page_title: Juan Martín Díez
section_title: Military successes
hierarchical_section_title: Juan Martín Díez / Military successes
caption_attribution_description: Español: Juan Martín Díez "El Empecinado" (1775–1825) militar español, héroe de la Guerra de la Independencia de España, en la que participó como jefe de una de las guerrillas legendarias que derrotaron repetidas veces al ejército napoleónico. Busto de bronce del escultor italiano Carlos Nicoli de 1880, exhibido en Alcalá de Henares (Comunidad de Madrid - España)
context_page_description: Juan Martín Díez, nicknamed El Empecinado, was a Spanish military leader and guerrilla fighter, who fought in the Peninsular War.
  On October 8, 1808, the privilege of using the name Empecinado was granted to Juan Martín Díez, not only for himself, but also all his descendants. His nickname has given the Spanish language the verb empecinarse, meaning to persist or insist on achieving one's goals.
context_section_description: The Army's failures caused Díez to believe that he would have better results with a system of guerrilla warfare. Thus started his wartime success, in such places as Aranda de Duero, Sepúlveda, Pedraza, and throughout the Duero river basin.
  In 1809 Díez was promoted to the rank of cavalry captain. During the spring of the same year, his field of action extended along the mountains in Gredos, Ávila, and Salamanca, and also in the provinces of Cuenca and Guadalajara.
  The principal function of the guerrilla bands was to disrupt the supply and communication lines of the French army by intercepting the enemy's messages and by seizing convoys of supplies, money, and armaments. The damage to Napoleon's army was considerable, to such an extent that Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo, a French general, was given the duty to "pursue exclusively" Díez and his guerrillas. Hugo, after trying unsuccessfully to capture Díez, opted instead to arrest Díez's mother and other members of his family. Díez, not to be cowed, had 100 French prisoners of war executed as retribution. His mother and family thereupon were released.
  In 1810, Díez was forced to take refuge in the castle of the Salamancan city of Ciudad Rodrigo, which the French army besieged. In 1811, he was placed in command of a hussar regiment from Guadalajara, bringing his total force to some 6000 men.
  On May 22, 1813, Díez assisted in the defense of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), and on the Zulema bridge over the Henares river he and his army defeated a French force twice their size. Later, Fernando VII would approve the construction of a commemorative pyramid in Alcalá in honor of the victory, only to order its destruction in 1823, deriding it as a symbol of a "liberal". The people of Alcalá, however, raised another monument to the Empecinado in 1879; this monument survives to this day.
caption: Bronze bust of Juan Martín Díez in Alcalá de Henares.
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