page_title: Tomás de Zumalacárregui
section_title: The Carlist War
hierarchical_section_title: Tomás de Zumalacárregui / The Carlist War
caption_attribution_description: Bilbao, Iglesia de Begoña y casa donde fue herido Zumalacárregui. "Galería Militar Contemporánea". Madrid 1846
context_page_description: Tomás de Zumalacárregui e Imaz, 1st Duke of Victoria de las Amezcoas, 1st Count of Zumalacárregui, GE, OSH, known among his troops as "Uncle Tomás", was a Spanish Basque officer who lead the Carlist faction as Captain general of the Army during the First Carlist War. He was occasionally nicknamed the "Wolf of the Amezcoas", making reference to his famous military victory in the region of Navarre.
  Zumalacárregui is often credited as the inventor of Spanish omelette, which he elaborated during the Siege of Bilbao, as a simple, fast and nutritious dish with which to satisfy the hardships of the Carlist Army. In search of nourishment, he came across a poor housewife who had nothing other than eggs, onion and potatoes. When Zumalacárregui mixed it up, he liked the end result and fed it to his starving troops. It is said that after this, the tortilla became incredibly popular throughout the rest of the First Carlist War, and is now one of the most renowned dishes in the world.
context_section_description: The proclamation of the king's daughter Isabel as heiress was almost the occasion of an armed conflict between him and the naval authorities at Ferrol, who were partisans of the liberal and so-called "constitutional" cause. He was put on half pay by the new authorities and ordered to live under police observation at Pamplona in Navarre.
  When the Carlist uprising began on the death of Ferdinand VII, he is said to have held back because he knew that the first leaders would be politicians and talkers. He did not take the field until the Carlist cause appeared to be at a very low ebb, and until he had received a commission from Don Carlos as Commander-in-Chief in Navarre.
  He escaped Pamplona on the night of 29 October 1833 and took the command next day in the Araquil Valley. At that time the Carlist forces comprised no more than a few hundred ill-armed and dispirited guerrilleros; in a few months Zumalacárregui had organized them into a regular army. The difficulty he found in obtaining supplies was enormous, for the coast towns and notably Bilbao supported the "Cristino" (liberal) cause. It was mainly by seizing equipment from the government troops that he armed his forces. He gradually obtained full possession of the Southern Basque Country, outside of the fortresses, which he had not the means to besiege. He organized the forces known as aduaneros and the Guías de Navarra. His chief bodyguard, and later biographer, was Charles Frederick Henningsen.
  Whether as a guerrilla leader, or as a general conducting regular war in the mountains, he proved unconquerable. He won the battles of Alsasua, Alegría de Álava, and Venta de Echavarri, for example, by employing guerrilla tactics.
  By July 1834 he had made it safe for Don Carlos to join his headquarters. Zumalacárregui was by then strongly envied by the courtiers that surrounded the pretender, as well as by other military officers. Besides, Don Carlos was a somewhat naïve and easily suggestible man, and Zumalacárregui had therefore to drag behind him the whole weight of the distrust and intrigues of the court. Yet by the beginning of June 1835 he had made the Carlist cause triumphant to the north of the Ebro, and had formed an army of more than 30,000 men, of much better quality than the constitutional forces.  He won the battle of Artaza (20–22 April 1835).
  If Zumalacárregui had been allowed to follow his own plans, which were to concentrate his forces and march on Madrid, firstly seizing Logroño (La Rioja, Castile), he might well have put Don Carlos in possession of the capital. But the court was eager to obtain command of a seaport, because they thought this will facilitate the official recognition of Don Carlos as the legitimate heir to the Spanish Throne by other European courts. Thus, Zumalacárregui was ordered to besiege Bilbao. He obeyed reluctantly, and on 14 June 1835 was wounded in the calf by a musket shot, near the Basilica of Begoña. The wound was trifling and would probably have been cured with ease, but Zumalacárregui decided to employ a famous Gipuzkoan quack called "Petriquillo", whom he trusted. Petriquillo proceeded to remove the bullet from Zumalacárregui's leg, provoking a great loss of blood and probably an infection. Don Carlos had insisted on sending his own physicians, but they hesitated about the best prognosis to follow, losing precious time and failing to stop Petriquillo from trying his "procedure" (he acted when they were not present) and in their hands the general died on 24 June 1835, not without suspicion of poison and after Petriquillo had hastily left the scene.
  Zumalacárregui was a fine type of the old royalist and religious principles of his people. The Carlist forces under his command were repeatedly refused quarter by the government's forces (which for years didn't recognize them as legitimate combatants). The increasing ferocity of the war, substantiated in routine executions of Carlist soldiers and officers, convinced him of the necessity of a similar retaliation against the liberal forces.  Zumalacárregui, however, would later sign the 
caption: Location where Zumalacárregui suffered his fatal wound
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