Cardinal Verdugo is the most "insistent" of King Sandoval's advisors.  He is driven by his unshakable belief that he knows what's best of Castille and for Théah, he's right, and everyone else is wrong, heretic, or both.  The heroes ran afoul of his inquisitors a few times, especially in San Cristobal.  They tangled with him when he decided to have Miranda, Lucas's twin sister, burned as a witch.  They also stopped at least two assassination attempts on King Sandoval's life which they suspect Verdugo to have engineered. 

Voted most likely to utter the words: "If it wasn't for those meddling kids..."

However, when the king was assassinated by sorcerers in Sextus 1669, Cardinal Verdugo was horribly burned and lost his right arm, which seemed like a bit too much for even him to be a machination.  Left as the only thread of legitimate government in Castille, he asked Lucas to serve in the late don Andrès' place.

In Corantine 1669, the Cardinal's machinations collapsed when Queen Sara and King Javier took the throne, and the Inquisition was revealed as an order of blood sorcerers.  Cardinal Verdugo committed suicide.