Juan Francisco Pimentel, 7th Duke of Benavente
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Juan Francisco Alonso Pimentel y Ponce de León, 7th Duke of Benavente (1584 – 1652) was a seventeenth-century Spanish noble, a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1648, number 421, 10th Count and 7th Duke of Benavente, 10th Count of Mayorga, 8th Count of Comarca de Luna.
He was the eldest son of six children of Antonio Alonso Pimentel, 6th Duke of Benavente (d. 1633), and María Ponce de León, (1572–1618), a daughter of Rodrigo Ponce de León, 3rd Duke of Arcos and the niece of the Rodrigo Ponce de León, 4th Duke of Arcos. His name was modified to Pimentel de Herrera or Pimentel Herrera because the 5th Duke, Juan Alonso, died in 1621 and his eldest brother, the 4th Duke, Luis Alonso, no issue, died in 1576. They described themselves with the "Pimentel Herrera" or "Pimentel de Herrera" name, to stress their connection with a branch of the powerful and wide Enriquez family.
Career
Upon the death of his father in 1633, he became the 7th Duke of Benavente, 10th Count and 7th Duke of Benavente, 10th Count of Mayorga, 8th Count of Comarca de Luna. His ducal title dated from January 1473 when it was conferred on his ancestor by King Henry IV of Castile.
He was made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1648, number 421.