The Rest Is History - 648. The Fall of the Incas: Battle for the Sacred City (Part 5)

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Three years into the conquest of the Incas, how did the Spaniards respond to the Incan uprising, lead by their puppet emperor Manco? How did the despicable behaviour of Pizarro and his men spark the rebellion? And, how would the terrifying assault of Manco and his Incan warriors, on a stranded contingent of Spaniards, play out…?  Join Dominic and Tom, as they reach the thrilling climax of this tragic, dramatic tale of death, conquest and betrayal…   _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Video Editors: Jack Meek + Harry Swan  Social Producer: Harry Balden Producers: Tabby Syrett & Aaliyah Akude  Executive Producer: Dom Johnson  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Inca's my ancestors ruled from Chile to Quito, treating their vassals as their own children. They did not steal and killed only when it served justice. They kept order and reason in the provinces. But now the bearded ones have entered our land. They preach one thing and do another. They have no fear of God and no shame. They treat us like dogs. Their greed is such that there is no temple they have not plundered.

In fact, if all the snow turned to gold and silver it would not satisfy them. They keep our sisters as their concubines behaving like animals. They want to divide up all the provinces, giving one to each so that they can loot them. Their goal is to see us so downtrodden, so enslaved, that we will be fit only to find them precious medals, and to give them our women. Which Spaniard have we injured? That they should make such cruel war on us with these horses and weapons of iron. I believe it would not be just or honourable for us to consent to this. So let us strive with all our might to kill these cruel enemies or die in the attempt. So that was Manco, our emperor of the Inca's, addressing a secret gathering of his king.

and supporters in Kusko in the autumn of 1535, offering a perspective there on Spanish rule that you have to say, I mean, is not unjustified, perhaps slightly whitewashing the amiability of the Incan regime, but, you know, needs must. And we are three years now into the conquest of the Inca's. And now, Dominic, you have written, the story is approaching its thrilling climax. I mean, it's probably not that thrilling for the Inca's, is it? No, it's not that thrilling. Big sports. alert. A lot of people are going to die in the next two episodes. I mean, that's the nature of history, but they die in exciting ways in these episodes. So that makes it particularly thrilling.

Along with some beard shaving and guava fruit throwing, which is an unexpected angle. Yes. Definitely look forward to the throwing of guava fruit. And also, if you're a fan of garotting, this is not quite at the Lopé de Geeret level of garotting, but it's up there. And Dominic, fair to say that guava fruit chucking actually isn't going to be the worst of it. So, you know, if you like torture, listen on. If you don't, or you've got children with you, just perhaps, you know, rain it in a bit. So let's set the scene. Francisco Pizarro and his fellow conquistadors had sailed down the Pacific coast from Panama. They'd marched inland. They'd captured and killed the emperor at a walper. They'd pocketed the biggest ransom in history.

Last week, we heard how they marched on the capital Kusko. They installed a puppet emperor in this chapmanco, then very young. and they crushed opposition in the northern part of the empire in what's now Ecuador. But in today's episode, they will be facing their biggest challenge yet. So an uprising led by Manco and a street-by-street, Starlingrad-style battle for control of the capital, Kusco. So it's a very dramatic story. And let's start with the man who you ventriloquized, so admirably Tom, Manco. A noble man.

I feel I conveyed the nobility. You totally did. You totally did. I think the Spanish themselves, the Spanish chroniclers and memoirists who wrote about Manco in the middle of the 16th century, absolutely saw him as a noble character, even as a heroic character, actually. A worthy adversary. So we know very little about him before Pizarro met him outside Kuzko and basically adopted him as his puppet. So he was a brother of Huasca, the defeated claimant in the Inca Civil War. He's been on the run from Attawalper's men.

He's probably in his late teens when he meets Pizarro. When they arrived in Cusco in November 1533, he was greeted as a liberator. He was clearly popular with the crowds. There's no hint of a rising against him or resentment. And actually at first all went very well. Six months later, June 1534, Pizarro's secretary Pedro Sancho wrote that his coronation has proved highly successful. All the chiefs come to serve him and pay homage to the emperor, by which he means Charles

the 5th of Spain. because of him. And actually the Spanish sent several reports that summer to Spain, saying we're very pleased with him. He's doing very well. All is good. However, Manco obviously is facing some pretty formidable challenges. So, as we've said so many times,

the fact that there has been a civil war has left the Inca Empire, Tawantin Soyo, in ruins. There are parts of the empire where local ethnic groups have tried to throw off Inca rule. I mean, that's contradicting the whole we treated them like children. Exactly, of course, the Inkers, as we've described in our very first episode, a pretty terrifying overlords. I mean, they will destroy your village and move you, you know,

hundreds of miles across the empire and force you to speak Quechua, their language, you know, if they want to. So local kind of warlords have taken control in some areas. People have thrown off the Inca sun cult and gone back to their old gods and things. And as John Heming, in his brilliant book about the conquest of Peru, says, Manco had to try to restore the sort of cult of the Inca, to take over control of the administration, to assert his primacy as supreme ruler. He had to revive the prestige of Kusko. He had to revive the prestige of the official religion, all of this kind of thing.

Now, the Spanish, up to a point, are useful allies in this. He presumably sees them as so many people do in these sort of stories as merely a new factor in the existing kind of political landscape of Peru and one that he can harness and use. So Dominic, at this point, Manco assumes that everything can carry on pretty much as it always has done. He doesn't think that the Spanish essentially have changed everything. No, because we're talking about very small numbers of people. I mean, at the end of this decade, the Spanish did a census of their own population in New Castile, as they called it, and we were talking about 4,000 people. So at this stage, we're probably talking about half that, something like that. I mean, a tiny number, right?

In an empire of 12 million people, 2,000 maximum, probably hundreds at this stage. So why would he think differently? These are elite mercenaries to whom he owes his throne, but they're not going to be a factor forever, and there's probably not that many more of them. And of course, in this, he is completely nuttly wrong. Anyway, at first the signs are all good. He builds himself a new palace in Kusco. And interestingly, quite a difference, I think, with Mexico. The Spanish don't seem terribly keen on pushing the program of Christianisation. So, you know, Manco is completely free to continue with the religious rituals that enshrine his primacy as the Sapa Inca. There's a lovely description by a young priest called Christobald de Molina of a ploughing festival in April 1535. It's one of the

best descriptions we have actually of an Inca religious festival. They bring all the effigies out from the temples at daybreak. The lords of Cusco wore rich silver cloaks and tunics with shining circlets of fine gold on their heads. They formed up in a procession and waited in deep silence for the sun to rise. And as the sun began to rise, they began to chant in splendid harmony. And as it continued to rise, they chanted higher. And all day they chant, Manco is kind of leading them. And then we're told as the sun began to sink,

the Indians showed great sadness at its departure and allowed their voices to die away. And as it completely disappears, they made this act of reverence, worshipping it in the deepest humility. And then they all went back to their homes and the effigges and relics were returned to their shrines and temples.

