Calle de Juan de Urbieta
The street remembers Juan de Urbieta Berástegui y Lezo (Hernani, Guipúzcoa – Hernani, 22 August 1553), a man-at-arms who on 24 February 1525 captured King Francis I of France at the battle of Pavia. Charles V rewarded him with a coat of arms, promoted him to captain of cavalry and admitted him to the Order of Santiago. The street is documented in 1889 as a modern opening.
On 24 February 1525, at the battle of Pavia, the King of France lost his horse and was pinned beneath the fallen animal. A man from Hernani, in Guipúzcoa, named Juan de Urbieta reached him sword in hand and demanded his surrender. Francis I is said to have answered, “My life — I am the king!” That cry turned a plain man-at-arms into the captor of a monarch.
Others later claimed the honour of the capture, but Urbieta held the best proof: a document signed by Francis I himself acknowledging that Urbieta had taken him. Charles V repaid it with a coat of arms, promotion to captain of cavalry and the habit of Santiago.
The Calle de Juan de Urbieta already appears named in 1889, opened when the area around the Hospital del Niño Jesús was built up. Anyone crossing it walks, without knowing, beneath the name of the soldier who once held a King of France at the tip of his sword.
Sources (6)
- Juan de Urbieta — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Juan de Urbieta — Wikipedia (EN)
- Juan de Urbieta — Historia Hispánica, Real Academia de la Historia
- ¿Quién capturó a Francisco I? — Desperta Ferro Ediciones
- Tercios Viejos: Juan de Urbieta
- Peñasco de la Puente, H. y Cambronero, C.: Las calles de Madrid (1889)