Baldomero Espartero

**Joaquín Baldomero Espartero**
 **Captain General of Guatemala**
 **Viceroy of Peru**
 **Religion** | Roman Catholicism

**Joaquín Baldomero Espartero y Álvarez de Toro** (27 February 1793 - 8 January 1879) was a 19th century Spanish marshal and statesman known for his role in the Carlist War and his leadership during the Tetuán War.

## Biography

### Early life

Baldomero Espartero was born in 1793 at Granátula de Calatrava, a village in the province of Ciudad Real. He was the ninth child of Manuel Antonio Fernández-Espartero y Cañadas and his wife Josefa Vicenta Álvarez de Toro y Molina.

Despite his father's interest to ensure that he followed an eclesiastical career, Espartero enlisted in the Spanish Army in November 1809, aged 16, during the Peninsular War. Days after enlisting, he took part in the Battle of Illescas, where an allied force under Arthur Wellesley and Gregorio García de la Cuesta defeated the French Army.

### Service in Spanish America

After the end of the war and the return of King Ferdinand VII, Espartero, eager to continue his military career, enlisted in 1815 —After being promoted to Lieutenant— and travelled in the frigate *Carlota* towards America, to join the Royalists in their objective of suppressing the rebellions in Spanish America.

After his arrival in the New World, Espartero, under General Miguel Tacón y Rosique's orders, embarked for Callao and arrived there on 14 September. The biggest problems in the zone were centered around the penetration of hostile forces from Río de la Plata under José de San Martín which attempted to invade Peru. The resulting decision was to fortify the zones of Arequipa, Potosí, and Charcas in order to obstaculize any hostile movement. Espartero, who was the only person in the Royal Army of Upper Peru with technical knowledge due to having studied for 2 years in the School of Engineers, was dispatched to the zone in order to supervise the construction of the previously mentioned fortifications.

In 1817, when Spanish rule had been restored over most of America, and as a consequence of Espoz y Mina's coup and the King's swearing of the 1817 Constitution, the royalist forces in America entered a period of internal conflict between *liberals* and *absolutists*, something which was used by independentist forces at the brink of collapse to recompose and turn the tides of the conflict against the Spanish. At this time, Espartero, who had been promoted to commander for his successful campaigns, was sent by order of the Marquis de la Concordia to the New Granada border, where he participated under the orders of General Joaquín de la Pezuela in the battle of Jaén, which avoided the invasion of Peru by Colombian forces, where he was wounded while leading a charge of his detachment against independentist positions, an action for which he would be rewarded with the promotion to colonel by the new viceroy Orozco.

With the end of war in Peru, the victorious Espartero returned to Spain in November 1823, after a brilliant career which had seen his unprecedented rise, promotion after promotion, where he was awarded a series of medals and honors by Ferdinand VII in recognition of his brilliant tactics and success. In the last years of Ferdinand's reign, he performed a series of bureaucratic and minor functions, much to his dislike.

His time of service in Peru would leave an imprint on Espartero's ideals that he would never abandon, while he and many of the officers who accompanied him would be known in Spain as "los Jienenses". in memory of the battle of Jaén, his American past and the influence that other liberal military men who participated in that war had on his political ideas. His activity in the American campaign was feverish and noted for his knowledge in topography and construction of military installations, his ability to act quickly and with few troops, the virtue of mobilizing troops promptly and the authority that his soldiers recognized him. The war merits were numerous, although he made little mention of them in later years.