Teodoro Francisco de Croix, XXXIV Viceroy of Peru , knight of the Walloon nobility. He was the son of Alejandro Francisco Maximiliano de Croix, Marquis de Heuchin, and Isabel Clara Eugenia de Heuchin Longastre. He was born in the Château de la Prévote, near Lille, on June 30, 1730. At the age of 16 he entered the Spanish royal guards as a grenadier lieutenant, immediately serving in Italy. he was transferred to the Walloon Guards regiment in 1750. he subsequently joined the Teutonic Order and, promoted to the rank of colonel , he attended the campaign of Portugal, under the orders of the count of Aranda (1762). In the entourage of his uncle Felipe Carlos Francisco de Croix, named viceroy of New Spain, he crossed the ocean in 1766 aboard "El Dragón" and began his political career. He was appointed captain of the viceregal guard of Mexico and governor of the province of Acapulco, with the responsibility of safeguarding the interests of the royal treasury, violated by the smuggling that was done through the Manila galleon. In the company of his uncle, he left New Spain in 1771 to rejoin, for a short time, the royal armies. From 1775 he returned to find himself in New Spain, invested with the governorship of the northern provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa; he was so concerned about the uprightness of his office that he visited the various regions of his jurisdiction four times. From there he was promoted to the viceroyalty of Peru and presidency of the audience of Lima (February 15, 1783), positions that were granted to him along with the rank of lieutenant general.
Teodoro Francisco de Croix as Viceroy of Peru
he took official possession of the command in the city of Lima on April 6, 1784 . One of the first tasks that he fulfilled was the establishment of the regime of quartermasters and subdelegations, in replacement of the corregimientos (1784); measure with which it was sought to decentralize public administration and attend more promptly to the needs of the provinces. In addition, he put into operation the Mining Court of Lima (1786) and installed the court of Cuzco (1788). Addressing the complaints that multiplied about assaults by thugs both in the countryside and in the city, he ordered the creation of the court of the Holy Brotherhood. He stimulated the local manufacture of gunpowder for defense contingencies and developed, in general, an extraordinarily honest administration. He always responded magnanimously to requests for charity. And he left the state coffers in a solvent position when he left the viceregal government, on March 25, 1790, at his own request. The Knight of Croix undertook the return to the Iberian Peninsula by way of Cape Horn. He was distinguished with the Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos III. At the court of Madrid, at the age of 61, he died on April 8, 1792 .