him in the care of Count Henry III of Nassau-Breda-Viande, one of the teachers and closest confidants of the later Habsburg Emperor Charles V. Hutten had been living in Spain for several years in Charles' retinue before he set off with him in 1529 to the imperial coronation in Bologna.

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