Establishing Francisco Pizarro firmly as a man of his time, Stuart Stirling shows that there was little difference in moral terms between Elizabeth I's political expediency in ordering Mary Queen of Scots's execution and Pizarro's killing of the Inca Atahualpa - a deed for which his name has been regarded with infamy.

In the 1530s, the Spanish, led by Pizarro, arrived in Peru, devastating the Inca culture and ending the infrastructure of its empire. Mansio Serra De Lequizamon was the last of the conquistadors to die and this book tells his story, taking as a staring point his apology for the conquest.