Manuel de Amat y Junyent (1702 – 1782), was XXXI Viceroy of Peru . He was born in Barcelona in 1702. Son of José de Amat y Planella and María Ana Junient Vargas. From the age of eleven he embraced a military career and, as a member of the order of Knights of Saint John, one of his destinies was the defense of the island of Malta; He was also a gentleman of the chamber of King Philip V and, due to his outstanding performance in the military campaigns in Africa and Italy, he was promoted to field marshal. Like several other Peruvian rulers of the eighteenth century, he began his career in America with the appointment of president and captain general of Chile. He took possession of these functions on December 28, 1755 displaying authoritarianism and intransigence, although administratively his management was brilliant.
Viceroyal government of Manuel de Amat in Peru
Once designated for the viceregal government of Peru, he embarked in the port of Valparaíso and made his solemn entry into Lima on December 12, 1761, replacing the Count of Superunda in command. Manuel de Amat established a relationship with the singer and actress from Lima, Micaela Villegas, “la Perricholi” (with whom it is said he had a son who would have been called Manuel), giving rise to gossip and gossip among the Creole aristocracy and generating a legend that continues to attract writers and playwrights.
Shortly after he entered Lima, news was received of the war between Spain and England, which is why he had to take urgent measures for defense , managing to organize two armies with a contingent of almost 20,000 well-equipped men. In the same line of action, he concluded the works of the Real Felipe fort in Callao, equipping it with towers, casemates and barracks. Thus, the protection of the coasts was well organized, although the signing of the Spanish-British peace made the war alert happily fade.
Manuel de Amat carried out some important works of urban decoration in Lima:he completed the paving of the streets, inaugurated the Acho bullring (1768) and erected the Alameda de los Descalzos and the Paseo de Aguas, on the other side del Rímac (1772) . He complied with the royal order of expulsion of the Jesuits, a fact that was carried out with all secrecy on the night of September 9, 1767, imprisoning the fathers and brothers of the Company and appropriating their numerous assets and buildings for the crown. . He organized a military expedition to Charcas, led by Juan de Pestaña, against the Portuguese from Matto Grosso who had taken over the town of Santa Rosa. Through the union of the San Martín and San Felipe schools, he established the San Carlos Convictory, a hotbed permeable to the new ideas of the Enlightenment, in the large premises that were the Jesuit novitiate (1770). he ordered the construction of the church of the Nazarenas and refurbished the towers of the church of Santo Domingo, in Lima . He put into operation the royal customs and incorporated the postal service to the State; he founded the town of Pasco, next to the mining seat of the same name; and erected a new building for the Pasco mint, next to the mining seat of the same name; and he erected a new building for the Potosí mint. He had a residence built for himself in the orchard called El Rincón.
A supporter of the suppression of divisions and mills, he tenaciously fought the corregidores, adopting severe measures to curb their abuses.
Trip to Spain and death of Manuel de Amat
After almost fifteen years of management, whose events are summarized in a voluminous Government Report (edited by Vicente Rodríguez Casado in 1947), he left the insignia of viceroy on July 17, 1776 in the hands of Don Miguel de Guirior. A few months later he sailed back to Spain, without waiting for the results of his residency trial. Far from legend and court pageantry, he died in his hometown of Barcelona in 1782.