PARDO DE TAVERA, JUAN. - Statesman and cardinal, b. at Toro (Zamora) on 16 May 1472, d. at Toledo on 1 Aug. 1545; he studied at Salamanca and was elected rector of that University in 1504; he later became auditor of the Council of the Inquisition and vicar general of the archbishopric of Seville.
In 1513 he was entrusted with reorganizing the Chancery of Valladolid; on 14 July 1514 he received the bishopric of Ciudad Rodrigo and was sent for some time to the court of Lisbon. On 31 Dec. 1523 he received the bishopric of Osma, and then, on 8 June 1524, the metropolitan see of Compostella. He was also president of the Chancery of Valladolid and of the Council of Castile. In 1525 he presided over the Cortes of Toledo, in which representatives of almost all the rulers of Europe and of the Pontiff took part; he was likewise appointed to preside over the Cortes of Madrid in 1528, on the occasion of the oath taken by the future Filippo II, regent of Spain in his father's absence. On 22 Feb. 1531, P. was named cardinal of S. Giovanni a Porta Latina and, on 27 Apr. 1534, archbishop of Toledo; in 1539, inquisitor general of the Kingdom and governor of Castile and León.