VARGAS Y MEXIA; Francisco. - Jurist and diplomat, born in Madrid or Toledo toward the end of the 15th century (1484?), died in 1566 at the monastery of the Girolamini in Cisa near Toledo.
Fiscal of the Council of Castile, he accompanied the Spanish ambassador Mendoza at the Council of Trent in the autumn of 1545 and remained there even after the transfer to Bologna; on 16 January 1548 he presented to the Council the celebrated protest of Charles V. He returned to Trent during the second period of the Council (1551) and was later Spanish ambassador to Venice from 1552 to September 1558. From Antwerp Philip II sent him as ambassador to Rome, where he arrived on 25 September 1559. A truly learned man and sincere lover of the faith and reform, zealous for the interests of his king, he was nevertheless a contentious ambassador, obstinate and lacking in necessary discretion, as he showed during the conclave by interfering with the electors; without his consent Pius IV was elected. Favorable to the Carafa, he later came into open conflict with the Pope, who sought his recall; but Philip II kept him in Rome as an expert in conciliar matters. He left Rome on 12 October 1563, passed through Barcelona, and retired from public life.