Fernando Colon: Son of Christopher Columbus
Illegitimate Son Closest to His Explorer Father
Aug 19, 2008
Fernando gave his surname as Colon, the Spanish variant of Columbus, the explorer himself having variously used Italian, Portuguese and Catalan versions of the name.
Fernando Colon, born in 1488 at Cordoba, Spain to Christopher Columbus and Beatriz Enriquez de Harana, spent his early years with his mother, but traveled to the New World at about age 14 with his father on Columbus’s fourth voyage. He is believed to have spent most of his teen years with his father and, some sources say, was his father’s favorite. His mother was his father’s almost constant companion during Christopher’s last years.
Named for the Spanish king who backed a Columbus determined to find a shorter route to the East Indies, after his father’s first voyage he became a page to Spanish crown prince Don Juan. Following the prince’s unexpected death, Fernando served Queen Isabella.
Diego Colon
Fernando was 18 when his father died and soon after that accompanied his older brother Diego to the New World in 1509 when Diego was appointed governor of Hispaniola (the present Dominican Republic).
As son of the wealthy Felipa Perestrello Moniz, who came from a noble Portuguese family, Diego enjoyed more privileges than Fernando. It was a liaison that helped Columbus. Felipa’s father had discovered the Madeira Islands and she transferred his charts of Portuguese possessions in the Atlantic, along with notes on winds and currents, to her husband.
Diego’s wife was King Ferdinand’s niece and they lived at the Alcazar de Colon, a palace built for them in Santo Domingo.
Fernando Established Library
Fernando, however, was of a more scholarly bent and returned to Spain, where he used money from his father’s estate to build a personal library of more than 15,000 volumes that also included his father’s library. It was patronized by some of Spain’s most educated citizens and other intellectuals, including Dutch philosopher Erasmus. It was of such scope that he employed full time librarians.
Fernando’s greatest contribution to the world, however, was his biography of his father. For centuries scholars have relied upon it as the closest first hand account of Christopher Columbus, a man whose background contains mysterious elements.
His 1538 manuscript, The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus, was partly written to refute some false stories about his father. This manuscript was inherited by his playboy nephew, Luis, who sold it to a wealthy Genoese doctor. It eventually ended up in Venice, where it was translated into Italian and published in 1571.
His Father’s Biographer
Fernando made provisions for his valuable library to remain intact, but some titles were sold during a dispute over its ownership which lasted several decades. Later it came into possession of the cathedral in Seville, Spain, where it is known as La Biblioteca Colombina, has been well preserved and is accessible to researchers.
Fernando Colon died at Seville in 1539, leaving a legacy much more valuable than that of his privileged older brother.
SOURCES:
The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand, 1992 revised edition, Benjamin Keen, author and translator; Rutgers University Press.
Admiral of the Ocean Sea: The Life of Christopher Columbus, by Samuel Eliot Morison (1942: Boston)
The Story of Civilization, Vol. 6, The Reformation, by Will and Ariel Durant, Chapt. 13. (1957: New York)
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