Baldomero Espartero

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Joaquín Baldomero Fernández-Espartero Álvarez de Toro (Granátula de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, February 27, 1793-Logroño, January 8, 1879), generally known as Baldomero Espartero, was a Spanish soldier and politician who held the titles of Prince of Vergara, Duke of Victoria, Duke of Morella, Count of Luchana and Viscount of Banderas, all of them in reward for his performance on the battlefield, in especially in the first Carlist war, where his leadership of the Elizabethan or Christian Army was of vital importance for the final victory. In addition, he held the position of viceroy of Navarra (1836).

His father had channeled his training for an ecclesiastical destiny, but the War of Independence dragged him from a very young age to the battlefront, which he did not abandon until twenty-five years later. Combatant in three of the four most important conflicts in Spain in the XIX century, he was a soldier in the war against the French invasion, officer during the war of independence of Peru and general in chief in the already mentioned first carlist war. He lived in Cádiz the birth of Spanish liberalism, a path that he would never abandon. An extremely tough man to deal with, he valued the loyalty of his comrades-in-arms —a term other generals did not like to hear—as much as his effectiveness. He fought on the front line, was wounded eight times and his haughty and demanding nature led him to commit excesses, sometimes very bloody, in military discipline. Convinced that his destiny was to govern the Spanish, he was twice president of the Council of Ministers and became head of state as regent during Isabel II's minority. Despite all his contradictions, he knew how to pass unnoticed his last twenty-eight years. He rejected the Crown of Spain and was treated as a legend from a very young age.

The Homeland has your efforts, with your virtues, with your wisdom, to make laws that uphold their rights and destroy the abuses that have been introduced into the government of the State. Make them; that the Queen will have great satisfaction in accepting them, and the Nation in obeying them.

As for me, gentlemen, I will always obey them, for I have always wanted the national will to be fulfilled, and because I am convinced that without obedience to laws, freedom is impossible.
Spaniard at the meeting of the Constituent Courts of 28 November 1854

However, as noted by historian Adrian Shubert:

[Today] Espartero has been erased from Spanish historical memory. While other figures whose role in the country's history was much less significant remain alive in memory, their name has gone from idolatry to oblivion.
Shubert (2000, p. 207)

Beginnings

Casa de Granátula de Calatrava where Baldomero Espartero was allegedly born. Recorded published in 1879 in The Spanish and American Illustration.

He was the youngest of eight siblings and the son of a carpenter-carter, a working-class family of the predominant middle class in a town of almost three thousand inhabitants. Three of his brothers were religious and one sister was a Poor Clare nun. In Granátula he had received Latin and humanities classes with his neighbor Antonio Meoro, a grammar tutor, who was very famous in the area, since he prepared the boys to access higher studies. In fact, he would later name his son, Anacleto Meoro Sánchez, Bishop of Almería. He completed his first official studies at the Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Almagro University, where a Dominican brother of his resided, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts and Philosophy degree. Almagro had its own University since 1553 by Royal Decree of Carlos I and it was a very active and prosperous city. His father wanted an ecclesiastical education for Espartero, but fate cut short that possibility. In 1808 he enlisted in the army to be part of the forces that fought after the May 2 uprising in Madrid against the Napoleonic occupation. The universities had been closed the previous year by Carlos IV and Almagro itself had been occupied by the French.

He was recruited along with a large group of young people by the Central Supreme Board that had been established in Aranjuez under the authority of the then-elderly Count of Floridablanca, in order to stop the invader in La Mancha before the enemy troops came to Andalusia. He was enlisted in the Infantry Regiment & # 34; Ciudad Rodrigo & # 34;, garrisoned in Seville, as Distinguished Soldier , a degree he acquired for having completed university studies. During the time he was on the front lines in the south-central zone of Spain, he participated in the battle of Ocaña, where the Spanish forces were defeated. Again, his university status allowed him to be part of the University Volunteer Battalion that It was grouped around the University of Toledo in August 1808, but the French advance took it to Cádiz where its unit fulfilled functions of defense of the Central Supreme Board. The urgent needs of an army almost destroyed by the enemy forced the rapid training of officers who were instructed in military technique. Espartero's previous university training allowed the artillery colonel, Mariano Gil de Bernabé, to select him along with another group of enthusiastic young people at the newly created Seville Military Academy. The new destination did not prevent him from acting from the first moment in skirmishes with the enemy during his training as a cadet, and this is stated in his service record. He was integrated, along with forty-eight other cadets, into the Academy of Engineers on September 11, 1811 and was promoted to second lieutenant on January 1 of the following year. He failed the second course, but as an alternative he was offered to join the infantry, like other second lieutenants. He took part in notable military operations in Chiclana, which earned him his first decoration: the Cruz de Chiclana.

Besieged by the French armies since 1810, he was a front-line spectator of the debates in the Cortes of Cádiz in the drafting of the first Spanish constitution, which marked his determined defense of liberalism and patriotism.

While the war was coming to an end, he was assigned to the Soria Infantry Regiment, and with said unit he moved to Catalonia fighting in Tortosa, Cherta and Amposta, until he returned with the Regiment to Madrid.

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Camino de América

After the war, and eager to continue his military career, Espartero enlisted in September 1814 —while being promoted to lieutenant— in the Extremadura Regiment, embarking on the frigate Carlota for America on February 1, 1815 to suppress the independence rebellion of the colonies.