So if you're part of that ceremony, which clearly Christabel de Molina, you know, the way he writes about it, It's respectful, isn't it? Yeah, he's respectful and he finds it clearly quite moving. There's this illusion of harmony and unity, that the world is back on its axis, that everything has been restored after the chaos of the Civil War. But there are three fracture lines that are widening all the time.

So the first is between the Spanish and the Inca's. The second is among the Inca's themselves, and the third is among the Spaniards themselves. And that's arguably the most dangerous of the three. So if we start with the Spanish and the Inca's, when we ended last time, we were talking about how the Spanish were starting to behave very badly. They're starting to loot gold and silver. They're treating the priests with contempt. And, you know, a really big thing, Pizarro is starting to distribute estates, landed estates, to his fellow conquistadors. These are the encomiendas that become such a feature of kind of the settler colonial world of Spanish Peru. And he's got a big problem, hasn't he, that as more and more people come, so from Spain, so they want encomiendas as well.

And that is an increasing source of pressure on his ability to maintain peace with the Inca's. Dead right. It's not just they want encomienders. It's that they arrive and they think they're going to get loads of gold. And they arrive and there's no gold because it's been given out. And so they say, well, if I can't have any gold, you better give me some land and somebody to work on the land. And so Pizarro is basically giving away more and more and ignoring requests from the court in Spain from royal officials. Please, when you stop distributing land that you don't own. And his other wheeze is to send them off into the jungle or into kind of remote deserts to go looking for lost cities with gold. A big feature. A big feature that will carry on.

So you start to get reports that from local towns and villages that people no longer see the Spaniards, the liberators who've entered the chaos of the Civil War. they see them as occupiers in their own right. And as so often with occupations, military occupations, a really key fault line is how the occupiers treat the local women. So as in Mexico, we had Pedro de Alvarado on the show last week, didn't we, an old associate of the rest of history. And you mentioned that he had got this wife, I think she was called Donna Louisa, wasn't she?

Yeah. In Mexico, who is buried with him in the cathedral in Guatemala. And he became the governor of Guatemala. This is a very standard thing, not becoming the governor, but for the Spanish to take local wives, as they call them actually kind of mistresses or concumines. So Atta Welper had already given Pizarro a half-sister of his called Kisbe Kusi, who was 18 years old. The Spanish called her Inyes. Pizaro nicknamed her Pizpita, which is a water thrush from his native extramajura. It's a sweet name.

And he actually treated her pretty well. He called her his wife. She would dine with him and his captains. She had two children by him. Eventually he got bored of her and he married her off to another conquistador called Francisco de Ampero. And actually their descendants, the Amperos, ended up being one of Peru's most powerful political families. Because in Incan society, women do play kind of a key role as power brokers, as people who influence the policy of their husbands and their families. and, you know, with Alvarado or with Pizarro or whoever,

there is a sense that when the marriage works, it's to the benefit of both sides. And throughout this story, I mean, we'll see there are Incan women or indeed women from other peoples who stick by the Spaniards. So that is true, but I don't think we should downgrade the element of coercion that is often there. Of course not. You know, as we will see, there is incredible violence as well. But for the Spaniards, it is an option.

that many of these women are very shrewd political players. Yes, that's absolutely true. That's absolutely fair. But to give another example, Diego de Al-Magro, who is Pizarro's business partner, his very disputatious and resentful business partner, Al-Magro married another daughter of Huenna Capac, so the old emperor.

So this is Manco's sister, Marca Chimbo. She's very rich, she's clearly very impressive. She's one of these people you're talking about, Tom. The Spanish sources say, she would have inherited the Inca Empire if she had been a man. But Almagro treats her very badly. She was repeatedly dishonoured, for she was very pretty and of a gentle nature, and she caught the pox.

So, I mean, who knows what's going on there, but there's nothing good, I would say. The Rankine File, too, insist on taking local women as mistresses. Now, some sources say this was consensual. An Indian woman who proved most attractive to the Spaniards prided herself on the fact. But at the same time, a different source. woman who was good looking was safe, it was a miracle if she escaped the Spaniards. And you can see how both those things could possibly be true at once. The Spaniards might seem prestigious and high status, and so people might be attracted by them,

but at the same time the Spanish are behaving increasingly badly. Well, also, I mean, you hope that if you can find one who will protect you a Spaniard, then you need that. Well, you do need protection because the Spanish, I mean, to give an example of the coercive element, they supposedly had a test, and this is from a Spanish source, I think, They have a test to see if a girl is old enough for them to sleep with her. They would hit her unexpectedly from behind with a rolled cape. If she remained upright, she was considered sufficiently old.

So this is obviously a problem for Manco. You know, Manco is regarded as the Spaniards man, as their puppet to some extent. He entered the city with Pizarro's troops. He stood there nodding and smiling when Pizarro read out the requirement. So some of the Inca release start by early 1535. to say, you know, is he the right man? Is he standing up to these people or is he just there at all? And what makes this so dangerous is that the Spaniards themselves

have started to fall out with each other. So all through this series, the feud between Pizarro and Al-Magro, the two business partners, has been getting worse and worse. Remember that Pizarro went to Spain, he came back with a great title for himself and basically nothing for Al-Magro.

Then Al-Magro turned up late, as agreed, and Pizarro wouldn't give him a share of the ransom or a fair share of the ransom. early 1535, Pizarro has moved to the coast to found the city of Lima. Basically, he wants a base nearer the coast and he's got this new city. And he says to Almagro, you can be the lieutenant governor of Cusco. But Almagro's men who are mostly newcomers start feuding with the old guard who have been there for a year and a half now.

And these are led by Pizarro's younger brothers, Juan and Gonzalo. It's got a very long story short. They start brawling in the central square. the Almagristas, as they're called, Almagros faction, and Juan and Gonzalo's faction. And there's all sorts of going on, kind of royal officials have to separate them. And basically, Manco has to choose. Is he going to go with Juan and Gonzalo, or is he going to go with Almagro? Now, you might expect that because he owes his throne to the Pizarro brothers, he will pick the Pizarro's.

But no. Unfortunately, Juan and Gonzalo, who I just... described in the first episode as variously affable, noble, magnanimous, virtuous. Yeah, how's that working out? They've let the Pizarro family, the town of Trujillo, the province of Extra Madura and Spain down very badly. They've really behaved poorly. Because basically, with their older brother, Francisco, away on the coast, they've cast off all restraints and they're disgracing themselves. They both want local women.

