In 1517, the now 17 years old king Charles I of Spain on advice of his international war counselors awarded him the title of Viceroy of Sicily, 1517 - 1535. He replaced there Hugo of Moncada, as Hugo of Moncada, apparently, had suggested to put as Viceroy an "Italian" to calm the restlessness of the Sicilians with the Spanish seamen and troopers concentrating there to fight against the Tunisian and Algerian sailors and warriors seeking defense alliances with the Ottoman Turks.
In 1523, he managed to quench some restlessness from Sicilian families, namely the Spadafora family group. In 1527, king Charles I of Spain rewarded him by changing the 1st County of Monteleone to 1st Duchy of Monteleone.
They received naval assistance, among others, of the Sicilian kingdom, the Naples kingdom, and of the Spanish viceroys and Captain Generals in Andalucia, Castile, Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia, dealing with ship transports of troops within the Mediterranean Sea at the time. They conquered Koroni, at Messenia, Greece. Patras, with some short time reconquering by the westerners was however mainly a Greek located Turkish port till about 1828. Around 1534, both places lost contact with Sicily.