The Fernandina court had managed to send six infantry regiments and two cavalry regiments abroad. Under the orders of General Miguel Tacón y Rosique, Espartero was integrated into one of the divisions formed with the Extremadura Regiment that headed towards Peru from Panama. They arrived at the port of El Callao on September 14 and presented themselves in Lima, with the order to replace the Marquis de la Concordia as viceroy of Peru by General Joaquín de la Pezuela, victorious in the area.

The biggest problems were concentrated in the penetration of hostile forces from Chile and the United Provinces of South America under the command of General José de San Martín. To hinder the movements, it was decided to fortify Arequipa, Potosí and Charcas, a job for which the only person with technical knowledge in the entire Army of Upper Peru was Espartero, for having two years of training at the engineering school. The success of the company earned him promotion to captain on September 19, 1816 and, even before he was one year old, that of second commander.

Military tactics

End of the American period and return to Spain

On October 9, 1823, the victorious commander was promoted to brigadier and was given command of the General Staff of the Upper Peru Army. After finishing work to control the remnants of the insurgents, La Serna sent him to the Salta conference as the viceroy's plenipotentiary representative for the signing of an armistice that would allow the extension of the agreements with the insurgents from Buenos Aires to Peru. In Salta Espartero met with General José Santos de la Hera, who was acting on behalf of the royal commissioners. Accredited, Espartero informed Las Heras that the agreement was not possible, since the enemy forces lacked all operational capacity and the viceroy did not feel obliged to grant more than the generosity with which they had been treated. The hostile attitude of La Serna and Espartero himself towards the delegates on behalf of King Ferdinand has been interpreted as an affront to the Crown for some, or as a measure to contain the independence aspirations for others.

The figure of Espartero at this age was outlined by the Count of Romanones as that of:

... a man of medium stature, by the set and proportions of his body did not give the impression of smallness... of light eyes, cold look... his facial muscles would not contract at any time...

Although Espartero did not participate in the battle of Ayacucho, both he and many of the military protagonists of the reign of Isabel II would be called "the Ayacuchos" for their past in American lands.

The end of the Liberal Triennium and the return to absolutism again divided the expeditionary army. La Serna sent Espartero to Madrid with the task of receiving precise instructions from the Crown, leaving for the capital from the port of Quilca on June 5, 1824 in an English ship. He arrived in Cádiz on September 28 and appeared in Madrid on October 12. Although he obtained the confidence of the Crown for the viceroy, he was unable to guarantee the requested reinforcements.

He embarked in Bordeaux on his way to America on December 9, coinciding with the loss of the Viceroyalty of Peru. He arrived in Quilca on May 5, 1825 without news of the Ayacucho disaster, and was taken prisoner by order of Simón Bolívar, being on the verge of being shot on more than one occasion. Thanks to the mediation between other people, of the Extremaduran liberal Antonio González y González who suffered exile in Arequipa, he was released after suffering a harsh prison, being able to return to Spain with a large group of comrades in arms.

Upon his arrival he was assigned to Pamplona and, later, he settled in Logroño, much to his regret. There he married on September 13, 1827 with María Jacinta Martínez de Sicilia, rich heiress of the city and thanks to whom he became a landowner.

Despite the favorable reports from his superiors, back on the peninsula he had to perform bureaucratic functions and minor assignments, which irritated him. He took the opportunity to order his new estate made up of the fortune inherited from his wife, María Jacinta, and which consisted of an estate and various related assets where there were important rural and urban estates and close to one and a half million reais also from profits. in the investments that his wife's guardians had made during her minority.

In 1828 he was appointed arms commander and president of the Board of Grievances of Logroño and later he was assigned to the Soria Regiment stationed in Barcelona first, and Palma de Mallorca later.

The imprint of the American experience

Although he did not participate in the decisive battle —which caused his anger when mentioned to him—, he did participate in many other confrontations and, in fact, he and many of the officers who accompanied him would be known in Spain as "los Ayacuchos”, in memory of his American past and the influence that other liberal soldiers who participated in that war had on his political ideas. His activity in the American campaign was feverish and highlighted by his knowledge of topography and construction of military installations, his ability to act quickly and with few troops, the virtue of promptly mobilizing troops and the authority that his soldiers recognized him. The war merits were numerous, though he made little mention of them in later years.

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In the fight against the Carlists

The "Elizabethan" General

On the death of Ferdinand VII, Espartero supported the cause of Isabel II and the regent María Cristina de Borbón against the brother of the late King Ferdinand, Carlos María Isidro.

During the first Carlist war, General Espartero showed his qualities as a soldier that he had already demonstrated during the American campaigns and among which his bravery stood out —which was what contributed the most to making him a national hero, especially after his victory in the battle of Luchana—, his honesty —an American diplomat said of him that "he enjoys an independent fortune and does not intend to increase it at the expense of the troops, as is customary here"— and his interest in the men who were under his command. orders, as demonstrated by his continuous effort to obtain the funds to pay salaries and provisions for his soldiers —a problem suffered by his predecessor at the head of the Army of the North, General Luis Fernández de Córdoba, and which his brother Fernando described in his memoirs: «Money, the nerve of the Army, was pitifully lacking in the North, and so it is that, in addition to the lack of subsistence and supplies, the officers did not receive their salaries nor the soldiers their reduced envelopes»—

