Antonio de Villarroel

Antonio de Villarroel y Peláez (Barcelona, 1656-La Coruña, 1726) was a Spanish soldier in the service of Philip V until 1710 during the War of the Spanish Succession. After the fall from grace of the Duke of Orleans, he joined the Austrian cause and was maintained at the rank of lieutenant marshal. In 1713 he was appointed general commander of the Army of Catalonia.

He was born in Barcelona, where his father, the military man Francisco de Villarroel, was stationed. Traditionally it has been stated that his father was originally from the Orense town of Villanueva de los Infantes, in Celanova, although recently sources have appeared that attest that he came from the homonymous town in La Mancha.His mother was Catalina Peláez.

Military career

He entered the army as a young man, and in 1697 he defended Barcelona against the French. At the beginning of the War of Succession, he was part of Philip V's army. However, when the Duke of Orleans fell into disgrace he went to Galicia, where he joined the Austrian allies. He was appointed lieutenant marshal by Archduke Charles.

He distinguished himself in the battle of Villaviciosa, opposed to the Austrian weapons, as well as in the thankless task of the evacuation of Aragon (1711). Appointed supreme commander of the Austrian forces by the Three Commons of Catalonia, he organized the defense of Barcelona. Once the siege of the city was formalized by the troops of the Duke of Populi, who bombed it to frighten the inhabitants, Villarroel responded with artillery. With just over 5,000 men, of which about 3,500 were members of the guild militia, during the course of the war he had to monitor the state of Barcelona's weak defenses. To repel the assaults that the city was suffering (July 1714), he organized, together with Josep Bellver, a quick exit, which was rejected by the French troops under the command of the Duke of Berwick, who had replaced Popoli in command of the siege. The besiegers had about 40,000 men.

But the Bourbon attacks opened new breaches, which induced Villarroel to convene a council of war (September 1), behind the backs of the city councillors, in which he suggested, in view of the desperate state of the defenses, the convenience of capitulating and accepting the offer of the Duke of Berwick.

But Casanova and the rest of the councilors opposed it, and Villarroel tried to resign. But, before the decisive assault of September 11, he prepared his column and continued the defense of the city. Finally, he was wounded and knocked out. Rafael Casanova having also been wounded, Colonel Ferrer, representative of the lieutenant of Mallorca, went to see Villarroel, who explained that he was of the opinion of capitulating before night, to spare the city the horrors of combat. Then he made the decision, under his responsibility, that they called for capitulation. Despite the assurances given in this by the attacking Bourbon forces, the twenty-five military leaders of the defense of Barcelona, among whom was the wounded Villarroel himself, were imprisoned.

Imprisonment and death

Villarroel was imprisoned in the castle of Alicante. Regarding his last years and death, there are two different versions.

Traditionally it is believed that Villarroel was freed from the Alcázar of Segovia as a result of the Peace of Vienna and that he would have lived on the life pension that Archduke Charles, already Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, would have granted him. According to this version, Villarroel lived with dignity and tranquility in Castilian lands until his death in 1742.

On the other hand, the historians Antoni Muñoz and Josep Catà defend in a 2009 work that Villarroel was transferred to La Coruña a month after his arrival in Alicante. There he would have been imprisoned in harsh conditions, since water supposedly entered his cell with the tides, which would have caused paralysis in both legs. According to these authors Villarroel died on February 22, 1726.

Representation in literature

Albert Sánchez Piñol gives life to Antonio de Villarroel in his historical novel Victus (2012), which takes place in part during the Siege of Barcelona (1713-1714).^{[< i>citation required]}