Juan kidnaps Manko's younger sister who's called Inkyl Koya, even though, and I quote, she was very young and an unmarried maiden. He kept her locked in his house where he made her sleep with him. But Gonzalo is just as bad. He sets his sights on her older sister, Cura Ocillo, who is already Manco's wife. So she's Manco's wife and his sister. This is very Ptolemaic behavior, but this is standard for the Inca's.

the high priest, who was also Manco's brother, so her half-brother as well, tried to stop him and said, you know, you shouldn't be trying to sleep with this woman. And Gonzalo said to him, don't you know what sort of men we Spaniards are? By the king's life, if you don't shut up, I'll slit you open and cut you into little pieces. So what is going on here? It seems really odd that these men would deliberately humiliate and insult the man who is so important to their maintenance of ruling Costco and the empire more generally. See, I don't think it is that odd. I think it's human nature. They see him as their puppet, their bullies. They have a little bit of contempt for him.

They have weapons and he doesn't really. He's dependent on them. They don't speak his language. They look down on him and his customs. And over time, I think these guys who remember, they're not educated men, they're tough, hard men from basically the Wild West. But they know the stakes. I mean, they're not naive. They understand that they need to maintain, you know, a degree of income and support for their very precarious regime in Kusko. It just seems very odd. And it may, I mean, maybe you're right that it is a deliberate attempt to humiliate Manco.

Well, we'll see them. They really do humiliate him later on, don't they? Or is it the fact that they are princesses, the key thing, that if they can marry the princess, then perhaps they can, you know, hopes of founding a royal dynasty. It does seem unwise, I guess. is unwise. They're unwise people. They will behave in the next two episodes. All of these people will behave incredibly unwisely. I mean, you can't deny that because I know you've read the notes.

They will behave really, really, recklessly, poorly, hot-headedly. But I still think they're not fools. It seems peculiar. There's a sense of something not quite being explained here. I don't think that it can just be a matter of, oh, that I fancy them. Because they both fancy princesses. Yeah. Who are the sisters of the Inca? And you feel that that can't be coincidence. I don't know about that. I think all of the Spanish go for high-born women generally. Yeah, but these are the highest-born, aren't they?

They are, but that's not necessarily different from how the Spanish behaved in Mexico. It's a bit like Cleopatra only sleeping with very powerful men. Maybe. I mean, anyway, Manco actually offers Gonzalo money to get back to the story. Manco offers Gonzalo loads of silver. And Gonzalo said to him, all this silver is fine, but it's the woman I really want. And Manco did a mad thing where he got her sister's companion, her friend. He forced her to dress up as his sister to try and fool Gonzalo.

Gonzalo was not fooled. And eventually he got his hands on Kura Oklo, who actually worse is going to happen to her in the next episode, I'm afraid. So Manco is very bitter about all this, and he decides to side with Al Magro in the feuding. And this then creates yet another split because some of Manco's relatives say, well, that's mad. you should be siding with the Pizarro's. So the factualism now sort of seeps like a poison into Manco's court. One evening, Manco becomes absolutely terrified that these other Inca's are going to murder him. And he ends up fleeing to El Magro's house and hiding under his bed, which seems a weird thing to do.

And while he's doing that, loads of other Spaniards find out, and they rush to Manco's house and start looting it. So when he comes back in the next day, he says, can I have my stuff back? And they say, no, you know, you went and hid under the bed. we've got your stuff, you snooze you lose, basically. Anyway, this is all obviously very chaotic and very bad for the Spanish regime. So Francisco Pizarro rushes back from Lima and to try and sort this out. And he says, okay, I'm going to try and sort this out. And what I'm going to do is, Al Magro, I think you should go to Chile.

And basically, there's clearly going to be another empire there or rich lands or something. Go down there. I will give you funding, actually. You know, you're my business partner. I'll put more money into your enterprise. You can go off to Chile and carve out your own empire there, which will end up being called New Toledo. Do you think he knows that there's nothing there?

I mean, he's been down in Lima. No, I don't, because it's a long old way. They don't really know what's there, I think. And actually, Amagro ends up marching past the great mine at Potter C, which becomes the most lucrative mine in the world. It doesn't realize it's there. So there was money there if he had found it, but it didn't. But he's going to end up marching across the driest desert

in the world, isn't he? Yes, exactly. I kind of think Pizarro has some sense of the geography. Maybe. So anyway, Almagros sets off for Chile. He's got 600 Spaniards. And actually, Manko gives him an army of 12,000 men, commanded by the high priest to Vilak-Umu and Manko's brother, Paolu.

So off they go to the south. And it's a complete and utter nightmare. They have totally unprepared for climbing up onto the high Andean plateau, the Alteplanol, which is basically Bolivia and northern Chile. They run out of water. They absolutely disgrace themselves this expedition. There's a priest called Christabel de Molina

who is with them and he said, any natives who would not accompany the Spaniards voluntarily were taken along bound in ropes and chains. The Spaniards imprisoned them in very rough prisons every night

and led them by day, heavily loaded and dying of hunger. So they've got these huge chain gangs. When somebody dies in the chain gang which they do all the time because they're exhausted, they're hungry, thirsty, whatever,

the Spaniards do something very horrible. They cut the heads off these people who have died, but they leave the bodies still attached to the chain. So as you're trudging along, you're having to kind of drag this corpse. Drag this corpse, which could be in front of you, behind you, in the chain. Both. I mean, it's pretty horrible. They get to Southern Bolivia, and at this point, the high priest, Vilac Umu, who's gone with them, deserts, and he goes back to Kusko. He rushes back to Kusko. He gets to Kusko, and he meets up with Manco, and he says, these people are absolutely. scum. They're behaving terribly badly.

You know, we can't live like this. We cannot spend our entire lives in misery and subjection. Let us die for our liberty and for the wives and children whom they continually take from us and abuse. I will say one thing about all these tremendous quotations. Some of these are by people who I

think had had classical educations. So, if it strikes you as the Inkers are speaking very much like people spoke in our Carthage series, this is probably the explanation. Anyway, Manco summons this great meeting, November 1535. And actually, you know, that speech that you began with, Tom, is very, very, you know, Carthaginian resistance or something, isn't it? However, it was reported to us by a chronicler called Thea Theta de Leon, and he said he had an eyewitness account from a servant called Alimache.

Oh, well then. So, it must be true. And he had a recording device. Exactly. It's basically a transcript. Manco said, you know, I've sent for you my kinsman to tell you what I think about these foreigners before it's too late, before more foreigners join them. They're waking up to that then.

