Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros

Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros was born in Torrelaguna, in the Comunidad de Madrid, in 1436. He studied theology and law at the Universities of Salamanca and Rome. He began his priestly career as Archpriest of Uceda and Vicar General of the Diocese of Sigüenza, but nevertheless ended up preferring the discipline and entered the Franciscan Order in 1484. He became provincial of the convent of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo and soon established himself as one of the main advisers to the court of the Catholic Monarchs through his friendship with Queen Isabella the Catholic, who already had appointed him her confessor. In 1495 he was appointed archbishop of Toledo, and from there undertook to reform the Franciscan convents and to combat the corrupt morality of the secular clergy. In 1507 he obtained the cardinal’s hat and the following year began his most ambitious and innovative project: the founding of the University of Alcalá de Henares. He was regent of the Iberian kingdoms on several occasions: at the death of Philip I the Handsome, in 1506, and pending the arrival of Charles I (Charles V as emperor) after the death of Ferdinand the Catholic, in 1516. Cardinal Cisneros died a year later, on November 8, 1517 in Roa, near Burgos.

Read more:

• J. García Oro, Cisneros: un cardenal reformista en el Reino de España (1436-1517), Madrid 2005.
• S. Aguadé Nieto (coord.), Cisneros y el Siglo de Oro de la Universidad de Alcalá, Centro Internacional de Estudios Históricos Cisneros, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Fundación General de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Consejería de Educación de la Comunidad de Madrid, 1999.