But during the civil war two of his defects also appeared: that his courage alternated with recurring episodes of laziness and lack of firmness —which could be related to his bladder ailment that he suffered all his life and that made him extremely painful horseback riding—and his excessive severity in everything related to discipline. Regarding the latter, the incident that had the greatest repercussion was the one that occurred due to the order given by Espartero to decimate a battalion of chapelgorris —Liberal paid volunteers— from Gipuzkoa whose members had supposedly assassinated the parish priest of the Alava village of Labastida, desecrated the church and razed the place, and which was carried out on December 13, 1835. The operation was personally directed by Espartero, who in his official report stated that the acts committed by these soldiers required "public demonstration by the troops and the towns... with a severe punishment", and during the same the chapelgorris who were going to be shot, one out of ten, were cast lots, and ten were chosen from among them, "and without giving them more time than a few moments to confessed, the ten who had such unfortunate luck were inhumanely shot", according to the battalion commander. Espartero also ordered the execution of Carlist prisoners in retaliation for the murder of liberals, which the general justified by stating in a letter that "the use of reprisals is nothing more than self-defense" and "because I would lose the magical illusion that fortune has given me, from the moment that indifference is observed in me to punish the crimes of the rebels, and to protect my subordinates".

Military Commander of Vizcaya

Among the changes in the direction of the Army that the regent María Cristina adopted in the first days of government to eliminate the Carlist elements, Espartero was appointed commander-in-chief of Vizcaya in 1834, under the orders of an old chief of his, Jerónimo Valdés, who had claimed him for service in the campaign. He thus participated on the northern front during the First Carlist War, playing an outstanding role, but not before having put various Carlist parties to flight in Ontinyent.

His first measurements are very reminiscent of the American stage. At the head of a small division, he ordered the fortification of Bilbao, Durango and Guernica to defend them from the Carlist incursions, and he pursued the small parties that formed in different points. The first major operation facing the bulk of the enemy troops took place in Guernica in February 1834. With the Cristinos besieged by a column of six thousand men, Espartero liberated the city on the 24th with five times fewer forces than the attackers, which earned him promotion to field marshal.

The first defeat

In May he was granted the General Command of all the Basque Provinces. The second great action that he received as a commission was in the middle of 1835. The Carlist general Zumalacárregui had managed to group the volunteer parties into a well-organized army. The Cristinos, however, were going through a serious crisis as their leadership had been changed on several occasions due to the very conflictive situation in Madrid. In these circumstances, Zumalacárregui undertook an offensive that led him to establish advanced positions in Villafranca de Ordicia, thus dominating a wide area of movement. Espartero was commissioned by Valdés to confront Zumalacárregui, for which he had two divisions and a battalion, plus two other divisions that were approaching from the Baztán valley. On June 2 he managed without effort to position himself at a halt within sight of Villafranca, on the road to Vergara. He secured the positions while waiting for reinforcements, but changed his mind and went to Vergara. Being within sight of the Carlist general Francisco Benito Eraso, he took advantage of the vulnerability of the rearguard battalion to attack it in its retreat with just over three infantry companies. The impression of those attacked was that the Carlist bulk was numerous and, little by little, panic spread among the troops, who even fled in a disorderly manner towards Bilbao. This was Espartero's first military failure and the consequences of the defeat were very serious, since the Carlists occupied Durango a few days later, so the way was open for them to besiege Bilbao.

The war between the summer of 1835 and the summer of 1836

His courage and daring were unquestionable as in the First Siege of Bilbao, which he managed to raise. After the battle of Mendigorría, where the Cristinos obtained their second great victory in the war, Espartero had to face his superior, Luis Fernández de Córdoba, in a struggle between the two to receive the merits of the campaign actions.

In Bilbao, when fourteen Carlist battalions besieged the city on August 24, 1835, Espartero actively participated in lifting the siege with hardly any effort. On the way to Vitoria after leaving Bilbao on September 11, Carlist battalions opposed his units, for which he ordered to attack them, chasing them to Arrigorriaga, where he met important Carlist forces that forced him to retreat to the Biscayan capital.. In this withdrawal he found the entrance to the city taken, with which he received attacks from the vanguard and rear. Cornered, Espartero decided to face the troops that on the bridge over the Nervión river blocked his way, so he was finally able to cross the road to the city in a brilliant action that earned him the Laureate Cross of San Fernando and the Grand Cross of Carlos III, in addition to a wound in the arm.

Despite his defiant capacity, his commanders did not consider him capable of leading the bulk of the Christian armies, given his mad impetus and his repeated acts of disobedience to his superiors. In 1836, the Army of the North was left in the hands of Luis Fernández de Córdoba as general-in-chief. Received orders to attack the enemy in any advantageous situation, Espartero occupied the port of Orduña in March with diminished forces, thus gaining an advantageous position for the army. This earned him a new Laureate from San Fernando and the possibility of carrying out a new action days later on Amurrio. After the actions with the III Division, when opening the way to Vizcaya, Fernández de Córdoba proposed him, much to his regret, for promotion to lieutenant general on June 20. He still allowed the war to obtain the act of deputy for Logroño to the Cortes Generales in the elections held on October 3, 1836 together with who would be another great champion of liberalism, Salustiano de Olózaga. He would still be elected three other times during his life, though he never held his seat and resigned in favor of other provinces.

In the summer Espartero fell ill and went to Logroño to recover. Liberal movements throughout Spain followed one another while he rested. The military successes achieved catapulted him finally to be appointed General in Chief of the Army of the North and Viceroy of Navarra, replacing Fernández de Córdoba. The mutiny of the sergeants of La Granja, which had forced the regent to abandon the Royal Statute and give more prominence to the liberals with the restoration of the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812, also favored the appointment.

