Baldomero Espartero

Baldomero Espartero
Photographed by J. Laurent
President of the Council of Ministers
In office July 18, 1854 – July 14, 1856
Preceded by	Ángel Saavedra y Ramírez de Baquedano
Succeeded by	Leopoldo O'Donnell
President of the Council of Ministers
In office September 11, 1840 – May 10, 1841
Preceded by	Vicente Sancho
Succeeded by	Joaquín María Ferrer
President of the Council of Ministers
In office August 18, 1837 – October 18, 1837
Preceded by	José María Calatrava
Succeeded by	Eusebio Bardají Azara
Regent of the Kingdom of Spain (on behalf of Isabella II)
In office October 17, 1840 – July 23, 1843
Preceded by	Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Minister of War
In office December 16, 1837 – January 17, 1838
Preceded by	Francisco Ramonet
Succeeded by	José Carratalá
Minister of War
In office July 29, 1837 – August 30, 1837
Preceded by	Ildefonso Díez de Rivera
Succeeded by	Evaristo San Miguel y Valledor
Personal details
Born	Joaquín Baldomero Fernández-Espartero Álvarez de Toro (1793-02-27)February 27, 1793 Granátula de Calatrava, Ciudad Real
Died	January 8, 1879(1879-01-08) (aged 85) Logroño
Spouse	María Jacinta Martínez de Sicilia
Parents	Manuel Antonio Fernández Espartero y Cañadas (father) Josefa Vicenta Álvarez de Toro y Molina (mother)

Joaquín Baldomero Fernández-Espartero Álvarez de Toro (Granátula de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, February 27, 1793 – Logroño, January 8, 1879), generally known as Baldomero Espartero, was a Spanish military officer and politician who held the titles of Prince of Vergara, Duke of la Victoria, Duke of Morella, Count of Luchana and Viscount of Banderas, all of them as a reward for his performance on the battlefield, especially in the First Carlist War, where his leadership of the Isabelline or Cristino Army was of vital importance for the final victory. He also held the office of Viceroy of Navarre (1836).

His father had directed his education toward an ecclesiastical career, but the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain drew him to the battlefront at a very young age, and he did not leave it until twenty-five years later. A combatant in three of the four most important conflicts in Spain in the 19th century, he was a soldier in the war against the French invasion, an officer during the Peruvian War of Independence and General-in-chief in the aforementioned First Carlist War. In Cádiz he witnessed the birth of Spanish liberalism, a path he would never abandon. An extremely harsh man in his dealings, he valued the loyalty of his comrades-in-arms—a term the other generals did not like to hear—as much as efficiency. He fought on the front line, was wounded on eight occasions, and his haughty and demanding character led him to commit excesses, at times very bloody ones, in military discipline. Convinced that his destiny was to govern the Spanish, he was twice President of the Council of Ministers and rose to be head of State as Regent during the minority of Isabella II. Despite all his contradictions, he managed to go unnoticed for his last twenty-eight years. He rejected the Crown of Spain and was treated as a legend from a very young age.

The Homeland counts on your efforts, on your virtues, on your wisdom, so that you may make laws that secure its rights and destroy the abuses that have been introduced into the government of the State. Make them; for the Queen will have great satisfaction in accepting them, and the Nation in obeying them.

As for me, gentlemen, I shall always obey them, because I have always wanted the national will to be fulfilled, and because I am convinced that without obedience to the laws, liberty is impossible.

— Baldomero Espartero at the session of the Constituent Cortes of November 28, 1854

However, as the historian Adrian Shubert notes:

[today] Espartero has been erased from Spanish historical memory. While other figures whose role in the country's history was much less significant remain alive in memory, his name has gone from idolatry to oblivion

— Shubert 2000, p. 207

Early years

House in Granátula de Calatrava where Baldomero Espartero was supposedly born. Engraving published in 1879 in La Ilustración Española y Americana.

