Baldomero Espartero

gigatos | February 4, 2022

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Summary

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 military man who held the titles of prince of Vergara, Duke of Victory, Duke of Morella, Count of Luchana and Viscount of Banderas, all of them in reward for his work on the battlefield, especially in the first Carlist War, where his leadership of the Elizabethan or Christian Army was of vital importance for the final victory. He also held the post of Viceroy of Navarre (1836).

His father had channeled his training for an ecclesiastical destiny, but the War of Independence dragged him to the battle front from a very young age, which he did not abandon until twenty-five years later. A combatant in three of the four most important conflicts in Spain in the 19th century, he was a soldier in the war against the French invasion, an officer during the Peruvian war of independence and general in chief in the first Carlist war mentioned above. He lived in Cadiz the birth of Spanish liberalism, a path he would never abandon. An extremely hard man, he valued the loyalty of his comrades-in-arms – a term that other generals did not like to hear – as much as he valued efficiency. He fought in the front line, was wounded on eight occasions and his haughty and demanding character led him to commit excesses, sometimes very bloody, in military discipline. Convinced that his destiny was to govern the Spanish people, he was twice president of the Council of Ministers and became head of state as regent during the minority of Isabel II. In spite of all his contradictions, he knew how to pass unnoticed during his last twenty-eight years. He rejected the Spanish Crown and was treated as a legend from a very young age.

The Nation is counting on your efforts, on your virtues, on your wisdom, so that you may make laws that will strengthen its 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, because I have always wanted the national will to be fulfilled, and because I am convinced that without obedience to the laws, liberty is impossible.

However, as historian Adrian Shubert notes:

Espartero has been erased from Spanish historical memory. While other figures whose role in the history of the country was much less significant remain alive in the memory, his name has passed from idolatry to oblivion.

He was the youngest of eight siblings and the son of a carpenter-mason, a working family of the preponderant middle class in a town of almost three thousand inhabitants. Three of his brothers were religious and one sister, a Poor Clare nun. In Granátula he had received Latin and humanities classes with his neighbor Antonio Meoro, a Grammar teacher, with great fame in the area, since he prepared the boys to access higher studies. In fact, his son, Anacleto Meoro Sánchez, was later named bishop of Almería. He attended his first official studies at the University Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Almagro, where a Dominican brother of his lived, and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts and Philosophy. Almagro had its own University since 1553 by Royal Decree of Charles I and was a very active and prosperous city. His father wished for Espartero an ecclesiastical formation, but destiny truncated that possibility. In 1808 he enlisted in the army to form part of the forces that fought after the uprising of May 2 in Madrid against the Napoleonic occupation. The universities had been closed the previous year by Charles IV and Almagro itself had been occupied by the French.

He was recruited along with a large group of young men by the Supreme Central Junta that had been formed 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 reached Andalusia. He was enlisted in the “Ciudad Rodrigo” Infantry Regiment, garrisoned in Seville, as a Distinguished Soldier, a rank he acquired for having studied at university. During his time on the front lines in south-central Spain, he participated in the battle of Ocaña, where the Spanish forces were defeated. Again, his university status allowed him to form part of the Battalion of University Volunteers that was grouped around the University of Toledo in August 1808, but the French advance took him to Cadiz where his unit fulfilled its functions of defense of the Supreme Central Junta. The peremptory needs of an army almost destroyed by the enemy forced the rapid training of officers to be instructed in military techniques. Espartero”s previous university training allowed the artillery colonel, Mariano Gil de Bernabé, to select him along with another group of enthusiastic young men at the recently created Military Academy of Seville. The new assignment did not prevent him from acting from the first moment in skirmishes with the enemy during his training as a cadet, and this is recorded in his service record. He was integrated, along with forty-eight other cadets, in the Academy of Engineers on September 11, 1811 and promoted to second lieutenant on January 1 of the following year. He failed the second course, but was offered the alternative of joining the infantry, as were other second lieutenants. He took part in outstanding military operations in Chiclana, which earned him his first decoration: the Cross of Chiclana.

Besieged by the French armies since 1810, he was a front-line spectator of the debates of the Cortes de Cadiz 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 Infantry Regiment of Soria, and with that unit he moved to Catalonia fighting in Tortosa, Cherta and Amposta, until returning with the Regiment to Madrid.