The Commanding General

Reaching the rank of general in chief made the future Duke of Victoria moderate his cruelty, limit his impetuous actions and spend time reorganizing the Elizabethan army that had two serious problems: one, the need to move around a territory, the Carlist, well established, where the forces loyal to María Cristina only had some large cities and fortifications, but not freedom of movement; secondly, the lack of resources to equip the troops and the absence of internal discipline.

Bilbao again: the battle of Luchana

Development of the attack on the Luchana bridge by Espartero troops with the support of the British and Spanish army. Recorded, reproduced as xilography in Panorama English1849.

With almost no war activity, the Carlists took the opportunity to reorganize and besiege Bilbao again in 1836 with more forces and better organization than on the first occasion. From the Ebro and without using the road to Vitoria, Espartero led fourteen battalions on the way to the Biscayan capital on a slow and stormy journey, concentrating on the Mena valley in November, since he still did not have sufficient information on the possible movements of the enemy.. Finally, while the Spanish-British fleet was waiting for him in Castro-Urdiales, he managed to arrive on November 20 and embark his army, with three hundred more horsemen, on their way to Portugalete, where they arrived on the 27th. The Carlists rejected the first attempt to enter Bilbao. Although on the 30th most of the generals advised Espartero to abandon the attempt to raise the siege, he decided to ignore it: he ordered the construction of a boat bridge over the Nervión and on December 1 the Elizabethan army was on the other side, having to maintain positions against incessant enemy fire. The second attempt to raise the fence failed again and the morale of the troops fell. Short of money, which did not arrive until the middle of the month, Espartero drew up a plan that allowed him to attack both banks of the Nervión at the same time. On December 19, the cannons of the Spanish and English Armada supported the advance operation and the city was liberated in a meritorious action, with Espartero ill and at the head, entering the Luchana bridge on Christmas Day.

Especially satisfied, an officer sent the following Official Letter to the Government according to his instructions, from which the substance is extracted:

... The hardships and sufferings of the troops of my command have been rewarded on this day. Yesterday at four o'clock in the afternoon I had the daring operation of embarking on hunter companies taking over the enemy Battery of Luchana. In a short time, although in the midst of a terrible snowfall, the operation was executed with the happiest success for the bravery and enthusiasm of those, and effective cooperation of the English and Spanish Navy. The bridge remained in our power; the enemies had cut it; but at the hour and a half it was already restored. The enemies, gathering considerable strength, came upon that point: the battle was set at night: the time of water, snow and hail, was horrific: the loss experienced by this army in the many hours of combat was also considered. The moments were critical; but the burdens determined to the bayonet made us owners of all their positions, raising the place of this villa, in which I have verified today the entrance. All his batteries, ammunition and immense park remained in our power... Bilbao headquarters, December 25, 1836. H.E. Mr. Spaniard. H.E. Mr. Secretary of State and the Office of the War.

His victory at the battle of Luchana "put the name of Espartero on the lips of everyone, at least in liberal Spain, and made him the subject of paintings, countless newspaper articles, parliamentary speeches, and no doubt also, of coffee conversations. According to Antonio Espina [Espartero's biographer], after Luchana, Espartero "acquired epic proportions. It was an ideal Christmas present for the liberal cause. For the people he became the "Espada de Luchana", and later received the title of count of Luchana ».

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Towards the end of the war: the “Abrazo de Vergara”

The liberal politician

Spartero's personal shield as Prince of Vergara.

Although in 1826, during the ominous decade, he denounced a liberal conspiracy that was being organized in London by some "traitors" led by the exiled general spoil and mine to tear down the absolute monarchy of Fernando VII, after the death of this, Espartero was always a supporter of liberalism against absolutism. However, he never written his ideology and "his political thinking never went beyond vague pronouncements about freedom and constitutions, as well as loyalty to the monarchy, which can summarize in a motto that he himself made famous: " cluster the national will " ». Another of the phrases that summarized his political thought was that what he wanted for Spain was the "properly understood freedom", whose model was the British constitutional monarchy, because there "the Meeting and The petition in order to know the opinion and avoid the force that carries a sudden change called revolution. Constitution of 1812 after the mutiny of the Sergeants of the Farm in August 1836:

Among the most unpublished despotism
Mother Spain has little seen
And surrounded by ambitious children
Of the particular good that dominates them.
I didn't even find comfort in hope
To regain his lost freedom.
Knelt at his feet and already dissolved
The best of the codes was lying.
Destroyed your beautiful pages
That the Spanish people made a day free.
And the noble farmer, the merchant,
Musa doctas and the active industry
Witnesses were of their bitter crying,
That faithful to imitating them came together.
In this, of diligent fame
You hear the echoes, asking for the coats,
They publish that by the peoples of Iberia
It enlarges your desired freedom.

He always showed total loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II, to the point that at the end of the progressive biennium he did not want to lead the resistance to the moderate coup because that could endanger the Elizabethan monarchy and "I, a monarchist and defender of that august person, I do not want to be an accomplice in his dethronement»; he even stayed in Madrid for a while, before retiring to Logroño, at the express request of the queen in order to quell a revolt that in the city had "taken the person of Your Excellency as its flag." This loyalty was also maintained after being dethroned in the Glorious Revolution of 1868 defending the rights to the throne of her son, the future Alfonso XII.

His performance as a politician was also influenced by his military status, since he always thought that political life could be managed militarily, as he commented in a letter to his wife in November 1840:

Do not listen to newspapers or nuances; with the Constitution it is commanded as with the ordinance; when he who commands is righteous and firm and when he does not separate from the law, no one should snatch him and nothing will stop him in the march... I do not listen to nuances or papers because I am the Spanish flag and to it all the Spanish will join.