He was the youngest of eight siblings and the son of a carpenter and cartwright, a working family of the predominant middle class in a town of almost three thousand inhabitants. Three of his brothers were clergymen and one sister was a Poor Clare nun. In Granátula he had received lessons in Latin and the humanities from his neighbor Antonio Meoro, a tutor of Grammar with great renown in the area, since he prepared boys to enter higher studies. In fact, he would later appoint this man's son, Anacleto Meoro Sánchez, Bishop of Almería. He took his first official studies at the University of Nuestra Señora del Rosario of Almagro, where one of his brothers, a Dominican, lived, and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts and Philosophy. Almagro had had its own University since 1553 by Royal Decree of Charles I and was a very active and prosperous city. His father wanted an ecclesiastical education for Espartero, but fate cut that possibility short. In 1808 he enlisted in the army to form part of the forces that fought against the Napoleonic occupation after the uprising of May 2 in Madrid. The universities had been closed the previous year by Charles IV, and Almagro itself had been occupied by the French.

He was recruited along with a large group of young men by the Supreme Central Junta, which had been constituted in Aranjuez under the authority of the by-then elderly Count of Floridablanca, in order to stop the invader in La Mancha before the enemy troops reached Andalusia. He was enlisted in the "Ciudad Rodrigo" Infantry Regiment, garrisoned in Seville, as a Soldado Distinguido (Distinguished Soldier), a rank he acquired for having pursued university studies. During the time he was on the front lines in the south-central area of Spain, he took part in the Battle of Ocaña, where the Spanish forces were defeated. Again his status as a university student allowed him to form part of the Battalion of University Volunteers that gathered around the University of Toledo in August 1808, but the French advance took him to Cádiz, where his unit performed duties defending the Supreme Central Junta. The urgent needs of an army almost destroyed by the enemy forced the rapid training of officers to be instructed in military technique. Espartero's prior university education allowed the artillery Colonel Mariano Gil de Bernabé to select him, together with another group of enthusiastic young men, for the newly created Military Academy of Seville. The new posting did not prevent him from taking part from the very first moment in skirmishes with the enemy during his training as a cadet, and this is recorded in his service record. He was integrated, along with forty-eight other cadets, into the Academy of Engineers on September 11, 1811, and was promoted to second lieutenant on January 1 of the following year. He failed the second year, but was offered as an alternative to join the infantry branch, as were other second lieutenants. He took part in notable military operations in Chiclana, which earned him his first decoration: the Cross of Chiclana.

Besieged by the French armies since 1810, he was a front-row spectator of the debates of the Cortes of Cádiz in the drafting of the first Spanish constitution, which marked his resolute defense of liberalism and patriotism.

While the war was coming to an end, he was posted to the Soria Infantry Regiment, and with that unit he moved to Catalonia, fighting at Tortosa, Cherta and Amposta, until returning with the Regiment to Madrid.

On the way to America

Once the war was over, and eager to continue his military career, Espartero enlisted in September 1814—at the same time as he was promoted to lieutenant—in the Extremadura Regiment, embarking on the frigate Carlota for America on February 1, 1815, to suppress the pro-independence rebellion of the colonies.

The Fernandine court had managed to send six infantry regiments and two cavalry regiments overseas. Under the orders of General Miguel Tacón y Rosique, Espartero was integrated into one of the divisions formed with the Extremadura Regiment that headed for Peru from Panama. They arrived at the port of El Callao on September 14 and reported in Lima, with the order to replace the Marquis of la Concordia as Viceroy of Peru with General Joaquín de la Pezuela, who had been victorious in the area.

The greatest problems were concentrated in the penetration of hostile forces from Chile and the United Provinces of South America under the command of General José de San Martín. To hinder their movements, it was decided to fortify Arequipa, Potosí and Charcas, a task for which the only person with technical knowledge in the whole Army of Upper Peru was Espartero, as he had two years of training at the engineering school. The success of the undertaking earned him promotion to captain on September 19, 1816, and, before even a year had passed, to second commandant.

Military tactics

After Riego's pronunciamiento and the King's swearing of the Cádiz Constitution, the peninsular troops in America were definitively divided between royalists and constitutionalists. San Martín took advantage of these circumstances of internal division to continue harassing the enemy and advancing, in response to which a large group of officers removed Pezuela as Viceroy on January 29, 1821, appointing General José de la Serna e Hinojosa in his place. The exact role Espartero played in this movement is unknown, although his unit as a whole was loyal to the new Viceroy. Be that as it may, the future Duke of la Victoria threw himself fully into southern Peru and eastern Bolivia in a singular mode of combat characterized by few troops and rapid actions, where knowledge of the terrain and the ability to make the most of the resources at hand were decisive. This mode of operating would be the one he later also developed in the war in Spain.