Road to America

Once the war was over, and eager to continue his military career, Espartero enlisted in September 1814 -at the same time he was promoted to lieutenant- in the Extremadura Regiment, embarking on the frigate Carlota to America on February 1, 1815 to suppress the rebellion for independence in the colonies.

The Fernandine court had managed to move six infantry regiments and two cavalry regiments overseas. Under the orders of General Miguel Tacón y Rosique, Espartero was integrated into one of the divisions formed with the Extremadura Regiment that headed for 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 with 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, work for which the only person with technical knowledge of the entire Army of Upper Peru was Espartero, for having two years of training in the school of engineers. The success of the enterprise earned him the promotion to captain on September 19, 1816 and, even before completing one year, that of second in command.

After the pronunciamiento of Riego and the swearing in of the Cadiz Constitution by the king, the peninsular troops in America were definitively divided between royalists and constitutionalists. San Martín took advantage of these circumstances of internal division to continue his harassment of the enemy and to advance, before which a numerous group of officers dismissed Pezuela as viceroy on January 29, 1821, appointing in his place General José de la Serna e Hinojosa. It is not known exactly what role Espartero played in this movement, although his unit as a whole was loyal to the new viceroy. Be that as it may, the later Duke of Victory was fully employed in southern Peru and eastern Bolivia in a unique mode of combat characterized by few troops and rapid actions where knowledge of the terrain and the ability to make the most of the resources at hand were decisive. This mode of operation would later be the one he would also develop in the war in Spain.

Espartero”s promotions for war actions were constant. In 1823 he was already an Infantry colonel in charge of the Central Battalion of the army of Upper Peru. When the pro-independence side launched the First Intermediate Campaign at the beginning of 1823, the Chilean general Rudecindo Alvarado tried to penetrate with much superior forces through the fortifications of Arequipa and Potosí, of which Espartero was especially proud, General Jerónimo Valdés did not hesitate to entrust him with the defense of the position of Torata, with barely four hundred men, in order to harass the enemy from there, while Valdés organized an encirclement. When the rebels arrived, Espartero held the position for two hours causing important casualties and retreating under Valdés” orders in an orderly manner, while the latter went out to meet the enemy without allowing him to advance and, in an error of General Alvarado when deploying an excessive front line, Valdés launched an attack from which he thwarted the pretensions of penetration. After the arrival of José de Canterac, the enemy was put to flight, being the Battalion of Espartero one of those that pursued the fleeing forces through Moquegua and stood out for completely destroying the so-called Peruvian Legion. General Valdés wrote in his report on Espartero:

He has much courage, talent, application and known adherence to the King our Lord: he is very suitable for the command of a Corps and even more to serve as a staff officer because of his knowledge. This one will one day be a good general….

In addition to his bravery, he was cold-blooded and capable of deceiving the enemy, infiltrating among the rebels to later arrest them and, in a summary trial, condemn them to death and execute them. This way of proceeding would be a constant in his military career.

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End of the American stage and return to Spain

On October 9, 1823, the victorious commander was promoted to brigadier and given the command of the General Staff of the Army of Upper Peru. After finishing the work of controlling the insurgent remnants, La Serna sent him to the Salta conference as plenipotentiary representative of the viceroy for the signing of an armistice that would allow the extension of the agreements with the insurgents of Buenos Aires to Peru. In Salta, Espartero met with General José Santos de la Hera, who acted on behalf of the royal commissioners. Espartero informed Las Heras that the agreement was not possible, since the enemy forces lacked any 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 of containment of the independence aspirations for others.

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

… a man of medium height, by the set and proportions of his body he did not give the impression of smallness… clear eyes, cold look… his facial muscles did not contract at any time…

The end of the Liberal Triennium and the return to absolutism divided the expeditionary army again. 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 on an English ship. He arrived in Cadiz on September 28 and presented himself in Madrid on October 12. Although he obtained for the viceroy the confidence of the Crown, he could not 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 disaster of Ayacucho, 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, among other people, of the Extremaduran liberal Antonio González y González, who was suffering exile in Arequipa, he was released after suffering hard imprisonment, 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 took up residence in Logroño, much to his regret. There, on September 13, 1827, he married María Jacinta Martínez de Sicilia, a rich heiress of the city and thanks to whom he became a landowner.

