Gonzalo Pizarro in the context of Hernando Pizarro

The New Laws (Spanish: Leyes Nuevas), also known as the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians, were issued on November 20, 1542, by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (King Charles I of Spain) and regard the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Following denunciations and calls for reform from individuals, such as the Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, these laws were intended to prevent the exploitation and mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas by the encomenderos, by limiting their power and dominion over groups of natives.

Blasco Núñez Vela, the first Viceroy of Peru, enforced the New Laws. He was opposed by a revolt of encomenderos and was killed in 1546 by the landowning faction led by Gonzalo Pizarro. Pizarro wanted to maintain a political structure built upon the Incan model the Spanish found in place. Although the New Laws were only partly successful, due to the opposition of colonists, they did result in the liberation of thousands of indigenous workers, who had been held in a state of semi-slavery.

The Pizarro brothers were four Spanish conquistador brothers who came to Peru in 1530. They all were born in Trujillo, Spain. Only one of the brothers, Hernando Pizarro, was a legitimate child of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez. The four brothers were:

• Juan Pizarro (d. 1536) first illegitimate son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar and María Alonso
• Francisco Pizarro (d. 1541) illegitimate son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar and Francisca González
• Gonzalo Pizarro (d. 1548) second illegitimate son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar and María Alonso
• Hernando Pizarro (d. 1578) legitimate son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar and Isabel de Vargas

All of them played a major part in the capture and rule of the Inca Empire. However, after the death of legal governor Francisco, their legitimate claims were practically forfeit. Juan had died during the ten-month-long siege of Cuzco and Hernando was sent back as envoy to Spain and imprisoned in 1540, after accusations of corruption and tax evasion pointed towards the Pizarro administration. After Francisco's assassination in 1541, power was usurped by Cristóbal Vaca de Castro as new governor of "New Castile". In 1544 the king of Spain, who had also granted Francisco governorship in 1528, sent his own envoy Blasco Núñez Vela, as viceroy of Peru. Blasco imprisoned Castro but was the very same year detained and later killed on the behalf of Gonzalo Pizarro, who gathered his supporters and seized much of Peru. When Blasco's successor, Pedro de la Gasca defeated and had Gonzalo executed in 1548, the reign of the Pizarro brothers had definitively passed.