The rugged Colca Canyon was one of the sites used by Espartero in Arequipa to consolidate the positions of the royalist troops.

Espartero's promotions for war actions were constant. By 1823 he was already a colonel of Infantry in charge of the Battalion of the Center of the Army of Upper Peru. When the pro-independence side launched the First Intermediate Campaign at the beginning of 1823, and the Chilean general Rudecindo Alvarado tried to penetrate with far superior forces through the fortifications of Arequipa and Potosí, of which Espartero was especially proud, General Jerónimo Valdés did not hesitate to entrust him with the defense of the position of Torata, with barely four hundred men, in order to harass the enemy from it, while Valdés organized a trap. When the rebels arrived, Espartero held the position for two hours, causing significant casualties, and withdrew in an orderly manner on Valdés's orders, while the latter went out to meet the enemy without allowing him to advance and, taking advantage of an error by General Alvarado in deploying an excessively long front line, Valdés launched an attack with which he thwarted the attempt at penetration. After the arrival of José de Canterac, the enemy was put to flight, Espartero's Battalion being one of those that pursued the forces fleeing through Moquegua, and it stood out for completely destroying the so-called Peruvian Legion. General Valdés recorded in his assessments of Espartero:

He has great courage, talent, diligence and known adherence to the King our lord: he is very suitable for the command of a Corps and even more so for serving as a General Staff officer because of his knowledge. This man will one day be a good general...

To his bravery was added great coolness and a capacity to deceive the enemy, infiltrating the rebels in order later to arrest them and, in summary trial, sentence them to death and execute them. This way of proceeding would be a constant in his military career.

End of the American period and return to Spain

On October 9, 1823, the victorious commandant was promoted to brigadier and was given command of the General Staff of the Army of Upper Peru. After completing the task of controlling the remnants of the insurgents, La Serna sent him to the Conference of Salta as the Viceroy's plenipotentiary representative for the signing of an armistice that would allow the agreements with the insurrectionists of Buenos Aires to be extended to Peru. In Salta Espartero met General Juan Gregorio de Las Heras, who was acting on behalf of the Buenos Aires Government. Once accredited, Espartero informed Las Heras that the agreement was not possible, since the enemy forces lacked any operational capacity and the Viceroy did not feel obliged to grant anything more than the generosity with which they had been treated. The hostile attitude of La Serna and of Espartero himself toward the Royal Commissions sent to Buenos Aires in 1820 and 1823 by the liberal governments of the Constitutional Triennium to establish relations with the provinces of the Río de la Plata has been interpreted by some as an affront to the Crown, and by others as a measure to contain pro-independence aspirations.

The figure of Espartero at this age was sketched by the Count of Romanones as that of:

... a man of medium height, who by the whole and the proportions of his body did not give the impression of smallness... with light-colored eyes, a cold gaze... his facial muscles did not contract at any moment...

Although Espartero did not take part in the Battle of Ayacucho, both he and many of the military men who played leading roles in the reign of Isabella II would be called «the Ayacuchos» because of their past in American lands.

The end of the Liberal Triennium and the return to absolutism divided the expeditionary army once again. La Serna sent Espartero to Madrid with the task of receiving precise instructions from the Crown, and he left for the capital from the Port of Quilca on June 5, 1824, on an English ship. He arrived in Cádiz on September 28 and presented himself in Madrid on October 12. Although he obtained the Crown's confidence for the Viceroy, he could not guarantee the reinforcements requested.

He embarked at Bordeaux bound for America on December 9, coinciding with the loss of the Viceroyalty of Peru. He arrived at Quilca on May 5, 1825, without news of the Ayacucho disaster, and was taken prisoner on the orders of Simón Bolívar, coming close to being shot on more than one occasion. Thanks to the mediation of, among other people, the Extremaduran liberal Antonio González y González, who was in exile in Arequipa, he was released after suffering harsh imprisonment, and was able to return to Spain with a large group of comrades-in-arms.