Despite the favorable reports from his superiors, when he returned to the peninsula he had to carry out bureaucratic functions and minor assignments, which irritated him. He took the opportunity to organize his new estate, which consisted of the fortune inherited from his wife, María Jacinta, and which consisted of an entailed estate and various related properties, including important rural and urban estates and nearly a million and a half reales, also from the profits of the investments that his wife”s tutors had made during her minority.

In 1828 he was appointed commander of arms and president of the Junta de Agravios de 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 provoked his anger when he was mentioned-, 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 “the Ayacuchos”, in memory of his American past and the influence that other liberal military officers who participated in that war had on his political ideas. His activity in the American campaign was feverish and outstanding due to his knowledge in topography and construction of military installations, his ability to act quickly and with few troops, the virtue of mobilizing troops promptly and the authority that his soldiers recognized. His war merits were numerous, although he made little mention of them in later years.

The “Elizabethan” general

Upon 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 the military qualities he had already demonstrated during the American campaigns, among which stood out his bravery -which was what most contributed to make 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 the custom here” – and his interest in the men under his command, as demonstrated by his continuous efforts to obtain funds to pay the salaries and supplies of 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 soldier his reduced envelopes”.

But during the civil war two of his defects also appeared: that his courage alternated with recurrent episodes of idleness and lack of firmness -which may have been related to his lifelong bladder ailment that made it extremely painful for him to ride a horse- 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 -paid liberal volunteers- from Guipuzcoa whose members had supposedly murdered 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 affirmed that the acts committed by these soldiers demanded the “public demonstration to the troops and to the towns…. with a severe chastisement”, and during the same, the chapelgorris who were to be shot were drawn by lot, one out of ten, and from among them ten were chosen, “and without giving them more time than a few moments to confess, the ten who were so unfortunate were inhumanely shot”, according to the battalion commander. Likewise, Espartero 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 granted 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 her government to eliminate the Carlist elements, Espartero was named commander general of Vizcaya in 1834, under the orders of his former chief, Jerónimo Valdés, who had reclaimed him for service in the campaign. He thus participated in the northern front during the First Carlist War, playing an outstanding role, but not before having put to flight several Carlist parties in Onteniente.

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

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The first defeat

In May he was awarded the General Command of all the Basque Provinces. The second great action 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 Christians, however, were going through a serious crisis as the commanders had been changed on several occasions due to the 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 ordered by Valdés to confront Zumalacárregui, for which he had two divisions and a battalion, plus another two divisions approaching from the Baztán valley. On June 2 he managed to effortlessly position himself on a high ground in sight of Villafranca, on the road to Vergara. He secured the positions while awaiting reinforcements, but changed his mind and headed for Vergara. Being in sight of the Carlist general Francisco Benito Eraso, he took advantage of the vulnerability of the rear battalion to attack it in its retreat with little more than three infantry companies. The impression of those under attack was that the Carlist force was numerous and, little by little, panic spread among the troops, who 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, which opened the way for them to besiege Bilbao.

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

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

In Bilbao, when fourteen Carlist battalions besieged the city on August 24, 1835, Espartero took an active part in raising the siege with little effort. On his way to Vitoria after leaving Bilbao on September 11, Carlist battalions opposed his units, so he ordered to attack them, chasing them to Arrigorriaga, where he found important Carlist forces that forced him to retreat to the capital of Biscay. In this retreat he found that the entrance to the city was taken, so he received attacks from the front and rear. Cornered, Espartero decided to confront the troops that at the bridge over the Nervión River cut him off, so he was finally able to cross on his way to the city in a brilliant action that earned him the Laureate Cross of San Fernando and the Grand Cross of Carlos III, as well as a wound in his arm.

