# Rafael del Riego

Rafael del Riego y Flórez (7 April 1784 – 7 November 1823) was a Spanish general and liberal politician who played a key role in the establishment of the Liberal Triennium (Trienio liberal in Spanish). The failure of the Cádiz army to set sail has been identified as the most important factor in the loss of Spanish control over the Río de la Plata.

## Early life

Riego was born on 7 April 1784 in Tuña, Asturias. After graduating in Law from the University of Oviedo in 1807, he moved to Madrid to join the Royal Guard. In March 1808 his company was involved in the Tumult of Aranjuez and dissolved.

## Peninsular War

In November 1808, as a captain and aide-de-camp to General Vicente María de Acevedo, he fought at the Battle of Espinosa de los Monteros, after which he once again was taken prisoner. Sent to France, he remained there until January 1814, when he managed to escape and make his way to England, where he joined a unit of foreign soldiers raised by the British government to send to Spain.
Returning shortly before the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was abolished by King Fernando VII, Riego was appointed a captain in the Infantry Regiment of the Princess (Regimiento de Infantería de la Princesa) in 1814. During the six years of absolutism that followed the restoration of the king, Spanish liberals wished to restore the Spanish Constitution, which the King had abolished in May 1814. Riego joined the freemasons and collaborated with liberals in several conspiracies against the King, which failed.

## 1820 revolt

Having joined the Ejército de Ultramar, the expeditionary force commanded by Enrique O'Donnell, Conde de La Bisbal, that was being prepared to put down the Spanish American wars of independence, and later promoted to lieutenant colonel, Riego was incorporated into the Asturian Battalion, then under the command of Evaristo San Miguel, at Las Cabezas de San Juan (Seville). However, the Expeditionary Force, numbering some twenty thousand men, was unable to embark due to the lack of transport ships. Moreover, the troops themselves were badly equipped and morale in general was very low.
San Miguel, from Asturias, like Riego, had also been deported for his liberal ideas and was, at that moment, involved in a plot with other army officers and leading members of the bourgeoisie in Cádiz, including people like Istúriz, Alcalá Galiano, Antonio Quiroga and Mendizábal. However, the plot was discovered when the plotters tried to recruit General Sarsfield, the second-in-command of the expeditionary force, San Miguel, Quiroga, O'Daly and Roten among others, were arrested. With the leading plotters imprisoned, Riego decided to go ahead with the mutiny and on 1 January 1820, at the head of his battalion at Cabezas de San Juan proclaimed the restoration of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, the start of what is known as the Pronunciamiento de Riego, a major event in the historiography of Liberalism and radicalism in Spain, along with the Liberal Triennium.
Riego's troops marched through the cities of Andalusia with the hope of starting an anti-absolutist uprising, but the local population was mostly indifferent. An uprising, however, took place in Galicia, and quickly spread throughout Spain. On 7 March 1820, the royal palace in Madrid was surrounded by soldiers under the command of General Francisco Ballesteros, and on 10 March, the King agreed to restore the Constitution.

## Later life

The new progressive government promoted Riego to field marshal and appointed him Captain General of Galicia, post which he did not assume and, in January 1821, he took up a new appointment as Captain General of Aragon, and moved to Zaragoza. On 18 June, he married his cousin Maria Teresa del Riego. On 4 September 1821, because of a failed republican revolt, he was demoted and transferred to barracks at Lleida and, later, to Castelló de Farfaña.
However, Riego's popularity grew, and in March 1822, he was elected to the Cortes Generales and became the president of the Cortes the following February.
Meanwhile, in December 1822, at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance countries had decided that a Spain bordering on republicanism was a threat to the balance of Europe, and France was chosen to force a restoring of the absolute monarchy in Spain. On 7 April 1823, the French army crossed over the Pyrennes. Riego resigned from the presidency of the Cortes and took command of the Third Army, which never actually entered into combat. On 15 September he was taken prisoner near the village of Arquillos, Jaén and sent to Madrid.
Despite asking for clemency from the King, having approached religion and repented of his "constitutional crimes" during his imprisonment, completely retracting at the last minute his political convictions to the delight of the absolutists, Riego was found guilty of high treason against altar and throne, as he was one of the members of parliament who voted in favor of taking the power from the King. On 7 November 1823, he was hanged at La Cebada Square in Madrid.

## Memory

The Himno de Riego, a song written in honour of Riego by his friend Evaristo Fernández de San Miguel, became the anthem of the First (1873–1874) and Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939). A portrait of Riego is displayed in the building of the Cortes Generales.
* Commemorative plaque at Riego's birthplace in Tuña
* Portrait of Rafael del Riego by Hippolyte Lecomte, 1820
* Bust of Riego in Oviedo