They are. They are. Because that's what Francisco Pizarro is doing on the coast at Lima. He's basically preparing a base for people to arrive as they sail down the Pacific. Samanka runs through all the bullet points that you did at the beginning of the episode. Spaniards lost for gold, treatments of women, poor behavior. And then the stirring final line will strive with all. I might kill them, or we will die in the attempt.

And I suppose what you would say if you were being hostile to Manco is, if only he'd realized this a year earlier, he could have teamed up with Attawalp as old generals. So he could have had Rumi Niawi with his drum, his human drum on his side. But alas, he tried to use the Spaniards against them, and so he's going to be doing this on his own. So that night, after this meeting, Manco and his entourage slip out of Kusko under cover of darkness to launch the resistance. But they are betrayed because one of their servants was a spy for the Pizarro brothers. As soon as Manko has gone, this servant rushes off to Juan and Gonzalo Pizarro

and he says, you know, Manko's gone. So they ride off in pursuit and they find on the road south out of Cusco loads of Inca's. And they say, were you with Manko? Where did Manko go? And they what the Inca's don't answer. So they seized one of them, and according to the Spanish chroniclers, tortured him astutely until he gave a great shout, saying the Inca was not going that way. How do you torture someone astutely? Well, Tom, I mean, if you know, you know.

You know. Yeah. So they've tortured him astutely with this rope, and the guy finally shouts out, he's not going that way. Well, actually, Banco has gone that way. They find him hiding in some reeds at the end of the valley. Now they drag Manco back.

Remember Manco is the Sapa Inca, the son of the sun. And this shows the extent to which the Spanish respect has completely degenerated into total contempt. Because they drag him back, they throw him into prison with a chain around his neck and shackles on his feet. And then they treat him very badly. So these are from Spanish sources, right? This is Diego Del Magro's son. They urinated and spat in his face. They struck and beat him.

They called him a dog. They kept him with a chain around his neck. neck in a public place where people passed. This is that priest, Christobald de Molina. They stole everything he had, leaving him nothing. They kept him in prison for many days, guarded day and night. They treated him very, very disgracefully, urinating on him and sleeping with his wives, and he was deeply distressed. The whole urinating on him thing, I mean, that seems clearly did happen, because the way they keep harping on about it. Precisely, and it's not a detail that you often see in a 16th century accounts. They also do a terrible thing where they burn his eyelashes

with a candle, shouting at him, dog, give us gold. If not, you will be burned. So basically, they're just torturing him. I mean, they're tormenting and torturing him. Astutely. The word obviously spreads because there are now uprisings across the countryside. There were reports coming in that when Spaniards go out to their estates to collect their tribute, the locals are rising up and attacking them. About 30 Spaniards in total are killed. Gonzalo and Juan Pizarro ride out to the city to exact really, horrendous reprisals. There's lots of burning people alive. There's lots of cutting people's arms and legs off, all of this kind of thing. And then in January 1536, there's a little bit of a change

because their older brother, Hernando, returns from Spain. Now, you may remember that Pizarro had sent Hernando to Spain to take the gold to the court to show Charles V. And Hernando had done this, and it was very successful, and it had been very good for the Pizarro faction. Anando has now returned. He had previously, if you remember, been quite Pally with Atta Walper. And he does seem to have been a little bit more sympathetic

to the locals than his boorishly behaved brothers. So he arrives in Kusko and he says, what's all this? You know, we need to change the record a bit. So he goes to Simanko, who's recently been released. He treats him a great courtesy.

He says, you know, I've been speaking to Charles V. Charles VIII. Charles V really respects you. Things have got a little bit out of hand and, you know, I'm sorry. that. We can start again. Unfortunately, if you have any self-respect as a person, I feel like if you've been urinated on, if somebody has slept with your wives, there's no coming back from that,

really, is there? You can't start again. You can't let, you know, let bygones be bygones. So Mancoe in the early months of 5036 starts plotting with his brother, the high priest, Vilak, Umu. And they make their plans by the end of the rainy season, which is late March, the word has gone out, will make weapons in secret, get people to stop. food and supplies. And then in April, they send messages out across the empire with their lovely knotted strings, the kibus. They say, this is on.

We're going to do this. We can have a massive uprising. The muster point will be a place called Lares in the Yucay Valley, the sacred valley, 15 miles north of Kusko. And the question is, how is Manco? Remember, when you tried to get out of the city last time, there was action with astute use of ropes. Yeah. How is he going to get out this time?

He has a very clever wheeze. He uses the Spanish greed against them. He goes to Anando and he says, My brother, the high priest, Vilaq Umu, and I would like to go to a religious festival in the Sacred Valley. And actually, if you let us go, they've got a giant golden statue of my father, Huenna Kappak. And I'd love you to have it.

And And Ando says, oh, well, in that case, why haven't you left already? My goodness, of course you can go. So on the Wednesday before Easter, after Mass, Manco and Villakuma go out the city. Now, on the way, they meet another conquistador who's very suspicious. Where are you going off to? And Manco says, oh, well, we've found there's some hidden gold in those hills, and we're going to go and get it. Oh, well, then.

Good luck. So they get to Lares, and all the big incochiefs are there. And there are loads more of these rousing speeches. They all swear an oath. We'll drive the Spaniards out of our country or die in the attempt. And actually Manko is delighted to discover that his local sort of chiefs and commanders and bigwigs have done him a great job. They have gathered about a hundred thousand people and they have somehow armed them and fed them. These people have come from the land.

So they're peasants and farmers and stuff, but they've been giving clubs and whatnot. And slings, right? Slings, exactly. And they are outside the capital. And as John Hemings says in his brilliant book, This is the last great tribute to the Inca's genius for organisation. It was a very top-down, very collectivist kind of empire, and this is their last great effort at mobilising the people.

So by Easter Saturday, they are moving onto the slopes around Kusco, these giant, giant numbers of people. And the Spaniards look out, one of them says, there were so many troops they covered all the fields. By day, they look like a black carpet covering everything for half a league, the city and by night there were so many campfires that the land like a clear sky filled with stars. On Easter Saturday, Enando gets word. He can't believe this. You know, what idiots his brothers were to let him down and provoke this uprising. And he calls the Spaniards of Kusko to a meeting

and he says, well, we're just going to have to resist. You know, we're not going to give in to this. But there's only about 200 Spaniards maximum in the city and they've got 500 native auxiliary So these are ethnic groups who don't like the Inca's. They're caniari and the Chachapoya. But they're against maybe 100,000 people. I mean, these are not good odds. Anando orders, he says,

well, the Inca's always frightened of our cavalry. We'll send out our horses. But for the first time, the Inkers are there in such numbers that the horses can't manoeuvre in the crush. So they're basically pushed back into the city and the Inca's advance and advance until they're camped right outside the walls.