Despite his defiant ability, his commanders did not consider him capable of leading the bulk of the Christian armies, given his wild 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. Having received orders to attack the enemy in any advantageous situation, Espartero occupied the port of Orduña in March with reduced forces, thus gaining an advantageous position for the army. This earned him a new Laureate of San Fernando and the possibility of carrying out a new action days later over Amurrio. After the actions with the III Division, when opening the passage to Biscay, Fernandez de Cordoba proposed him, much to his regret, for promotion to lieutenant general on June 20. The war still allowed him to obtain the title of deputy for Logroño to the Cortes Generales in the elections held on October 3, 1836, together with another great champion of liberalism, Salustiano de Olózaga. He would still be elected on three other occasions throughout his life, although he never occupied his seat and resigned in favor of other provinces.

In the summer Espartero fell ill and moved to Logroño to recover. Liberal movements throughout Spain followed one after another while he rested. His military successes finally catapulted him to be named general in chief of the Army of the North and viceroy of Navarre, replacing Fernández de Córdoba. The mutiny of the sergeants of La Granja, which had placed the regent in the need to abandon the Royal Statute and give more prominence to the liberals with the reestablishment of the Cadiz Constitution of 1812, also favored the appointment.

The General in Chief

Reaching the rank of general in chief made the future Duke of Victory moderate his cruelty, limit his impetuous actions and dedicate some time to reorganize the Elizabethan army that had two serious problems: first, the need to move through a territory, the Carlist, well established, where the forces loyal to Maria Cristina only had some large cities and fortifications, but no freedom of movement; secondly, the lack of resources to equip the troops and the absence of internal discipline.

Bilbao again: the battle of Luchana

Almost without warlike activity, the Carlists took advantage to reorganize and returned to besiege Bilbao in 1836 with more forces and better organized than in the first occasion. From the Ebro and without using the road to Vitoria, Espartero led fourteen battalions on their way to the Biscayan capital in a slow and stormy journey, concentrating in the Mena valley in November, since he did not yet 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 he arrived on the 27th. He took the heights of Baracaldo, but was repulsed by the Carlists in 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 not to pay attention: he ordered to build a bridge of boats over the Nervión and on December 1 the Elizabethan army was on the other side, having to maintain the positions against the incessant enemy fire. The second attempt to raise the siege failed again and the morale of the troops declined. Lacking money, which did not arrive until the middle of the month, Espartero drew up a plan that allowed him to attack at the same time on both banks of the Nervión. 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 through the Luchana Bridge on Christmas Day.

Particularly satisfied, an officer sent, according to his instructions, the following Oficio to the Government from which the substance is extracted:

… The privations and sufferings of the troops of my command have been rewarded this day. Yesterday at four o”clock in the afternoon I arranged the daring operation of embarking companies of hunters to seize 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 it cut; but within an hour and a half it was reestablished. The enemy, gathering considerable forces, came to that point: the combat was already engaged at night: the storm of water, snow and hail was frightful: the loss that this army experienced in the many hours of combat was also considerable. The moments were critical; but the determined bayonet charges made us masters of all their positions, raising the siege of this town, in which I have verified today the entrance. All its batteries, ammunition and immense park remained in our power… Bilbao Headquarters, December 25, 1836. His Excellency Mr. Baldomero Espartero. His Excellency Mr. Secretary of State and of the Office of War.

His victory in the battle of Luchana “put Espartero”s name on everyone”s lips, at least in liberal Spain, and made him the subject of paintings, countless newspaper articles, parliamentary speeches and also, no doubt, of café conversations. According to Antonio Espina, after Luchana, Espartero “acquired epic proportions”. He was an ideal Christmas present for the liberal cause. For the people he became the “Sword of Luchana”, and later received the title of Count of Luchana”.

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Towards the end of the war: the “Vergara Embrace”.

After Luchana, the war was coming to an end. The forces loyal to Isabel II were superior in number and operational capacity. From Bilbao, Espartero moved through the north of the Basque Country to Navarre, concentrated and organized the troops, went to the Maestrazgo and was forced to face the so-called Royal Expedition led by the Carlist pretender, his last attempt to conquer Madrid and win the war. Espartero caught up with them at the gates of the capital, where the battle of Aranzueque was fought with victory for the “Elizabethan” general. The success placed him in a dominant position among the liberals, but also among all the citizens who were grateful to him for having saved them from the incursion and for having caused the enemy army to collapse. The tributes and public and private thanks convinced Espartero that the popularity obtained was a very valuable baggage to achieve political power.

