Pedro González deMendoza (May 3, 1428 – January 11, 1495), Spanish cardinal and statesman, was the fourth son of Íñigo López deMendoza, marquess of Santillana, and duke of Infantado.
The house of Mendoza claimed to descend from the lords of Llodio in Alava, and to have been settled in Old Castile, in the 11th century.
Mendoza, the future cardinal, was sent into the Church mainly because he was a younger son and that he might be handsomely provided for.
Pedro González deMendoza himself was mayordomo mayor to Juan I (13379-1390); and his brother-in-law, Pedro López de Ayala, became canciller mayor of Castile.
The Mendoza's resistance to don Alvaro de Luna had pushed the king into an uncharacteristic act that conjured up all the violence of the pre-Trastámara kings, and the rest of his reign was characterized by a sort of stunned immobility on the part of both king and aristocracy.
This political caution is characteristic of Santillana's leadership of the Mendoza family: he exchanged the aggressive extension of political and economic interests on a national scale, which had characterized the admiral and Pedro González deMendoza, for a slow and deliberate rebuilding, consolidation, and preservation of the family's military and seigneurial control over local affairs.
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