Félix María Calleja del Rey , 1st Count of Calderón Félix María Calleja del Rey Bruder Losada Campaño y Montero de Espinosa ( ) ( November 1 , 1753 , Medina del Campo , Spain — July 24 , 1828 , Valencia , Spain ) was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of New Spain from March 4 , 1813 , to September 20 , 1816 , during Mexico ' s War of Independence . For his service in New Spain , Calleja was awarded with the title " Count of Calderon " . Before the insurrection of 1810 . Captain Calleja del Rey accompanied the Count of Revillagigedo to New Spain in 1789 , when Revillagigedo took up the position of viceroy . Calleja became commander of an infantry brigade in the intendancy of San Luis Potosí . Under the government of Viceroy Miguel José de Azanza he fought with severity and cruelty to subdue the Indians of the area . He also fought against Anglo - American filibusters who were encroaching on the underpopulated Spanish territory of Texas . Among the officers under his command was Ignacio Allende , who was later to become a hero of Mexican independence . Calleja is famous for his finishing of the biggest insurrections in his time , the 1811 and the 1813 insurrections . He succeeded in killing the three famous leaders of these revolts , Hidalgo , Allende , and Morelos . Calleja married Francisca de la Gándara , a very rich Criolla and owner of the hacienda of Bledos . General in the royalist army . Calleja is regarded by some historians as one of the greatest military commanders that have ever fought in Mexico , because of his astute yet sometimes barbaric methods . With the Grito de Dolores of Miguel Hidalgo on September 16 , 1810 , supporters of independence rose in many places in New Spain . Within a month many large cities in the central part of the country fell to the rebels — Celaya ( September 21 ) , Guanajuato ( September 28 ) , Zacatecas ( October 7 ) , Valladolid ( October 17 ) , and Guadalajara ( November 11 ) among them . At Monte de las Cruces , at the gates of Mexico City , 80 , 000 insurgents under Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende defeated the royalists on October 30 , 1810 . There was panic in Mexico City . However , in a moment of apparent indecision , Father Hidalgo ordered a retreat toward Valladolid . The reason for this has never been adequately explained . After the retreat of the insurgents , Viceroy Francisco Javier Venegas ordered Calleja , now a brigadier in command of a cavalry division , to march from San Luis Potosí to the aid of the capital . On the march between Querétaro and Mexico City , Calleja met the insurgents in the plains of San Jerónimo Aculco , where he decimated them on November 7 , 1810 . He then retook Guanajuato on November 25 and Guadalajara on January 21 , 1811 . Calleja defeated the insurgents again , decisively , in the Battle of the Bridge of Calderón on January 17 , 1811 . The insurgents were on the point of victory when a grenade ignited a munitions wagon in their camp , sowing confusion . The royalists took advantage , and routed the insurgents . A remnant of the rebel forces , including Hidalgo and other leaders , began retreating toward the United States . The leaders were captured by the royalists and executed . Calleja ' s 4 , 000 troops became the basis of the royalist Army of the Center that fought Hidalgo , Ignacio López Rayón and Father José María Morelos . Calleja retreated to Mexico City after an unsuccessful 72 - day siege against Morelos in Cuautla . In his home in Mexico City he received royalists who were discontented with Viceroy Venegas ' s inability to suppress the insurrection . The Audiencia and other officials resolved to complain about the viceroy to Regency in Cadiz . Viceroy of New Spain . Calleja received his appointment as Venegas ' s replacement on January 28 , 1813 , but did not actually take up the post until March 4 . His initial assessment of the state of affairs was not encouraging . The government coffers were empty , and the government was floating a large debt . More than two million pesos were owed to the troops . Whole units lacked adequate uniforms and boots . Armament was in a bad state and there was a shortage of horses . With his characteristic energy , he threw himself into remedying the situation . He confiscated the property of the Inquisition , which had been abolished by the Spanish Constitution of 1812 . He solicited a loan of two million pesos from the commercial sector . He farmed out the " alcabala " ( sales tax ) to improve its collection . He reorganized the public treasury and required strict accounting of the viceroyalty ' s income and expenses . He reestablished commerce and the postal service , which had been interrupted by the war with the insurgents . With the money he raised he formed a powerful army , well equipped , paid , armed and disciplined . In late 1813 an epidemic of fever killed tens of thousands of people . Morelos captured Acapulco on April 20 , 1813 . On November 6 , 1813 the rebel Congress of Anáhuac , meeting in Chilpancingo , proclaimed the independence of Mexico . On October 22 , 1814 the rebel Congress of Apatzingán promulgated a constitution . Meanwhile in Spain , Ferdinand VII had returned to the throne . He abrogated the Spanish Constitution on May 14 , 1814 , and reestablished government institutions as they had been in 1808 . By a decree of July 21 , 1814 , he reestablished the Inquisition . On May 19 , 1816 he authorized the Jesuits to return to Mexico , who had been expelled in the late eighteenth century . Calleja had been exiling many insurgents to Cuba , and now he began exiling them to the Philippines . With the capture and subsequent execution of Morelos on December 22 , 1815 , the insurrection once again seemed to be at an end . But it soon broke out anew with the revolt of Vicente Guerrero in the south . Calleja ' s rule became more dictatorial . Calleja was a determined , unscrupulous , cruel ruler who tolerated the numerous abuses of his commanders ; he was someone to be feared . He was feared , and also hated , even by some of the more liberal royalists . They blamed his brutal methods for causing more rebellion after the death of Morelos . Their complaints against his dictatorial methods were received in the Spanish court and on September 20 , 1816 , he was relieved of his position . Return to Spain . He returned to Spain , where he was given the title of " Conde de Calderón " and the grand crosses of Isabel the Catholic and San Hermenegildo . He was appointed military commander in Andalucía and governor of Cádiz . He was charged with organizing an expeditionary army to America . He took Rafael Riego , whose uprising against Ferdinand VII initiated the Liberal Restoration of 1820 , prisoner . He was commander in Valencia at the time of his death in 1828 .