Between 1837 and 1839, while forming a fleeting government for lack of sufficient parliamentary support, he defeated the Carlist troops in Peñacerrada, in Ramales -which was called Ramales de la Victoria from then on- and in Guardamino.

He fomented the division among the Carlists and signed the peace, very actively promoted by the military representative of Great Britain in Bilbao, Lord John Hay, with the Carlist general Rafael Maroto by means of the Agreement of Oñate on August 29, 1839, confirmed with the embrace that these two generals gave each other two days later before the troops of both armies gathered in the fields of Vergara, act that is known as the Embrace of Vergara.

The agreement between Espartero and Maroto sealed with the “embrace of Vergara” on August 31, 1839 consisted of the Carlists laying down their arms in exchange for the officers and soldiers of their army being incorporated into the regular army and that the fueros of Guipúzcoa, Álava, Vizcaya and Navarra would be respected by the government. The idea of using the fueros to achieve peace seems to have arisen at the beginning of 1837, although it is disputed who it came from -Antonio Pirala in his Historia del Convenio de Vergara published in 1852 attributed it to Eugenio de Aviraneta-.

The signing of the peace agreement with Maroto had been contested by many Carlist sectors, among which was General Ramón Cabrera who, taking refuge in Maestrazgo, stood up to Espartero until he was defeated with the conquest of Morella on May 30, 1840, an action for which Queen Isabella granted him the title of Duke of Morella and the Golden Fleece. Cabrera fled to Catalonia with most of the remnants of the Army of the North, pursued by General Leopoldo O”Donnell.

The victorious end of the Carlist War earned him the dignity of Grand Duke of Spain and the title of Duke of Victory, in addition to those of Duke of Morella, Count of Luchana and Viscount of Banderas. Many years later, in 1872, King Amadeo I also granted him the title of Prince of Vergara, with the treatment of His Royal Highness. Subsequently, this bestowal was confirmed by King Alfonso XII.

Although in 1826, during the ominous decade, he denounced a liberal conspiracy that was being organized in London by “traitors” led by the exiled general Espoz y Mina to overthrow the absolute monarchy of Ferdinand VII, after his death, Espartero was always a supporter of liberalism against absolutism. However, he never put his ideology in writing and “his political thought never went beyond a few vague pronouncements on liberty and the constitutions, as well as loyalty to the monarchy, which can be summarized in a motto that he himself made famous: “Cúmplase la voluntad nacional” (Let the national will be fulfilled)”. Another of the phrases that summarize his political thought was that what he wanted for Spain was “freedom properly understood”, whose model was the British constitutional monarchy, because there “assembly and petition are respected as a right in order to know the opinion and avoid the force that carries with it a sudden change that here is called revolution”. His first political statement appeared implicitly in a poem written to celebrate the reestablishment of the Constitution of 1812 after the mutiny of the sergeants of La Granja in August 1836.

Mother Spain had not long ago seen And surrounded by ambitious children Of the particular good that dominates them.Nor even found consolation in the hope Of recovering her lost liberty.Thrown at her feet and already dissolvedThe best of the codes lay.Shattered her beautiful pagesWhich once made the Spanish people free. And the noble farmer, the merchant, The learned Muses and the active industryWitnesses were of their bitter weeping, Who faithfully imitated them concurred.In this, from the diligent fameThe echoes are heard, that asking for joy, Publish that through the peoples of Iberia

He always showed total loyalty to Queen Isabel 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, monarchist and defender of that august person, do not want to be an accomplice to his dethronement”; he even remained for a while in Madrid, 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 VE as a flag”. This loyalty was also maintained after she was dethroned in the Glorious Revolution of 1868 defending the rights to the throne of her son, the future Alfonso XII.

His actions as a politician were 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 pay attention to newspapers or nuances; with the Constitution one commands as with the ordinance; when he who commands is just and firm and when he does not separate himself from the law, no one must stop him and nothing will stop him in his march…. I do not pay attention to nuances or papers because I am the Spanish flag and all Spaniards will join it.

This way of understanding government became evident when in October 1841 he ordered the execution by firing squad of the generals and politicians involved in an attempted coup d”état that included the kidnapping of the eleven-year-old Queen Isabella II, among whom was the young General Diego de León.