And then we're told they taunted the Spaniards, and I quote, raising their bare legs at them to show how much they despised them. So what's going on there? Well, if you've ever met a Peruvian and he's bared his legs at you, you know. Oh, that's what they were doing. Yeah, exactly. You can't pretend that's never happened to you. And so, at dawn on the 6th of May, Manco orders the assault. And it is a tremendous scene.

Very Hollywood. The sun rises. And as it does so, the Inca's charged down. the hillsides, they smash through the Spanish defences, they fight their way into the narrow alleys that lead into the city, they break through the Spanish barricades and palisades, they drive back in the garrison, and they fight their way into the central square. And all the time, the Inkers have this new weapon, a secret weapon. They'd always, you mentioned their slings, they'd always relied very heavily on their slingshots, but now they've been heating the stones and their campfires,

they've been wrapping them in kind of cotton wool, and then they send them full. flying onto the thatched roofs of Kusko. And a Spanish chronicle says, there was a strong wind that day. And as the roofs of the houses were thatch, it seemed at one moment as if the city were one great sheet of flame. So these huge black clouds of smoke start rising above the city. The Spanish from total chaos, they can't breathe through the smoke. They can't hear their men's orders because of the din from the attackers, the roar of the fires. And they're being driven further and further and further back. And as Manco's son, Tito Kuzzi, wrote, they feared that these were to be the last moments of their lives. They could see no hope of relief, and they did not know what to do.

My goodness. So is this the end of Spanish rule in Peru? Is this the restoration of the Incan Empire? Only one way to find out, and that is to join us again after a break. This episode is brought to you by Vanguard. Now, Dominic history is full of examples of people who are promised the world and then got very badly let down. Can you think of a particular example? I can think of a couple of examples, Tom. So we've just been recording a series about the fall of the Incas. And Francisco Pizarro, who was the Spanish conquister or in charge.

First of all, he betrayed his business partner Diego de A Magro. And then, shockingly, he betrayed the Inca Emperor. Attawalpa. Well, Dominic, can I ask you a question? Had Atta Walper been in the hands of Vanguard, do you think that Vanguard would have let him down? No, the thing about Vanguard, Vanguard was founded on one core principle and that principle is putting investors first. Tom, for more than 50 years, Vanguard have been delivering on that promise for millions of clients worldwide. And do you know what's brilliant? You too can open an ICER or a self-invested personal pension and you can choose investments yourself or you can let Vanguard choose and manage them for you. So search a Vanguard

investor to find out more. When investing, your capital is at risk and tax rules apply. Hello everyone and welcome back to the rest is history. It is May 1536 and the troops of Manco, the Incan Emperor, have launched their assault on Kusco where a very small number of Spaniards, fewer than 200 are trapped. The city is burning. Dominic, is this the end for Anando Pizarro and his men? Well, it's definitely the end for a particular version of Kusko. So Kusko, a beautiful city, but now as John Heming says, stripped for Atteralpa's ransom, ransacked by Spanish looters, and it's now being burned by its own people. And the Spanish have been pushed right back into the central square. They, as you say, they are trapped, and this really is their darkest hour.

One side of the square, though, is not burning because it's relatively open. There aren't many buildings there. So this is their kind of escape from the smoke and the flames. And they take refuge in two great buildings at the eastern end of the square. Amazingly, the Inca's don't manage, these are two buildings that the Inca's don't manage to set fire to. Now, later on, some Spanish writers said this was because of divine intervention. It's the Virgin. The Virgin Mary in a blue cloak intervened to put out the fires.

She had a load of white blankets. So she appeared through these white blankets over the flames. And this saved the Spaniards. I'm sorry to say, I don't want to disappoint our Catholic listeners, but I believe this is a later invention at least 100 years later. Didn't Manco Inca's son say that the Spaniards had placed African slaves on the roofs with buckets of water? Yeah, so that's perfectly plausible. slightly less dramatic, but probably, as you say, more plausible.

It's a good point that you make there because actually throughout this story, there are almost certainly some African slaves on hand. We know that the Spanish had started to import people. They're coming down from Central America. And you don't really get many glimpses of them in the sources, but I think you have to imagine that they're always there. So there's luck, there's brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and basically by nightfall, the pattern is set.

The Spaniards are hemmed into the small corner of Cusco City. centre. The Inca's are encamped around them. It feels very like the siege of Tenochtitlan, for people who remember our series about the fall of the Aztecs. And for the next six days or so, the Spanish fight, days, as one writer puts it, strenuous toil and danger, slowly sort of pushing out from their little redoubt. There are incas still who are siding with them, aren't there, even in Cusco. So it's not like they are completely isolated. No. There is an element of an Incan civil war going on at the same time. The Tumblides, again, very hard to glimpse in the sources,

but we are told that, for example, some of Manco's own brothers side with the Spaniards. So throughout this whole story, I mean, you're dead right to point this out. Throughout this whole story, it's not a simple matter of Spaniards versus Inca's. It is Spaniards and Inca's and other, you know, indigenous peoples fighting Inca's and other indigenous. Indigenous groups. It's just a massive punch-up.

Basically, yes. Everyone's fighting each other. They are all fighting each other. Some of the Spaniards say to Anando, you know, the odds are massively against us. We should break out of the city and make for the coast. Anando has the excellent line. He says, no, we should fight back. Better to die fighting than to perish here like hogs.

Like hogs. Yeah, I think that's an American translator, isn't it? So, Anando says, listen, we're kind of sitting ducks here because the Inkers have taken up a position in the citadel of Saxe-Hu-Mann, which is on this kind of rock spur that overlooks the city centre, right? And this fortress, this citadel had been built by Pachicuti, the legendary sort of great Inca imperialist. It's a fortress, it's also a temple, it's a huge storehouse, it's this key strategic location. And Spanish accounts of the citadel of Saxe-Huhrman said that it had massive stone walls, it had these huge towers, it had a labyrinth of tunnels.

The Spanish writer Garthelaso de la Vega said, it's one of the wonders of the world. There was nothing like it in Spain and Europe. It was so vast that devil himself must have helped to build it. Actually, it was built by forced labour. And Anando says, right, we have to capture this back. They can rain down missiles on us from this citadel. So the plan is that his brother Juan will lead the attack with 50 horsemen.

they'll burst through the enemy lines, they'll charge up the hill and capture the citadel. It's a very kind of helms-deep plan, and there's a very helms-deep scene to kick it all off. So a later Incasaw says, the Spaniards spent the whole of that night on their knees with their hands clasped in prayer. Even those on guard in the square did the same, as did many Indians who were on their side. On the following morning at dawn, they emerged from the church and mounted their horses. suddenly they put spur to their horses and at full gallop broke through the enemy

and charged up the hillside at breakneck speed. So very exciting. Stones and missiles are kind of raining down on them but they zigzag up the hill. They reach the terraces. They turn right at a village on the top of the hill and they finally end up in the parade ground

in front of the citadel. And here, Inkers have put up barricades but Juan Pizarro and his brother Gonzalo lead the horsemen in charge after charge. Some of the horses are wounded some of the Spaniards are thrown from the horses, but they managed to break through the barricades and get all the way to the fortress gate.

