Pedro de Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo

Pedro de Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo y Salm-Salm (Madrid, July 20, 1768 – Madrid, November 27, 1841), XIII Duke of Infantado, X Duke of Francavilla, IX Duke de Pastrana, IX Duke of Estremera and XII Marquis of Távara, among other noble titles, knight of the Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece, was a Spanish politician and military man.

Biography

He was the son of the marriage between Pedro de Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo y Silva, 12th Duke of Infantado, and Princess Maria Anna Viktoria Wilhelmine zu Salm-Salm, belonging to a family of the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire. He The fact that his father was the first Infantado to marry a foreigner had consequences on his education, since the family spent long periods in Paris and his tutor, the Valencian botanist Antonio José Cavanilles, also lived there.

His father died in 1790 and at the age of twenty-two he became the head of the House of Infantado. During his youth he showed interest in some industrial projects to which the Spanish enlightened nobility was no longer so reluctant, such as the Torrelavega spinning factory or the canal construction project of the "Big Four of Spain", in which he participated. along with the dukes of Medinaceli and Osuna and the Marquis of Astorga.

He participated in the Roussillon War against the French revolutionaries as colonel of the Castilla Volunteer Regiment, organized at his expense in 1793, and in the War of the Oranges in 1800. The result of his participation in the war against the Convention was his promotion to brigadier. In 1795 he was named field marshal and lieutenant general in 1802. He was one of the favorites of who would later reign as Ferdinand VII of Spain since the anti-Godoya conspiracy of 1807 that led to the El Escorial trial. Prosecutor Simón de Viegas requested the death penalty for him but he was acquitted at the sentencing. Despite this, he was suspended from military rank and Charles IV of Spain banished him to Écija.

After the mutiny of Aranjuez, Ferdinand VII appointed the duke president of the Council of Castile and colonel-in-chief of the Spanish Guard. Some reports from who had been French ambassador in Madrid, François de Beauharnais, attributing to him the leadership of the Spanish resistance, put Joaquín Murat, who had arrived in the capital in March 1808, on his trail. However, the Duke of Infantado He accompanied the new king on the trip that began on April 10 and ended, despite his adverse advice, in the Bayonne abdications.

On his return from France, although he did so accompanying Joseph I, he joined the Spanish side, which is why Napoleon Bonaparte confiscated all his assets by decree of November 12, 1808, which explains why the emperor used his palace of Chamartín de la Rosa in December of that same year to settle in with his General Staff before the capitulation of Madrid. The duke, appointed commander in chief of the Army of the Center, participated in the Spanish defeat that resulted in the battle of Uclés, in 1809. Subsequently, he was appointed ambassador in London, a position he held until the Cortes designated him a member of the Regency of 1812 or the Quintillo, so called as it was made up of five people. After the war and the Deseado returned, he was one of the few people in the monarch's circle who expressed their reservations regarding repealing the Constitution of 1812, the first drafted in Spain.

He was part of the government appointed by Fernando VII in 1814. Under the protection of the army of the Hundred Thousand Sons of San Luis, he was president of the Regency Council in 1823, during the captivity of Fernando VII. He was also President of the Government between 1825 and 1826. He died in Madrid in 1841, aged 73.

In his youth, being single, he had a son and two daughters. When he died, his will was contested and led to the most important probate trial of the time. His son, Manuel Álvarez de Toledo Lasparre Salm-Salm y Valledor, born from his relationship with Manuela Lasparre Valledor, born in Guadalajara in 1805, recognized by his father and legitimized by Royal Rescript in 1825, was XII Duke of Pastrana, XIII Duke of Francavilla and XIII Marquis of Cenete, by transfer, made in 1852, from the XI Duke of Pastrana, Mariano Téllez-Girón and Beaufort Spontin.

Titles, orders and positions

Titles

• XIII Duke of the Infant
• X duque de Francavilla
• IX Duke of Pastrana
• IX Duke of Estremera
• XIV Marquis de Santillana
• XIII Marquis de Campoo
• XII Marquis of Argüeso
• XII Marquis of the Cenete
• XII marquis of Tavara
• X marquis de Cea
• X Marquis de Algecilla
• IX Marquis of Almenara
• XVI count of Saldaña
• XIV Count of the Real of Manzanares
• XII count of the Cid
• XI Count of Villada.

Orders

Kingdom of Spain

• Knight of the Order of the Golden Toy.

• Big Knight of the Order of Charles III.
• Big Knight of the Royal Military Order of San Fernando.

Foreign

• Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ.

Charges

• Camera man with exercise.
• 1814-1823: President of the Royal Council.
• 1825-1826: Secretary of the State Office.
• State Counselor.
• Captain General of the Royal Army.
• Lieutenant General of the Royal Army.
• Colonel of the First Regiment of Royal Spanish Infantry Guards.
• Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.
  • November 17, 1815: Consiliary.
  • April 1792: Honorary academic.
• January 29, 1802: Academic honor of the Royal Academy of History.

Ancestors