This way of understanding the government was revealed when in October 1841 he ordered the execution of the generals and politicians involved in an attempted coup that included the kidnapping of eleven-year-old Queen Elizabeth II and among whom was the young general Diego de León.

Espartero Regent of Spain (1840-1843)

Main article: Espartero Regency

Portrait of Baldomero Espartero (1841) by Antonio María Esquivel. City Hall of Seville.

His military successes during the Carlist War —the battle of Luchana in December 1835, which broke the siege of Bilbao; Vergara's embrace that put an end to the war in the north-provided him with enormous popularity, bordering on idolatry, especially among the lower classes-for the Espartero people he was the "Sword of Luchana" and, after his victory in the war, he became the "Peacemaker of Spain" -. This is how an American diplomat recounts the entry into Madrid of Espartero on September 29, 1840:

Its entrance was celebrated with the most enthusiastic welcome; for three days the celebrations continued to a scale of magnificence regia—the illuminated streets, the houses adorned with hangings, triumphal arches erected in the Prado, and an airy column with the appropriate symbols in the Puerta del Sol—in addition to dramatic shows and bullfights, to which the spectators were invited with tickets to meet with him.

These displays of enthusiasm were repeated in other places, such as when he arrived in Valencia on October 8 and the crowd unhitched the horses from his carriage and began to pull it through the streets of the city.

He entered political life after Luchana's victory when both moderates and progressives offered him to be part of the government occupying the Ministry of War, but he refused because the war had not yet ended. His preference for the progressives, according to Jorge Vilches, was due to the fact that the government of the moderate Evaristo Pérez de Castro did not approve Espartero's request that his assistant Linage be promoted to field marshal, although his confrontations with the general could also have influenced moderate Ramón María Narváez who had been here for years, when he was not supplied with the same troops, material and funds as the Espadón de Loja.

Espartero's forays into politics since 1839 were harshly contested by the moderate press. Aware of his power and opposed to the conservatism of María Cristina, after the revolts of 1840 he managed to be appointed president of the Council of Ministers, but his insufficient support forced him to resign. Espartero led the Progressive Party without opposition and needed a sufficient majority in Parliament. The riot at the Granja de San Ildefonso had called the attention of the moderates to the strength of the liberals and, therefore, of Espartero himself. Thus, the confrontation with the regent about the role of the National Militia and the autonomy of the City Councils ended in a general uprising against María Cristina in the most important cities —Barcelona, Zaragoza and Madrid, the most prominent— and in the resignation and delivery of this to the Regency and custody of his daughters, including Queen Elizabeth, in the hands of the general.

Espartero achieved the regency while María Cristina went into exile in France. However, the Progressive Party was divided on how to occupy the space left by the mother of Elizabeth II. On the one hand, the so-called Trinitarians advocated the appointment of a Regency shared by three members. On the other, the unitarios led by Espartero himself maintained the need for a solid one-person Regency. Finally, Espartero was elected sole regent of the Kingdom on March 8, 1841 by 169 votes of the Cortes Generales 103 votes obtained by Agustín Argüelles. The strength of the general allowed him to reach the Regency but not before having fallen out with a significant part of the Progressive Party that saw a latent authoritarianism in the general, having to have used even part of the moderate votes to achieve the sole regency.

Revolt in Barcelona of 1842.

His personalistic and militaristic way of governing provoked enmity with many of his supporters. This situation of internal tension among the progressives was taken advantage of by the moderates with the O'Donnell uprising in 1841, which resulted in the execution of some prominent and valued members of the army, such as Diego de León. Subsequently, the uprising in Barcelona in November 1842, caused by the crisis in the cotton sector, was harshly repressed by the regent when Captain General Antonio Van Halen bombarded the city on December 3 with numerous victims. The famous phrase "Barcelona must be bombarded at least once every fifty years" is attributed to him, but according to historian Adrian Shubert the phrase is "without a doubt" a "myth", "legacy of recent nationalism", there being a " strong cult of Espartero in Catalonia that lasted thirty years after the bombing of Barcelona". The then Colonel Prim, who had already accused him of favoring English fabrics by not imposing heavy tariffs on them and from whom he ended up distancing himself after the bombing, revolted in Barcelona; General Narváez disembarked in Valencia and marched to Madrid, where Prim would later join him.

In 1843 he was forced to dissolve the Cortes, due to their hostility. Narváez and Serrano led a joint pronouncement of moderate and progressive soldiers, in which the regent's own forces went over to the enemy in Torrejón de Ardoz. Seville revolted in July and was bombarded by Van Halen's forces and, from the 24th, by Espartero himself.

Exiled in England (1843-1848)

After fleeing through El Puerto de Santa María, he went into exile in England on July 30. The new authorities ordered that, if found on the peninsula, he was "put to arms" without waiting for further instructions. But the maneuvers of Luis González Bravo and Narváez himself against the progressives, especially against Salustiano Olózaga, meant that they soon demanded from Espartero, an exile, the leadership of the liberals. In England Espartero lived an austere life, although he was constantly feted by the British Court and all the nobility. He did not lose sight of national politics and, without a doubt, a good part of the civil and military actions of the progressives in this period had his approval.

