page_title: Juan de Courten (elder)
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: Juan de Courten (elder) / Early career
caption_attribution_description: Triumph of Charles III at the Battle of Velletri.
context_page_description: Juan de Courten (elder) or Juan Antonio Curten Massenet or Juan Courten or Juan Curten began his Spanish military career in the War of the Austrian Succession at the age of 14. His father was a brigadier general of engineers who died in 1745. Courten fought in the Spanish–Portuguese War, the Invasion of Algiers in 1775, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar. He was the last Spanish governor of Oran in 1792. As a lieutenant general, he led an infantry division during the War of the Pyrenees against the First French Republic in several actions including Perpignan, Peyrestortes, Truillas, Boulou, and the Black Mountain. He was appointed Captain General of Aragon in 1795.
context_section_description: Born on 10 October 1730, in Tortosa, Courten hailed from a Walloon family that migrated to Spain. His father was Brigadier General Armando de Curten y Gonzáles (b. 1696), a military engineer. In 1692, his grandfather Juan Francisco de Curtén had married Anne Judith Herreford, the daughter of a rich English merchant, and the couple had three sons. Juan Francisco was killed in the Siege of Venlo on 13 September 1702. Armando was born in 1696 and went to the Royal Military Academy in Barcelona in 1719 to study engineering. Armando married Ana Antonio Gonzales in 1726 and was killed in the siege of Tortona on 3 September 1745.
  Juan Antonio de Courten joined the Spanish army at the age of 12 and served in the Walloon Guards Regiment. He became an ensign on 11 January 1744 while in garrison at Rimini. He participated in the War of the Austrian Succession, fighting at the Battle of Velletri on 12 August 1744 and the Battle of Piacenza on 16 June 1746. He was also present at the sieges of Alessandria, Tortona, and Valenza during this period. On 13 August 1746 he became a second lieutenant. Promotion to first lieutenant came on 22 September 1754 and the following year he was appointed adjutant major of an artillery detachment.
  Courten served in the Spanish–Portuguese War of 1761 to 1763. He was promoted to captain on 14 May 1768. In 1775 Courten took part in the Invasion of Algiers, a humiliating defeat of the Spanish army at the hands of the Moors. Because of public anger at the disaster, the officers who were involved were disgraced and posted far from the royal court. Officers whose reputations suffered in the debacle were Alejandro O'Reilly, Antonio Ricardos, Luis Firmín de Carvajal, Conde de la Unión, Jerónimo Girón-Moctezuma, Marquis de las Amarillas, Domingo Izquierdo, Pedro Caro, 3rd Marquis of la Romana, and Ventura Caro. These men banded together in a secret society within the military to push for modernization. Courten was a member of this group.
  Courten fought under Ventura Caro in the Great Siege of Gibraltar which lasted from 1779 to 1783. He was elevated in rank to brigadier general on 1 January 1783 and to mariscal de campo on 14 January 1789. With the temporary rank of lieutenant general, he was put in command of the Walloon Guards. Courten was the last Spanish governor of Oran. He commanded from 4 November 1790 to 17 February 1792. On that date the port passed into the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Oran had been under Spanish control since 1732. Courten followed royal orders to evacuate Oran, removing all Spanish property accumulated during the long occupation.
caption: King Charles III of Spain was victorious at the Battle of Velletri.
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