On his arrival he was posted to Pamplona and later took up residence in Logroño, much to his displeasure. There, on September 13, 1827, he married María Jacinta Martínez de Sicilia, a wealthy heiress of the city, thanks to whom he became a landowner.

Despite the favorable reports of his superiors, back in the peninsula he had to perform bureaucratic duties and minor postings, which irritated him. He took the opportunity to put in order his new estate, made up of the fortune inherited by his wife, María Jacinta, which consisted of a mayorazgo and various entailed assets, among which were important rural and urban properties and close to a million and a half reales, coming also from the profits on the investments that his wife's guardians had made during her minority.

In 1828 he was appointed comandante de armas (military commander) and president of the Junta de Agravios (Board of Grievances) of Logroño, and he was then posted to the Soria Regiment, stationed first in Barcelona and later in Palma de Mallorca.

The imprint of the American experience

Although he did not take part in the decisive battle—which provoked his anger when it was mentioned to him—he did take part in many other engagements and, in fact, he and many of the officers who accompanied him would be known in Spain as «the Ayacuchos», in memory of their American past and of the influence that other liberal military men who took part in that war had on their political ideas. His activity in the American campaign was feverish and stood out for his knowledge of topography and the construction of military installations, his ability to act quickly and with few troops, the virtue of mobilizing troops promptly, and the authority his soldiers recognized in him. His war merits were numerous, although he made little mention of them in later years.

Fighting the Carlists

Equestrian statue of General Espartero. It is located in front of the Hernani gate of the Retiro garden in Madrid (Spain). At the foot of the statue the inscription reads: «To Espartero, the peacemaker. 1839, the grateful nation».

The «Isabelline» general

On the death of Ferdinand VII, Espartero supported the cause of Isabella II and of the Regent Maria Christina of Bourbon against the brother of the late King Ferdinand, Carlos María Isidro.

During the First Carlist War, General Espartero gave proof of the qualities as a soldier that he had already shown during the American campaigns, among which stood out his bravery—which was what contributed most to making him a national hero, especially after his victory at the Battle of Luchana—, his honesty—a United States diplomat said of him that he «enjoys an independent fortune and does not seek to increase it at the expense of the troops, as is the custom here»—and his concern for the men under his command, as shown by his constant effort to obtain the funds to pay his soldiers' wages and provisions—a problem suffered by his predecessor at the head of the Army of the North, General Luis Fernández de Córdoba, and which his brother Fernando described in his memoirs: «Money, the sinew of the Army, was pitifully lacking in the North, and so, in addition to the lack of subsistence and supplies, the officers were not paid their salaries nor the soldiers their meager pay»—.

But during the civil war two of his defects also appeared: that his courage alternated with recurrent episodes of apathy and lack of firmness—which may have been related to the bladder ailment he suffered all his life and which made riding a horse extremely painful for him—and his excessive severity in everything related to discipline. As for the latter, the incident with the greatest repercussion was the one caused by Espartero's order to decimate a battalion of Gipuzkoan chapelgorris—paid liberal volunteers—whose members had supposedly murdered the parish priest of the Álava village of Labastida, desecrated the church and razed the place, an order that was carried out on December 13, 1835. The operation was directed personally by Espartero, who in his official report stated that the acts committed by these soldiers demanded a «public demonstration to the troops and to the towns... with a severe exemplary punishment», and during it lots were drawn among the chapelgorris to be shot, one in ten, and from among them ten were chosen, «and without giving them more time than a few moments to confess, the ten to whom such an ill-fated lot fell were inhumanly shot», according to the account of the battalion's Commander. Espartero likewise ordered Carlist prisoners executed in reprisal for the murder of liberals, which the general justified by stating in a letter that «the use of reprisals is nothing more than self-defense» and «because I would lose the magical illusion that fortune has granted me, from the moment indifference is observed in me toward punishing the crimes of the rebels and protecting my subordinates».

Military commander of Biscay

Among the changes in the Army leadership that the Regent Maria Christina adopted in the first days of her government to eliminate Carlist elements, Espartero was appointed Commandant General of Biscay in 1834, under the orders of a former superior of his, Jerónimo Valdés, who had requested him for service in the field. He thus took part on the northern front during the First Carlist War, playing a prominent role, but not before having put various Carlist bands to flight in Ontinyent.

