Editing Lope de Aguirre (section)

===Search for El Dorado===
Together with his daughter Elvira, Aguirre joined the 1560 expedition of [[Pedro de Ursúa]] down the [[Marañón River (Peru)|Marañón]] and [[Amazon River]]s with 300 Spaniards and hundreds of natives.<ref name="PastorCallau2011">{{cite book|author1=Beatriz Pastor|author2=Sergio Callau|title=Lope de Aguirre y la rebelión de los marañones|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=19ADt-_oYZIC&pg=PA1524|date=1 January 2011|publisher=Parkstone International|isbn=978-84-9740-535-5|pages=1524–1525}}</ref> The actual goal of Ursúa was to send idle veterans from the [[Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire]] away, to keep them from trouble-making. A year later, Aguirre participated in the overthrow and killing of Ursúa and his successor, Fernando de Guzmán, whom he ultimately succeeded.<ref name="DouglassBilbao2005">{{cite book|author1=William A. Douglass|author2=Jon Bilbao|title=Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8KzfK1QwxDIC&pg=PA84|year=2005|publisher=University of Nevada Press|isbn=978-0-87417-625-4|page=84}}</ref><ref name="GonzálezTur1981">{{cite book|author1=Elena Mampel González|author2=Neus Escandell Tur|title=Lope de Aguirre: Crónicas, 1559-1561|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76qVv67CEPcC&pg=PA132|date=1 January 1981|publisher=Edicions Universitat Barcelona|isbn=978-84-85411-51-1|page=132}}</ref> He and his men reached the Atlantic, probably by the [[Orinoco]] River. On 23 March 1561, Aguirre urged 186 officers and soldiers to sign a statement acknowledging him as "Prince of Peru, [[Province of Tierra Firme|Tierra Firme]] and Chile".<ref name="Sorondo2010 page=124">{{cite book|author=Gabriel Sánchez Sorondo|title=Historia oculta de la conquista de América|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yB3RCea86w4C&pg=PA124|date=1 January 2010|publisher=Ediciones Nowtilus S.L.|isbn=978-84-9763-601-8|page=124}}</ref>

In 1561, he seized [[Isla Margarita]] and suppressed any opposition to his reign, killing the governor. When he crossed to the mainland in an attempt to take Panama, his open rebellion against the [[Spanish monarchy|Spanish crown]] came to an end. He was surrounded at [[Barquisimeto|Barquisimeto, Venezuela]], where he killed his daughter, Elvira,<ref name="GonzálezTur1981a">{{cite book|author1=Elena Mampel González|author2=Neus Escandell Tur|title=Lope de Aguirre: Crónicas, 1559-1561|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76qVv67CEPcC&pg=PA273|date=1 January 1981|publisher=Edicions Universitat Barcelona|isbn=978-84-85411-51-1|page=273}}</ref> "because someone that I loved so much should not come to be bedded by uncouth people".  He was eventually captured by royalist forces and shot to death by his own soldier, Custodio Hernandez.<ref name="Lewis03p18">Lewis 2003, p. 18</ref><ref name="Echevarría1996"/>

His body was beheaded and cut into quarters, with pieces being sent to nearby towns as a warning. According to the account of Fray [[Pedro Simón]], the skull of Aguirre remained in the town square of Valencia at least forty years after his demise.<ref name="Lewis03p18" /><ref name="Echevarría1996">{{cite book|author=Roberto Gonzalez Echevarría|title=The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8lrcKp81eawC&pg=PA159|date=13 September 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-34069-4|page=159}}</ref> In a ''post-mortem'' [[trial of residence]] held in El Tocuyo, Aguirre was found guilty of the crime of ''[[Lèse-majesté]]''. In Mérida and El Tocuyo several of his soldiers were brought to trial, found guilty of the crimes committed and sentenced to death by dismemberment.