Amaro Pargo Declared Hidalgo

Date: January 25, 1725 • Location: London, United Kingdom

Privateer Amaro Pargo was declared a hidalgo, a member of the Spanish nobility.

Amaro Rodríguez-Felipe y Tejera Machado, also known as Amaro Pargo, was a Spanish privateer and merchant. He was one of the most well-known Spanish privateers during the Golden Age of Piracy. Pargo was noted for his commercial activities and for his frequent religious donations and aid to the poor. As a privateer, he targeted trade routes between Cádiz and the Caribbean, on several occasions attacking British and Dutch merchant ships, earning recognition in his time as a hero and coming to be regarded as "the Spanish equivalent of Francis Drake". He was declared a Caballero hidalgo in 1725 and obtained certification of nobility and royal arms in 1727.