Also read, history – Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)

Espartero regent of Spain (1840-1843)

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

His entry was celebrated with the most enthusiastic welcome; for three days the festivities continued on a scale of regal magnificence-the streets illuminated, the houses adorned with hangings, triumphal arches erected in the Prado, and an airy column with the appropriate symbols in the Puerta del Sol-as well as dramatic spectacles and bullfights, to which spectators were invited with tickets to meet him.

These displays of enthusiasm were repeated elsewhere, as when he arrived in Valencia on October 8 and the crowd unhitched the horses from his carriage and pulled him through the streets of the city.

His entry into political life took place after the victory of Luchana when both moderates and progressives offered him to form part of the government occupying the Ministry of War, but he refused because the war had not yet concluded. His choice 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 aide Linage be promoted to field marshal, although his confrontations with the moderate general Ramón María Narváez, which had been going on for years, when he was not supplied with the same troops, material and funds as the Espadón de Loja, could also have had an influence.

Espartero”s incursions into politics since 1839 were harshly contested by the moderate press. Conscious of his power and opposed to the conservatism of María Cristina, after the revolts of 1840 he managed to be named president of the Council of Ministers, but insufficient support forced him to resign. Espartero led the Progressive Party without opposition and needed a sufficient majority in the Cortes. The mutiny of La Granja de San Ildefonso had drawn 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 generalized uprising against María Cristina in the most important cities -Barcelona, Zaragoza and Madrid, the most prominent ones- and in the resignation and surrender of the Regency and custody of her daughters, including Queen Isabel, into the hands of the general.

Espartero reached the regency while María Cristina went into exile in France. However, the Progressive Party was divided as to how to fill the space left by Isabel II”s mother. On the one hand, the so-called Trinitarians advocated the appointment of a Regency shared by three members. On the other hand, the Unitarians led by Espartero himself maintained the need for a solid one-man Regency. Finally, on March 8, 1841, Espartero was elected sole regent of the Kingdom by 169 votes of the Cortes Generales against 103 votes obtained by Agustín Argüelles. The strength of the general allowed him to reach the Regency not without first having made enemies with a significant part of the Progressive Party that saw in the general a latent authoritarianism, having even used part of the moderate votes to reach the sole regency.

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 by firing squad of some prominent and valued members of the army, such as Diego de León. Subsequently, the uprising in Barcelona in November 1842, provoked 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 heavy casualties. The famous phrase “Barcelona must be bombed at least once every fifty years” is attributed to him, but according to historian Adrian Shubert the phrase is “undoubtedly” a “myth”, “a legacy of recent nationalism”, there being a “strong cult of Espartero in Catalonia that lasted thirty years after the bombardment 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 distanced himself after the bombardment, revolted in Barcelona; General Narváez disembarked in Valencia and marched to Madrid, where he would later be joined by Prim.

In 1843 he was forced to dissolve the Cortes, due to their hostility. Narváez and Serrano led a joint pronouncement of moderate and progressive military, 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 in person.

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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 he was found in the peninsula, he would be “put to arms” without waiting for further instructions. But the maneuvers of Luis González Bravo and of Narváez himself against the progressives, especially against Salustiano Olózaga, made that these did not take long to claim from Espartero, in exile, the leadership of the liberals. In England Espartero lived an austere life, although he was constantly entertained by the British Court and all the nobility. He did not lose sight of national politics and, undoubtedly, 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-. Only one day after his arrival in London, according to 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”. He was also visited by the Earl of Clarendon and Sir Robert Peel and was invited to dinner by Lord Palmerston, among others. He was received in audience by Queen Victoria and on September 26, 1843 the Lord Mayor of London hosted a dinner in his honor at the Mansion House, during which he delivered a speech – which had to be approved after a lengthy debate in the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, in Spain, the publisher Benito Hortelano Balvo published a chapter by chapter biography of Espartero, written by Carlos Massa Languinete, which was a huge success. Hortelano himself recalled in his memoirs the popularity Espartero continued to enjoy despite his exile.