Espartero was received in England with great effusion, since his fame was not limited to Spain —he had been decorated by several foreign monarchs: Queen Victoria awarded him the Order of the Bath; King Louis Philippe of Orleans the French Legion of Honor; Queen Maria II of Portugal, the Order of the Tower. Just one day after his arrival in London, according to the newspaper The Times “his hotel was literally besieged by visitors of all ranks. The Duke of Wellington was among the first to pay a visit to His Excellency'. The Earl of Clarendon and Sir Robert Peel also visited him and he was invited to dinner by Lord Palmerston, among others. He was received in audience by Queen Victoria and on September 26, 1843, the Mayor of London organized a dinner in his honor at the Mansion House, during which he delivered a speech —which had to be approved after a lengthy debate by the House of Representatives. Common.

Meanwhile, in Spain the publisher Benito Hortelano Balvo published a biography by chapters of Espartero, written by Carlos Massa Languinete, which was enormously successful. Hortelano himself recalled in his memories the popularity that Espartero continued to enjoy despite his exile:

The Madrid were not only great enthusiasts of the general, but also fanatic fans. During his exile in London, all his hopes were put on him. He was his savior, his idol; they could not contemporate with the moderates, for they had condemned the ostracism to the Messiah of the people.

The moderate constitution of 1845 did not ensure political stability. On the contrary, the distance between progressive and moderate liberals enlarged. Isabel II, advised by her mother, tried to bring Espartero back to the crown, knowing that, sooner rather than later, she would have to count on a man admired by her people and such an important influence. Thus, on September 3, 1847, the then president of the Government, Joaquín Francisco Pacheco, issued the decree by which the queen appointed him a senator and, a little later, plenipotentiary ambassador to Britain. It was the time of reconciliation.

Reconciled with the Queen: The progressive biennium (1854-1856)

Espartero's house in Logroño. The Spanish and American Illustration. Madrid, 1879.

In 1848 he was restored in his honors and returned to Spain, taking refuge in Logroño and abandoning public life. In this way he fulfilled a desire that he already stated at the beginning of the regency in a letter written to his wife in which he told him that when he achieved “consolidating the throne of Isabel, the Constitution, the peace, the prosperity and independence of my homeland "He would use the rest of his life" in planting trees in the fombera and improving Logroño as a simple citizen. "

However, during the retirement in Logroño his popularity did not decline, as highlighted by the editor of his Benito Hortelano biography that went to visit him after his return from exile and met his house surrounded by the crowd, «an immense town that day and night was installed in order to see the leader of the town, if he ever left or looked on the balcony; A look of him would have been enough to electrify that population ».

reappeared in public life in the progressive biennium of 1854-1856 together with Leopoldo O ' Donnell after the triumph of the Revolution of 1854. During those two years he was again president of the Council of Ministers of Spain. Before Back to active politics launched this brief proclamation to its fellow citizens of Logroño:

Riojanos: I leave Logroño, my adoptive people, because the Homeland and its freedom claim my presence in the invicta Zaragoza. I've had a good seven-year memory of your fellow citizen. A single order I leave you: Obedeced to the patriotic Board that has been installed on this day, respect its provisions and preserve the order, guarantee of the victory.

Anverse medal with the effigy of Spartax. Legend: Baldomero Espartero, Duke of Victoria, 1855.

Proof that Espartero kept his popularity intact after five years in exile and six years in retirement in Logroño is offered by the British ambassador in Madrid who declared:

There is no doubt that the lower classes of Madrid, Zaragoza and most of the main cities are state-of-the-art... Like Napoleon in France, his portrait is universal in the barracks of the poor, and he is the only one.

In the same sense, other diplomatic representatives and Spanish observers and politicians such as Fernando Garrido, leader of the Democratic Party and Pioneer of Spanish Socialism were expressed:

The triumphant revolution, national sovereignty, cannot be decently represented but by the soldier of Freedom, by the people's man, by the citizen who wrote on his banner when the armed people offered him the dictatorship: Buy the National Will.

Espartero was also considered a symbol of the struggle of the working class, even in Barcelona, a city that he had ordered to be bombed sixteen years earlier. Thus, in the strike of the selfactinas between July and December 1854, the workers said: «And why don't they deceive / two pillars hi han posat / one is Espartero / i l'altre la Societat». And when the general strike was declared in 1855 and a workers' delegation was preparing to leave for Madrid, a manifesto was drawn up that concluded with a «Long live Espartero! Long live the National Militia! Long live freedom! Long live free association, order, work and bread!"

But O'Donnell himself ended up displacing him from power with his Unión Liberal project, plotting from his post as Minister of War whatever suited his interests. Espartero was no longer the man capable of exhausting himself to the extreme and he understood that Queen Isabella had placed, as Romanones said, "two roosters in the same henhouse" to keep two of the most prestigious generals on her side.

Retirement in Logroño (1856-1879)

Portrait of Baldomero Espartero, lithography of Santiago Llanta and Guerin. Registration: «First candidate for King of Spain/ 1.o Baldomero». National Library of Spain.

After definitively abandoning the government of the Progressive Biennium, Espartero never intended to return. Anyone who came to have news, advice, information for a historical work, was welcome. He himself was aware that his time had passed, but he enjoyed the company of former comrades-in-arms, Liberal deputies, English nobles who visited Spain visiting him to remember the times of exile in England.

A crown for the military man

When Queen Elizabeth II was dethroned by the Revolution of 1868, Juan Prim and Pascual Madoz offered her the Crown of Spain, a position she did not accept. The years had taken their toll on his person and he did not consider himself strong enough for such a lofty undertaking. The citizens and a good part of the liberal press demanded the old septuagenarian general to be proclaimed king. Pamphlets, articles —especially in the newspapers La Independencia and El Progreso— and even songs with better or worse fortune and taste asked in the big cities that the general be offered the Crown.

