Juan Cabrero (1442–1512) was the High Chamberlain and counselor of King Ferdinand the Catholic, Commander and one of the Thirteen of St James Order, and a professional combatant during the Granada War in Spain.
This extensive document provided much more information on the historical figure and his motivations, and favored new analysis that conclude that Cabrero was probably the last supporter who came into play in the negotiations in 1492, and the person who finally turned the tides for Columbus.
[3] When Juan Cabrero was still a child, his older brother Martin was captured while he was combating the Ottoman Empire in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and apparently was made a slave and set free a few years later through a ransom.
During his twenties Juan Cabrero participated as a captain of the Kingdom of Aragon's armies in the Catalan Civil War, and this is where he probably befriended Prince Ferdinand, who in 1477 appointed him as one of his house familiars.
In 1486 the king appointed him Corregidor (royal delegate)of Alcaraz, one of the villages which was contributing with footmen and horsemen for the Siege of Malaga during the war against the Muslim Kingdom of Granada.
[5] Cabrero led hundreds of footmen and spear men and dozens of horsemen and crossbowmen to the villages of Cullar and Chercos which had been sieged by King Boabdil.
Juan Cabrero was seasoned soldier and captain, and was one of the four main members of King Ferdinand's Secret Council, where battle plans and strategies for the Granada War were decided.
"[9] The next account of Cabrero's role s from 1515 during the Colombian trials, Diego Colon sent a questionnaire to King Ferdinand, in which the questions narrate the succession of events that happened since his father arrived to Castile.
Cabrero was appointed commander of Totana, Aledo and Las Casas of Granada, and the important Encomienda mayor of Montalban.