Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, Basque stickfighting, Canary Island stickfighting, Spanish esgrima, & Filipino eskrima
By David Black Mastro (aka TrueFightScholar)
Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera was a Basque soldier, who was the
Governor General of the Philippine Islands from 1635 to 1644. He was a
member of the Order of Alcantara, which was a knightly order that had
been established in 1154, to fight the Moors. The last independent
Master of the Order of Alcantara died in 1494, and after that, the
Spanish Crown took over the Order, with the King as Master.
As a Basque, Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera had to deal with the ethnic bigotry of the reigning Castillian Spaniards, who often treated many of their loyal subjects from other nationalities (eg., Basque, Neapolitan, Tuscan, Milanese, Sicilian, Filipino, et al) with arrogant contempt. Despite this, Corcuera worked hard to serve the Crown, and his combined Spanish, Pampangan, & Visayan forces were successful against the Moros of Sultan Kudarat.
As a Basque, Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera had to deal with the ethnic bigotry of the reigning Castillian Spaniards, who often treated many of their loyal subjects from other nationalities (eg., Basque, Neapolitan, Tuscan, Milanese, Sicilian, Filipino, et al) with arrogant contempt. Despite this, Corcuera worked hard to serve the Crown, and his combined Spanish, Pampangan, & Visayan forces were successful against the Moros of Sultan Kudarat.