One of the popular songs in favor of Espartero as the new King of Spain went like this:

Such would be Spain
Under the Democratic Command,
Altive, not tolerated,
the crown in strange temple;
of the Bourbons the saña
We must never forget,
Montpensier, we don't want it,
Spartero is popular,
We must raise him.

Juan Prim and Prats.

In the spring of 1870, a commission of deputies traveled on the way to the general's retirement in Logroño to ask him to accept the company. They carried a letter from the then President of the Council, Juan Prim, which read:

Madrid, May 13, 1870. Dear Lord, the Government of the Regent considers the time to give a definitive solution to the moment we go through. The worthy ministers that make up the Government that I have the honour to preside over long for the good of the homeland and the consolidation of its freedoms. Known is that in solving the question of Monarch friends and passionate V.A. they remembered the services provided to the constitutional cause by the peacemaker of Spain. For this case, and as I have authorized by the Government, as I am on this present occasion, in all the nominations previously initiated, with due respect, I would like to know whether the acceptance of V.A. for King of Spain could be counted in the event that the Constituent and Sovereign Courts were worthy to elect him. The Government does not sponsor any candidature, leaving the Assembly with complete freedom. It has, however, the duty to prevent the passions from becoming futile if the candidate chosen by the Courts would not be accepted. V.A. will know how high and patriotic the thought that, on behalf of the Government, compels me to address V.A. this letter, from which my former friend and Deputy to Cortes is bearer. Mr. D. Pascual Madoz, who is certainly one of the most addicted people to V. A. It remains of V. A. with the most distinguished consideration, its affectionate and very respectful servant, Signed: The Count of Reus. A. S. A. Serenísima y Capitán General del Ejército don Baldomero Espartero, Duque de la Victoria.

The letter, then, invited him to be a candidate, rather than to be king, with the prevention that he would not rise up if he was not elected. Such was the fear that the old captain general still produced in the ranks of some Army commanders. He sent a brief negative and courteous response to Prim —in which he said "it would not be possible for me to accept such a high position because my many years [75] and my poor health would not allow me to perform well"— and to Nicolás Salmerón, who headed the parliamentary delegation, told him, among other things:

... by conveying to you the expression of my gratitude to General Prim and other friends who in me put their sights with such high thought, tell them of my part to abandon it completely and to lengthen the step on the path of the monarchical constitution of the country. That they want to bring to the Spanish solio no foreign prince because that would be to prolong the dangerous interinity in which we live...

Thus he warned them about the disastrous scope that a foreign monarchy could have for Spain and the frustration that this would generate among the people.

After the failure of the democratic monarchy of Amadeo I that gave way to the First Spanish Republic, it seems that he was asked to accept the presidency of the Republic, although Espartero rejected it.

Filled in by successive heads of state

Spare, by José Casado del Alisal (1872), a work housed in the Palacio de las Cortes.

Elected Amadeo de Saboya as King of Spain, in September 1871 he publicly announced his willingness to visit General Espartero at his residence in Logroño. It is unknown if he was advised to do so, but in the convulsive period of the Democratic Six-year period and with an atypical king elected in Cortes, it seemed convenient for the monarch to gain the confidence of who was a legend of liberalism.

The Duke of Victoria himself went to receive him at the railway station dressed in full dress as captain general, accompanied by civil and military authorities from the city and they traveled together the journey to the duke's house in the midst of the jubilation of the population that acclaimed both. The monarch spent two days staying at the Espartero residence and hardly had any more contact with the population than attending two formal acts. The content of the conversations during the time they were together is unknown, but Espartero, when he accompanied him back to the train station, showed joy, respect and treated him as the legitimate king of the Spanish, an acknowledgment that could very well be the one that Amadeo was looking for. On his return to Madrid, the king granted him the title of Prince of Vergara (January 2, 1872), with the treatment of Royal Highness .

Espartero equestrian statue on the Paseo del Espolón de Logroño.

He would still receive Estanislao Figueras himself in his home after the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic and another king who would come to complete it three times: Alfonso XII.

King Alfonso came for the first time the same year he was elected, on February 9, 1875, accompanied by the Minister of the Navy and also spent the night, like Amadeo, at the duke's house. The delicate health of the old general prevented him from going to receive the monarch, who found an elderly man, but who kept part of his old forces. The king informed him of the concession of the Great Cross of San Fernando, to which Espartero himself had some of the previously won decorations searched for among his decorations and wanted to impose it on Alfonso XII, in his own words.

Spartero tomb in the cathedral the Redonda de Logroño.

... remember that the Constitutional King, more courageous, must be just and faithful custodian of public liberties, thereby ensuring the happiness of the people and will be able to grasp their love...

The monarch returned on September 6, 1876 to inform the victorious general of the First Carlist War that, once again, Carlism had been defeated, and some time later, on October 1, 1878, a religious ceremony was held for the souls of the wives of both, recently deceased.

Last years

He spent the last years of his life at home, surrounded by the affection of his countrymen, as a reference for many of the politicians of the time. His well-known arrogance gave way to a statesman, adviser to all and who manifested on as many occasions as he could, his desire that the disagreements between the different political factions no longer be resolved by means of arms. The death of his wife, Jacinta, plunged him into deep sorrow and he no longer paid attention to anything other than his own death.

His will had been made on June 15, 1878, just six months before he died and shortly after the death of his wife. Having no children, Espartero named his niece Eladia Espartero Fernández y Blanco as universal heir, for whom he felt great predilection. The inheritance, constituted by a great fortune, was accompanied by all the titles and honors.