The people of Madrid were not only great enthusiasts of the general, but also fanatical admirers. During his exile in London, all their hopes were pinned on him. He was their savior, their idol; they could not temporize with the moderates, because they had ostracized 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 widened. Isabel II, advised by her mother, tried to bring Espartero closer to the Crown, knowing that, sooner rather than later, she would have to count on a man admired by his people and with 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 named him Senator and, a little later, Ambassador Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. It was the time of reconciliation.

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Reconciled with the Queen: the Progressive Biennium (1854-1856)

In 1848 he was restored to his honors and returned to Spain, taking refuge in Logroño and abandoning public life. In this way he fulfilled a wish he had already expressed at the beginning of the regency in a letter written to his wife in which he told her that when he managed to “consolidate the throne of Isabel, the Constitution, the peace, prosperity and independence of my country” he would spend the rest of his life “planting trees in La Fombera and improving Logroño as a simple citizen”.

However, during his retirement in Logroño his popularity did not wane, as noted by the editor of his biography Benito Hortelano who went to visit him after his return from exile and found his house surrounded by the crowd, “an immense people who settled day and night in order to see the leader of the people, if he ever came out or looked out on the balcony; a glance from him would have been enough to electrify that population”.

He 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 returning to active politics he launched this brief proclamation to his fellow citizens of Logroño:

Riojanos: I am leaving Logroño, my adopted town, because the homeland and its freedom demand my presence in the undefeated Zaragoza. I take with me the pleasant memory of seven years in which I have been your fellow citizen. I leave you with only one task: Obey the patriotic Junta that has been installed on this day, respect its dispositions and preserve order, a sure guarantee of triumph.

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

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

Other diplomatic representatives and Spanish observers and politicians, such as Fernando Garrido, leader of the Democratic Party and pioneer of Spanish socialism, expressed the same opinion.

The triumphant revolution, national sovereignty, can only be worthily represented by the soldier of Liberty, by the man of the People, by the citizen who wrote on his flag when the armed people offered him dictatorship: Cúmplase la Voluntad Nacional.

Espartero was also considered the symbol of the working class struggle, even in Barcelona, a city he had ordered bombed sixteen years earlier. Thus, in the strike of the selfactinists between July and December 1854 the workers said: “Y perque nols nols engañen

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

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Retreat in Logroño (1856-1879)

After definitively abandoning the government of the Progressive Biennium, Espartero never intended to return. Anyone who approached him for news, to receive advice, to get 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 passed through Spain visiting him to remember the times of his exile in England.

When Queen Isabella II was dethroned by the Revolution of 1868, Juan Prim and Pascual Madoz offered him the Crown of Spain, a position he did not accept. The years had taken their toll on him 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.

In the spring of 1870, a commission of deputies traveled to the general”s retreat in Logroño to ask him to accept the enterprise. They carried a letter from the then president of the Council, Juan Prim, which read:

Madrid, May 13, 1870. Most Serene Sir: The Government of the Regent considers that the time has come to give a definitive solution to the moment we are going through. The worthy ministers who compose the Government over which I have the honor to preside yearn for the good of the homeland and the consolidation of its liberties. It is well known that in resolving the question of the Monarch, friends and lovers of Your Majesty remembered the services rendered to the constitutional cause by the peacemaker of Spain. For this case, and, as I have been authorized by the Government, as I am on this present occasion, in all the candidacies previously initiated, with all due respect, I would like to know if the acceptance of Your Majesty for King of Spain could be counted on in the event that the Constituent and sovereign Cortes deign to elect you. The Government does not sponsor any candidacy, leaving the Assembly complete freedom. It has, however, the duty to prevent passions from being uselessly agitated if it should not accept the candidate chosen by the Cortes. Your Majesty will know how elevated and patriotic is the thought which, in the name of the Government, obliges me to address this letter to Your Majesty, which is carried by my old friend and Member of Parliament, His Excellency Mr. Pascual Madoz, who is certainly one of the persons most devoted to Your Majesty. I remain from Your Majesty with the most distinguished consideration, your affectionate and most respectful servant, Signed: The Count of Reus. To His Serene Highness and Captain General of the Army Don Baldomero Espartero, Duke of Victory.