Now, it's now late afternoon and they're knackered. The Inca's raiding down these kind of javelins and slingstones and stuff. Juan's page boy is killed by this huge stone. Juan Pizarro himself had been hit the day before by a slingshot missile and his face was so swollen that he couldn't wear his helmet. Oh dear, unwise. But he says to the Spaniards One more attack before nightfall

That's what it takes And they spur their horses They race for the gate The missiles are raining down again And then a massive stone Smacks into Juan Pizarro's head Oh my God So like an egg, a boiled egg being smashed

Exactly He totters, he falls off his horse He's clearly hideously wounded The Spanish break off their charge They rush to his side And they carry him down the hill to Cusco. So he clings to life overnight

and he dictates her will and he says, I leave all my plunder to my brother Gonzalo. He leaves some money to religious bequest. He leaves some money to the poor. But now he really lets himself down. You may remember he had locked up this young girl who he was sleeping with, who was a princess. And he said, I live nothing to her.

He said this. What a bastard to say this. I live nothing to her. He called her an Indian woman who has given birth to a girl whom I do not recognise as my daughter. As you say, an absolute bastard to the end. Yeah, and then he died.

I mean, so unnecessary. Yeah. But he's a bad advert for Spain, I think. So the next day, Juan's devastated brother, Gonzalo, leads another assault. Great drama. Everyone was shouting and they were all entangled together,

fighting for the hilltop. It looked as though the whole world was up there grappling in close combat. And as nights falling, Anando joins the assault, he's spent the day making scaling ladders. Again, the kind of technology that the Inca's don't really have, but the Spanish, of course, are used to from their fighting in the old world. And under this hail of stones, the Spanish start to scale the outer walls. Again, it is very helms deep. And then there's this ferocious hand-to-hand fighting as they drive the Inca's back to the inner Citadel.

The fighting goes on for the next two days. The commander of the Citadel was a man called Titouci Gualpa, and he had sworn to fight to the death. He's hit twice by Spanish arrows, but it doesn't deter him. He strides around, we're told, like a lion, from side to side of the tower. He repulsed any Spaniards who tried to mount with scaling ladders.

He killed any Indians who tried to surrender. He smashed their heads with the battle axe he was carrying and hurled them from the top of the tower. So basically like one of Stalin's commissars or something, the Second World War. Basically, if you falter, he'll smash it over there with an axe. I was thinking more like Gimli. Gimli doesn't hit people on the head from his own side, though, and throw them off the tower. Anyway, Gimmy doesn't do this. The Spanish start to throw in their own native auxiliaries. This goes back to your point, Tom, about them having native support.

Some of them are led by Manko's own brothers, which seems mad. And at last, this guy, Tito Cousi, Gualpa, realizes that the fortress is lost. He throws his weapons down onto the Spanish, and then we're told, I mean, it's a strange choice actually in the last moment. He grabbed handfuls of earth, stuffed them into his mouth and scoured his face in anguish. Then he covered his head with his cloak and he leaped to his death from the top of the fortress in fulfillment of his pledge to the Inca. So the fortress is lost. And And And those men rampaged through. They round up 1,500 people and they put them all to the sword. So now we're at the end of May and the siege has been going, what for a month or two

and there's a definite sense that the initial momentum has been lost. We're told that with the fall of the citadel Inca morale begins to ebb. Manco says to his generals, you've let me down. You know, there were so many of you and so few of them and yet again they've eluded your grasp.

There are a couple of reasons I think why this is. John Heming says the Spanish always have this technological advantage. The only real department in which the Inca's have parity as he'd it is in projectiles. But projectiles didn't usually kill an armoured Spaniard. And this is a kind of hand-to-hand bloody fight to the death. And if you've got a steel sword, that can make all the difference. And the other thing is what the point you made, the native allies. They're always there.

We barely glimpsed them in the Spanish sources, but they're always there, you know, between the lines almost. Auxiliaries, servants, armed troops, all of this. But also people have birth as well, aren't there? There are kind of nobleman who come over. Oh yeah, Manco's brothers. In part, I assume, because Manco is destroying their city, I mean, the use of burning slingshot is annihilating a place that is their own. And perhaps they think the Spaniards are the best hope to save it. If you decide the Spaniards are going to win and can't be beaten, then a lot of people will say, well, it's literally pointless to fight on against them. The best thing for our people is to come to an accommodation. You know, we'll save lives, we'll save the city, save our

civilization. But this is not the end. The siege drags on for another three months, and it is incredibly fierce. So I'll just give one quote from a Spanish writer, Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman. I can bear witness that this was the most dreadful and cruel war in the world. Between Christians and Moors, so he's talking about the fighting in Spain in the 1490s against the Muslims in the south of Spain. Between Christians and Moors, there is some fellow feeling, and it is in the interests of both sides to spare those they take alive because of their ransoms.

But in this Indian war, there is no such feeling. They give each other the cruelest deaths imaginable. So a sense of it being an existential struggle. You know, not governed by the rules that govern fighting in Europe, or the Mediterranean, but something, you know, unbelievably savage in which kind of all restraints are off. And week by week, faced with this, Manco's army is losing momentum.

Most of Manco's men are not professional soldiers. They're peasants, their farmers. They've taken their families with them. And by August or so, they're drifting away to go back to their fields. And it's about this point that you get some dramatic news from the coast. So remember that on the coast, at this new city of Lima, Francisco Pizarre has been there all the time.

He is sent out a series of relief columns to try and save his brothers. But these had been annihilated as they tried to go over the Andes by one of Manco's best commanders, a guy called Kizzo Yapanqui, who had basically hidden waiting for them in gorges and ravines,

then hurled down rocks and boulders at them. Really simple, but it worked beautifully. Yeah, so they finally rumbled how to destroy Spanish expeditions. Exactly. Basically, three of these columns were annihilated. 200 horsemen are killed and their severed heads are sent as killed.

gifts to Manco. Do they capture the horses? They don't capture them and ride them, I don't think. I think they kill some of them and the rest of the horses just run away, I think, escape. So Pizarro back in Lima is in a bit of a panic now. He hasn't got any news from Cusco. He doesn't know what's happened to his brothers. He's sending out desperate letters all across the empire, including, actually, to Pedro de Alvarado. The Inca has the city of Cusco besieged, and for five months I've heard nothing. The country is ravaged and the native chiefs have won many victories against us. It causes me such great sorrow that it's consuming my entire life. But there is someone who answers this appeal, isn't there? Who is again a kind of interesting

illustration of the relationships that can develop between Spaniards and native women. Because this is this woman, Contoaccio, who had been the queen of a native people, taken by Hwana Capac. And she is Pizarro's mother-in-law. and she's one of history's great mother-in-laws and she raises an army of her countrymen and march to Lima to help him. So it can work for both sides. It can, interestingly actually.

