The outnumbered Spanish, after several months in…
August 1533 CE
The outnumbered Spanish, after several months in fear of an imminent attack from general Rumiñahui, have come to regard Atahualpa as too much of a liability and decide to execute him.
Pizarro, fearing Atahualpa's influence over his Inca subjects, deems the roomful of gold, at twenty-four tons the richest ransom ever received, insufficient to meet the amount by the imposed deadline.
Staging a mock trial, he finds Atahualpa guilty of revolting against the Spanish, practicing idolatry, and murdering his brother Huáscar.
Atahualpa is sentenced to execution by burning.
The Inca is horrified by this, since his people’s belief is that the soul will not be able to go on to the afterlife if the body is burned.
Friar Vincente de Valverde, who had earlier offered his breviary to Atahualpa, intervenes, telling Atahualpa that if he agrees to convert to Catholicism, he will persuade Pizarro to commute the sentence.
Atahualpa, although he has resisted proselytization throughout his captivity, agrees to be baptized into the Catholic faith.
He is given the name Francisco Atahualpa in honor of Francisco Pizarro and, in accordance with his request, is on August 29, 1533, strangled with a garrote.
Following his execution, his clothes and some of his skin are burned, and his remains are given a Christian burial.
Francisco Pizarro and de Soto had been opposed to Atahualpa's execution, but Francisco had consented to the trial due to the "great agitation among the soldiers", particularly by Almagro.
De Soto was on a reconnaissance mission the day of the trial and execution, and upon his return expresses his dismay, stating, "he should have been taken to Castile and judged by the emperor."
King Charles will later write to Pizarro: "We have been displeased by the death of Atahualpa, since he was a monarch, and particularly as it was done in the name of justice."
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