The letter, then, invited him to be a candidate, rather than a king, with the prevention that he would not revolt 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 polite reply to Prim – in which he told him “that it would not be possible for me to accept such a high office because my many years and my poor health would not allow me to perform it well” – and to Nicolás Salmerón, who headed the parliamentary delegation, he said, among other things:

… in conveying the expression of my gratitude to General Prim and other friends who set their sights on me with such a high thought, tell them on my behalf to abandon it completely and to lengthen the step on the road to the monarchical constitution of the country. That they desist from bringing any foreign prince to the Spanish throne because that would be to prolong the dangerous interim in which we live….

He thus warned them of the disastrous consequences 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 sounded out to accept the presidency of the Republic, although Espartero rejected it.

The Duke de la Victoria himself went to meet him at the railroad station dressed in full dress as Captain General, accompanied by civil and military authorities of the city, and they walked together to the Duke”s house amidst the jubilation of the people who acclaimed them both. The monarch spent two days at Espartero”s residence and hardly had any contact with the population other than attending two ceremonial 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, gave signs of joy, respect and treated him as the legitimate king of the Spaniards, recognition that could very well be what Amadeo was looking for. Upon his return to Madrid, the king granted him the title of Prince of Vergara (January 2, 1872), with the treatment of Royal Highness.

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

King Alfonso came for the first time the same year of his election, on February 9, 1875, accompanied by the Minister of the Navy and also spent, like Amadeo, the night at the Duke”s house. The delicate health of the old general prevented him from going to receive the monarch, who found an aged man, but who kept part of his old strength. The king informed him of the concession of the Grand Cross of San Fernando, to which Espartero himself made him search among his decorations for some of those he had won previously and wanted to impose it on Alfonso XII in order to, in his own words, “give him the Grand Cross of San Fernando”.

… remember that the Constitutional King, in addition to being courageous, must be just and faithful custodian of public liberties, thus ensuring the happiness of the people and winning their love….

The monarch returned on September 6, 1876 to communicate to 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, who had died a short time before.

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 haughtiness gave way to a statesman, advisor to all and who expressed on as many occasions as he could, his desire that the disagreements between the different political factions should no longer be solved by the use of arms. The death of his wife Jacinta plunged him into a deep sorrow and he did not pay attention to his own end.

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

To the rest of his nephews and household staff he gave mandates and legacies, and to his former assistant, the Marquis of Murrieta, he gave the sword with which Bilbao presented him and the equestrian statue given to him by the city of Madrid, as well as other minor military possessions.

The funeral of the general was paid for by the State and his remains received the protocol due to a captain general who died in the line of duty, despite having been retired from active military and political life for a long time. The government of Cánovas del Castillo designated as many soldiers as possible to participate in the ceremony. Shortly afterwards, a statue was erected in Madrid, paid for with public funds, to “represent the distinguished Prince of Vergara as the peacemaker of Spain, a title that condenses all his high gifts, the acts of his glorious life and explains the fervent and enduring recognition of the homeland”. However, this attempt by the elites of the Bourbon Restoration to use the figure of Espartero to “nationalize the masses” failed, since when he died at the age of eighty-six “his memory had been substantially lost among the majority of the population”. In the chronicle of his funeral, La Ilustración Española y Americana noted that he was “vaguely remembered by the people”. Miguel Maura relates that, during the early days of the Second Spanish Republic, he encountered a crowd that tried to tear down the equestrian statue located in front of the Retiro; someone shouted, “Let”s execute that guy,” to which he replied that “that guy had been a liberal.”

One of the first decisions taken by the Francoist authorities after the end of the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 was to change the name of Príncipe de Vergara Street to General Mola. According to historian Adrian Shubert, today the memory of Espartero “is even weaker. Little is left: 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”s street in favor of one of its own nationalist heroes, Juan Ajuriaguerra. However, Zumalacárregui kept the street given to him by the Francoists”.

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, city of his wife and where he retired in his old age. Streets were dedicated to him, such as Príncipe de Vergara in Madrid and Duque de la Victoria in Granátula de Calatrava, and also in Valladolid and Alicante. In Logroño, the name Príncipe de Vergara was given to the Espolón, the main promenade of the city where the equestrian statue was erected by popular subscription. A street was also named after him, later renamed General Franco by the Franco regime and with democracy it became Avda. de la Paz, but it was not left without a street because another one was named General Espartero.

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

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Sources