Coya Asarpay Explained

Coya Asarpay or Azarpay (died 1533), was a princess and queen consort of the Inca Empire by marriage to her brother, the Sapa Inca Atahualpa (r 1532-1533).^{[1] [2]}

Asarpay was the daughter of the Inca Huayna Capac.^{[3] [4]} She married her brother, the succeeding Inca, in accordance with ancient custom. She was the "First Princess of the Empire", and her sisters included Kispe Sisa, Kura Okllu, Marca Chimbo, Pachacuti Yamqui, Miro, Kusi Warkay, Francisca Coya^{[5] [6]} and others.^{[7] :112[8]}

Her husband was executed in 1533 by the Spaniards, who accused him of incest and idolatry, charges which would apply also to her.

At one point, according to Pedro Pizarro, the Spanish treasurer, Navarro, asked Fernando Pizarro for permission to Azarpay and force her to be his wife. Hearing this, Azarpay escaped to Carajima. Later, she was recaptured, and brought to the house of Fernando Pizarro in Lima.^[9] Pedro Pizarro states that shortly thereafter Incas besieged the city, and Fernando Pizarro believed that they had been told to do so by Azarpay, and that killing her would make it more likely they would lift the siege.^{[10] [11]}

She was executed by garroting on the order of Francisco Pizarro.^[12]

Notes and References

1. Book: Macdonald . Sharon . Images of Women in Peace and War: Cross-cultural and Historical Perspectives . Holden . Pat . Ardener . Shirley . 1988 . Univ of Wisconsin Press . 978-0-299-11764-1 . en.
2. Book: Schurz, William Lytle . This New World: the Civilization of Latin America . 1954 . Dutton . en.
3. Book: MacCormack, Sabine . Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru . 2021-05-11 . Princeton University Press . 978-1-4008-4369-5 . en.
4. Book: Rostworowski, María . Mujer y poder en los Andes coloniales . 2016-11-28 . Instituto de Estudios Peruanos . 978-9972-51-598-9 . es.
5. Book: Costales . Piedad Peñaherrera de . Costales Samaniego . Alfredo . Jurado Noboa . Fernando . Los señores naturales de la tierra : Las Coyas y Pallas del Tahuantinsuyo . Cultura y Patrimonio . Spanish . 1982 . Xerox del Ecuador, Gallo Capitán .
6. Descendientes del Emperador Inca Pachacútec. Juan G.. Zapata-Jaramillo. www.academia.edu.
7. Book: Niles, Susan A.. The Shape of Inca History: Narrative and Architecture in an Andean Empire. 1999. University of Iowa Press. 9781587292941. en.
8. de Gamboa, P.S., 2015, History of the Incas, Lexington,
9. Book: Parry . John Horace . New Iberian World: The Andes . Keith . Robert G. . 1984 . Times Books . 978-0-8129-1070-4 . en.
10. Book: Mannarelli, María Emma . Private Passions and Public Sins: Men and Women in Seventeenth-century Lima . 2007 . UNM Press . 978-0-8263-2279-1 . en.
11. Book: Stirling, Stuart . Pizarro: Conqueror of the Inca . 2005-05-19 . The History Press . 978-0-7524-9533-0 . en.
12. Sharon Macdonald, Pat Holden, Shirley Ardener: Images of Women in Peace and War: Cross-cultural and Historical Perspectives, p 64