Menéndez de Avilés, Pedro (1519–1574)

Spanish colonial administrator in America. Philip II of Spain granted him the right to establish a colony in Florida to counter French presence there. In 1565 he founded St Augustine and destroyed the French outpost at Fort Caroline.

Born in Avilés, Spain, he saw service in the navy of Charles V and was named to the vital post of captain general of the Indies fleet in 1554. His later attempts to establish colonies in the Chesapeake region were unsuccessful but Menéndez maintained a firm Spanish claim on the Florida peninsula.