I mean, although he does get some support, he gets some support from Panama, he gets some native allies, as you rightly say. But actually, across the Spanish empire, the general senses the Pizaros have brought this on themselves. The governors have exploited the Inca. Enando Pizarro, this rebellion, for it is said that he tortured the local chief for his gold and silver.

So even at this point, people are saying, the Pissaros are kind of bad men, they've treated Manco and co very roughly. I mean, they're not wrong, are they? Exactly, they're not wrong. I mean, the idea that the Spanish, the black legend, which is the Spanish are all uniquely cruel and corrupt, is just not true. Even from this stage, lots of Spaniards are saying, the Pizarres are terrible people. And, you know, I've actually felt really sorry for the Inkers.

Anyway, things are going to get really tricky for Pizarro now, because this guy keeps Yopanqui, who's crushed his relief columns with boulders, he now descends from the Andes onto the coastal plain and he starts marching on Lima. And in Lima, people become absolutely terrified because very soon Lima's virtually surrounded with Inca troops on the hillside, just as in Kusko. And for five days, they're waiting. And then on the sixth day comes the decisive moment. This guy, Kizzo addresses his men. He says, you know, classic kind of Inca rhetoric. This is the moment to capture the city or to perish in the attempt. I intend to enter the town today and to kill all the Spaniards.

And any who accompany me must go on the understanding that if I die, all will die. So the Inca's advance. People said it was an amazing scene. They had these sort of, it's very kingdom of heaven. They've got these kind of banners, kind of waving in the sunshine, an amazing scene. Thousands of Inkers against just two squadrons of Spanish cavalry. Kizo is leading them with a spear on foot. But then as John Heming says,

for all its splendor and reckless bravery this attack was to prove as futile as that of the French at Agincourt the British at Balaclava or the Confederates at Gettysburg because basically Kizo leads his men and they're on foot and as soon as they were in range the Spanish charge they rush out on their horses and it's flat ground basically they rout Kizo and his men instantly

and in the first attack they kill him and they kill 40 of his kind of commanders and chiefs. And Kizzo had said, if I die, all will die. Actually, that's not true. Everybody else just runs away. He's dead. Lima is saved. And now the Spanish can venture out of Lever and vent their fury with some truly hideous reprisals.

So one of Pizarro's soldiers writes to a friend of his in Seville. We captured alive 100 natives and killed 30. We cut the arms off some of the prisoners and the noses from others and the breasts from the women. then we sent them back to the enemy to show them that they too would submit to the knife. Oh dear. Yeah. So it's only going to get darker, by the way, just to warn you. So Pizarro doesn't know what's been happening to his brothers in Kusko.

What's been going on there in the meantime? The answer is that they've stabilised the situation. They're still encircled, but they're facing fewer attacks from Manco's men, so much so they've been able to slacken their own guard duty and get some sleep, which is a nice change for their mob. after months of heavy fighting. They occasionally launch raids out of the city. They capture prisoners.

They bring them back in. They cut off their hands. Then they let them go again as a kind of warning to the others. Yeah, of course they do. They launch raids to get food. So they capture a supply column, Monomanko's supply column that's brought loads of llamas. So they're dining on kind of roasted llama.

And by the end of 1536, the whole thing has become a stalemate. The Spaniards can't get out. The Inca's can't get in But on balance this is probably good for the Spaniards Because all the time more ships are coming down the Pacific coast Bringing reinforcements from other Spanish colonies Even from Spain where the court has sent 50 archibusias

So gunmen and 50 crossbowmen So they're bringing more new technology And they're coming all the time just as they had in Mexico So the weeks continue The siege goes on And then in April 1537 comes the real game-changing moment. Remember that all this time,

Pizarro's business partner, Diego de El Magro, has been off in Chile, disgracing himself with his chain gangs. He is now coming home. He's very dejected. They've found no gold and silver. They're very miserable. They've basically killed loads of people, but that hasn't made them happy.

I mean, madly, they marched right past the gigantic silver mine at Pottersy. which at its height, I'll talk about this a little bit, maybe in the next episode, produced 80% of the world's silver. You know, one of the, the Thero Rico, the hill of gold, the hill of silver. They didn't even realize it was there. Anyway, they crossed the Atacama Desert, as you said. What is that, the world's highest desert? No, it's the driest desert. Dryest desert.

There are places there where there's been no precipitation for centuries. Yeah. Very Alexander the Great, isn't it? Well, we'll probably just cross that, it'd be fine. What's the worse that could happen? They cross this desert, amazing the don't all die. And they discover that they hear Almagro hears, well, this massive war has broken out, and Manco is besieging the city of Cusco.

And now Elmacro thinks, well, this is a brilliant opportunity for me. Because basically, if I can get Manco on side, if I can end the war, save New Castile, Charles V will see me as the hero. He, you know, the pizarro is rubbish. He'll see me as the hero of the hour. So he sends Manka this absolutely gushing letter. My well-beloved son and brother. I'm so sorry for the abuse the Christians have done to your person,

the robbery of your property and house and the seizure of your beloved wives. I'm on my way to help you. I won't do anything without your approval. I will never refuse you the friendship I've always felt for you. So in April 1537, Al-Magros army arrives around Cusco. You now have, I mean, this is so George I.R.R. Martin, isn't it? you know have three forces in a standoff. Anando Pizarro in the city and two different armies outside the city,

that are Manco and that of Almagro. What's really unclear is how this constellation of forces will play out. So Manco surely knows now that with two Spanish armies, he's not going to drive them all out of Peru. He can't beat two of them. He also knows that Pizaros will not forgive him for this war. Anando in the city, he would love to, the siege to end.

On the other hand, he hates Almagro, and he's got no intention of giving him Kusko. So who do you think he hates more, Manco or Amalgo? Oh, Al-Magro. I would have thought to say. The Spanish hate each other far more than they hate the Inca's.

Yeah, because there's no sense. I mean, Manco's, you know, he's the opposition. He's doing what he should be doing. Because that would be a punchy reversal, wouldn't it? For him suddenly to team up with Manco and wipe out. That would be the real. See, that's the real what-if of history. If Anando Pizarre had teamed up with Manco at that point to attack on Magro.

