Duke of Veragua

This new lordship was granted by the Crown to Don Luis Colón y Toledo, grandson of the discoverer Christopher Columbus, along with the title of Duke of Veragua and Marquis of Jamaica.

The case was arbitrated by Don Fray García de Loayza, Cardinal of Santa Susana, Bishop of Sigüenza, and confessor to the King.

[1] The Dukedom was a perfect square of twenty-five leagues on a side, extending towards the west from the mouth of the Río Belén in the Caribbean, in what is today Panamanian territory.

The first Duke of Veragua sent out various expeditions to try to enforce his authority throughout the territory, but they all resulted in disasters due to the resistance of the Indigenous peoples in their homeland and the difficulties of the topography and climate.

In 1556 the Duke decided to return the domain to the Crown in exchange for an increased annual rent of 17,000 ducats (which was paid to his heirs up to 1898) and the retention of the title (which is still used in Spain).