He gave orders and legacies to the rest of his nephews and the staff of his house, and to his former assistant, the Marquis de Murrieta, he gave the sword that Bilbao gave him as a gift and the equestrian statue that the city of Madrid gave him, in addition to other minor military belongings.

Historical memory

Pass of the burial of Espartero on the street of the Market, in Logroño.

<p The Cánovas del Castillo government appointed the largest possible number of soldiers to participate in the ceremony. Shortly afterwards, a statue suffered with public funds was erected in Madrid, which “represented the distinguished prince of Vergara as a peacemaker of Spain, a title that condenses all its high skills, the acts of its glorious life and explains the fervent and lasting recognition of the homeland". However, this attempt on the elites of the Bourbon Restoration of using the figure of Espartero failed to "nationalize the masses", since when he died at eighty -six years of age "his memory had been substantially lost among the Majority of the population". In the chronicle of his funeral, The Spanish and American Enlightenment pointed out that he was "vaguely remembered by the people." Miguel Maura reports that, during the first days of the Second Spanish Republic, he found a crowd that tried to knock down the equestrian statue in front of the retirement; Someone shouted: "We are going to execute that uncle," to which he replied that "that uncle had been a liberal."

Spartero Baldomer DeathJosé Nin and Tudó. 1879. (La Rioja museum).

One of the first decisions made by the Francoist authorities after the end of the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 was to change the name of Calle Príncipe de Vergara to General Mola. According to the historian Adrian Shubert today the memory of Espartero «is even weaker. Little is what remains: some statues; some street names; a Metro station —Príncipe de Vergara, whose identity is unknown— in Madrid; a rude saying about his horse... In Bilbao, the place where his only great victory took place, nothing remains: the first democratic city council, led by the PNV, renamed Espartero street in favor of one of their own nationalist heroes, Juan Ajuriaguerra. However, Zumalacárregui kept the street that the Francoists had given him.

In memory of Espartero, monuments were built, such as the well-known equestrian sculptures in Madrid; Granátula de Calatrava (Ciudad Real), his hometown and Logroño, the city of his wife and where he retired in his old age. Streets were dedicated to him, such as the Príncipe de Vergara in Madrid and the Duque de la Victoria de Granátula de Calatrava and also in Valladolid or Alicante. In Logroño, he gave himself the name of Príncipe de Vergara to the Espolón, the main promenade of the city where the equestrian statue was raised by popular subscription. His name was also given to a street that Francoism later renamed General Franco and which with democracy became Avda. de la Paz, but it was not left without a street because another was called General Espartero.

According to Adrian Shubert, "Espartero has been erased from Spanish historical memory".

Service sheet

Year	Day and month	Employment
1809	1 November	Distinguished soldier
1812	1 January	Lieutenant
1814	2 September	Lieutenant
1816	9 September	Captain
1817	1 August	Second Commander
1821	26 February	Commander
1822	23 March	Colonel Infantry Graduate
1823	1 February	Infantry Effective Colonel
1823	9 October	Brigadier
1834	17 February	Field Marshal
1836	21 June	General Lieutenant
1838	1 May	General captain

Succession

Predecessor: María Cristina de Borbón-Dos Sicilias	Regent of the Kingdom of Spain on behalf of Isabel II 1841-1843	Successor: Declaration of majority of age Isabel II
Predecessor: Ildefonso Díez de Rivera	President of the Council of Ministers of Spain 1837	Successor: Eusebio Bardají Azara
Predecessor: Vicente Sancho	President of the Council of Ministers of Spain 1840-1841	Successor: Joaquín María Ferrer and Echevarría
Predecessor: Angel Saavedra and Ramírez de Baquedano	President of the Council of Ministers of Spain 1854-1856	Successor: Leopoldo O'Donnel Jorris
Predecessor: Ildefonso Díez de Rivera Spare Francisco Ramonet	Minister of War 1837 1837 1837-1838	Successor: Evaristo San Miguel and Valledor Spare José Carratalá

Sources and documents

Perez Galdós, Benito. Spain without king. Madrid, 1908.
Gomez, Francisco Javier. Historic brain. Detailed description of what one day was and how remarkable it has happened in the city from remote times to our days. Logroño, 1893. Reissued in facsimile edition by the City of Logroño in 1998. First Reprint 2000 ISBN 84-89362-42-4
Ruíz Cortés, F., and Sánchez Cobos, F., Biographical Dictionary of Historical Characters of the 19th Century. Madrid, 1998.
Flórez, José. Spartero. Printed Literary Society. Madrid 1843.
Journée de Torrejon D'Ardoz (Le 22 juillet 1843) par un espagnol. Paris 1843.
Spartero military and political life. Printer of the Society of Operators of the same Art. Madrid 1844.
Contemporary Military Gallery. Company Type of Hortelano and Company. Madrid 1846.
Spain saved or Spartero in power Digitalized edition of the original. Printer of Domingo Ruíz. Logroño (without date). h. 1840.
Chronicle of the province of Logroño Giménez Romera, Waldo. Madrid, 1867.

Spartero Baldomer Service Sheet.

Biographical tab of Baldomero Espartero at the Congress of Deputies.
Relationship of parliamentary elections in which he was elected (breakable link available on the Internet Archive; see history, first version and last). in the History of Congress.
Historic Archive of the Alava forecast.
Archive of the Provincial Council of Albacete. Photographic documents from Luchana. Printed material.
Municipal Archive of Estella, Navarra.

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