But actually Almagro moves first And then we promised guava fruit action And that's coming Amagro moves first He sends this messenger called Rui Diaz You'll realize in the second while I've gone to the bother of naming the messenger To Manco's huge fortress at Alonte Tambo

And he says You know Manco You're my great friend If you stand down your forces I'll make sure the king gives you a royal pardon It'll all be forgiven And I'll make sure the pizarroes are punished And Manco is really tempted by this

But then another messenger arise from Anando Pizarro who Manco has been fighting all this time and Anando says to Manco you're mad if you trust Al-Magro he's an absolute snake and a liar and anyway he's basically my brother's Francisco subordinate

he can't deliver on any of his promises don't listen to him he's a liar all of this so Manco now he's got these two messages and he can't decide which one to go for and he decides he will test Diego Del Margo he's captured four of Hernandez scouts and Manco says well if you are really on my side prove your good faith by executing these four Spanish scouts.

And this is a real dilemma for Al-Magro. If Al-Magro executed these four Spanish scouts, his own countrymen, I mean, the king of Spain would be furious. You see, I think in that situation, Pizarro would execute them. And make an excuse, but Almagro is a bit naive, isn't he? These people have been defending Cusco, can he do it, he can't do it, he doesn't do it. And when Manco hears that he hasn't done it, he says, Gosh, Enando Pizarro is right.

Almagro will never deliver. He is a snake. These Spaniards and the final analysis will always stick together. So Manco turns on Almagro. He orders an attack on his army, which is fought off. But then this is the exciting fruit action. Yeah, because what happens to Rui Dias? So Rui Dias is stripped naked.

He's the messenger who brought a message saying, I'd like to be your friend. And this is his reward. A mad passage, actually. So Rui Dias is stripped naked. And then, and I quote, they anointed him with their mixtures. I mean, who knows what those mixtures are, and were amused to see his contorted features.

I mean, nothing good in those mixtures, evidently. Tobasco. They made him drink a great quantity of chicha, that's their kind of beer, and tying him to a post, they used their slings to fire guava fr... I mean, it's the darkest moment in the entire history of the Spanish conquest. Well, I'm about to say, by the standards of the tortures in this series, this is quite...

You've got up really lightly. You'd opt for that, given a choice, wouldn't you? Given all the options, I'd go for the guava fruit every time. But this is weird, isn't it? Because also, they make him shave his beard and cut his hair. Also, again, I would... I wouldn't object too strongly, I think. No, no, no.

What makes me laugh most is the line? They use their slings to fire guava fruit at him, distressing him greatly. And then, yeah, they made him shave his beard and his hair. They wished to change him into an Indian with bare limbs. I mean, yeah, mad torture. So what's going on there? I don't know I'm not an Inca. I can't.

There are some points where you just have to throw up your hands and admit that it's an imponderable nature of history. Your powers of imagination let you down. I think Rudy has, I totally agree with you. I think he's got off unbelievably likely. He's had a shave. I mean, people pay for that. He'd pay to go into a sort of posh barber and him to give you a shave. Not to fire a fruit, at you.

And I guess the guava fruit perhaps has moistened his skin, ready for the shave. You could imagine that being quite fashionable. Hipsters might enjoy it. Pelt a hipster with guava fruit. Then give him a shave. People would pay very good money for this kind of, this sort of treatment. Anyway. where were we with Manco?

I feel like Manco's options now very narrow. He can't capture Cusco. I mean, he couldn't capture it before. He can't capture it now. And I think the guava fruit debark has torpedoed any possibility. That's a deal breaker.

With Elmagro. So he decides his only option is to withdraw to safety and to bide his time and to hope that maybe the Spaniards turn on each other, which of course, you know, he knows them by now. He gets every chance of that happening. So basically he's going to go back to his old life as an outlaw. And so a few days later, he withdraws from his great fortress of Alante Tambo.

He's going to abandon the Andean highlands of Spanish. He's going to head deeper into the sacred valley. So that's basically in the shadow of Machu Picchu. He's going to go across the mountains and deep into the jungle. And he addresses his supporters. He said, well, people from the jungle have been asking me to visit them for years anyway. So this is the perfect opportunity. I should give them this satisfaction for a few days, he says.

And then there are a whole load of prayers led by the high priest. They pack up all their idols and their kind of relics. And they know, you know, realistically, they're probably never coming back. So Manco vanishes and we'll come back to him. And on the 18th of April, Al-Magro rides into Kusko with drums and pipes. Not as a liberator, though. He rides in as a conqueror. He burns the houses of the Pizarro brothers.

He takes Enando and Gonzalo Pizarro prisoner. He locks them up in the city towers. And then when Francisco Pizarro finally does send a relief column, Almagro rides out to confront them and he persuades them to change sides. So now the balance of power really has shifted. Francisco Pizarro is still on the coast at Lima, but Almagro is ruling unchallenged in Cusco. And he now promotes his own Inca puppet.

So this is a guy who's been with him on the expedition to Chile, who is Manco's slightly younger half-brother who's called Paolu. We don't know much about Paolu, although he'll be coming back in the next episode. Paolo is clearly an opportunist. He's much more drawn to collaboration than Manco. He'd much rather collaborate with the Spanish than basically join his half-brother as an outlaw. Paolo gets his supporters to help Al-Magro. And so in July 1537, a few months later,

Almagro organizes another grand coronation ceremony in the square in Cusco. He strips Manco of his title as Sapa Inca. I mean, Almagra has no authority to do that. And there's no precedent for it, really, in Inca history. But he basically says, Manco has run away. He's forfeited his title. It's like James II in 1688. and the red ceremonial kind of string fringe with its tassel is given to Paolu,

who is now supposedly the emperor. But Manco, of course, has not vanished. Manco has crossed the mountains. He's come down into the jungle into a place called Vilcabamba. And here at a town called Vitkos, he has established his new headquarters, just out of reach of the Spanish. So this is rainforest territory, very much. very wet, wreathed in mist and kind of mystery.

And here, Manco is going to establish an Inca state in exile. And so all is set now for the end game. You have Francisco Pizarro in Lima on the coast. You have Al Magro, his old business partner turned hated rival in the Highlands in Kusco. And you have Manco in his jungle there at Phil Cabamba. There's only going to be one winner. and for at least two of these men, this story will end in unspeakable bloodshed. So one of them will be the last man standing, or will they, and we'll find out which one in the final spine-tealing episode, Tom, of the fall of the Inkers.

And so the end approaches. And members of the Restless History Club can, of course, hear that episode right away. If you're not a member of the Restive History Club and you want to join them, you know what you've got to do. you've got to head to the rest is history.com and sign up. Goodbye. Bye-bye.