His first measures are very reminiscent of the American period. At the head of a small division, he ordered the fortification of Bilbao, Durango and Guernica to defend them from Carlist incursions, and pursued the small bands that were forming at various points. The first major operation facing the bulk of the enemy troops took place at Guernica in February 1834. With the Cristinos besieged by a column of six thousand men, Espartero liberated the town on the 24th with forces five times smaller than those of the attackers, which earned him promotion to Field Marshal.

The first defeat

In May he was given the General Command of all the Provincias Vascongadas. The second major action entrusted to him came in mid-1835. The Carlist general Zumalacárregui had managed to group the volunteer bands into a well-organized army. The Cristinos, however, were going through a serious crisis, as their commanders had been changed on several occasions owing to the very situation of conflict that Madrid was experiencing. In these circumstances, Zumalacárregui undertook an offensive that led him to establish forward positions at Villafranca de Ordicia, thus dominating a wide zone of movement. Espartero was entrusted by Valdés with confronting Zumalacárregui, for which he had two divisions and a battalion, plus another two divisions approaching from the Baztán Valley. On June 2 he managed without effort to position himself on a height within sight of Villafranca, on the road to Vergara. He secured the positions while awaiting the reinforcements, but changed his mind and headed for Vergara. Being within sight of the Carlist General Francisco Benito Eraso, the latter took advantage of the vulnerability of the rearguard battalion to attack it during its withdrawal with little more than three infantry companies. The impression of those attacked was that the Carlist main body was numerous and, little by little, panic spread among the troops, who ended up fleeing in disorder toward Bilbao. That was Espartero's first military failure, and the consequences of the defeat were very serious, since the Carlists occupied Durango a few days later, which left the way open for them to besiege Bilbao.

The war between the summer of 1835 and that of 1836

His courage and daring were unquestionable, as in the First Siege of Bilbao, which he managed to lift. After the Battle of Mendigorría, where the Cristinos obtained their second great victory in the war, Espartero had to confront his superior, Luis Fernández de Córdoba, in a struggle between the two to receive the credit for the actions of the campaign.

In Bilbao, when fourteen Carlist battalions were besieging the city on August 24, 1835, Espartero took an active part in lifting the siege with hardly any effort. On the way to Vitoria after leaving Bilbao on September 11, Carlist battalions opposed his units, so he ordered an attack on them, pursuing them as far as Arrigorriaga, where he encountered large Carlist forces that forced him to fall back to the Biscayan capital. In this withdrawal he found the entrance to the city taken, and so he came under attack from vanguard and rearguard. Cornered, Espartero decided to confront the troops that were blocking his way on the bridge over the Nervión River, and so he was finally able to cross toward the city in a brilliant action that earned him the Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand and the Grand Cross of Charles III, as well as a wound in the arm.

Notwithstanding his defiant capacity, his superiors did not consider him capable of leading the bulk of the Cristino armies, given his reckless impetuosity and his repeated acts of disobedience to his superiors. In 1836, the Army of the North was placed in the hands of Luis Fernández de Córdoba as General-in-chief. Having received orders to attack the enemy in any situation of advantage, Espartero occupied the Orduña pass in March with depleted forces, thus gaining an advantageous position for the army. This earned him a new Laureate of Saint Ferdinand and the opportunity to carry out a new action days later on Amurrio. After the actions with the III Division, having opened the way to Biscay, Fernández de Córdoba proposed him, much to his own displeasure, for promotion to lieutenant general on June 20. The war still allowed him to obtain a seat as deputy for Logroño in the Cortes Generales in the elections held on October 3, 1836, alongside the man who would be another great champion of liberalism, Salustiano de Olózaga. He would be elected on three more occasions over his life, although he never took up his seat and gave it up in favor of other provinces.

In the summer Espartero fell ill and went to Logroño to recover. Liberal movements throughout Spain followed one another while he rested. The military successes he had achieved finally catapulted him to his appointment as General-in-chief of the Army of the North and Viceroy of Navarre, replacing Fernández de Córdoba. The Mutiny of the Sergeants of La Granja, which had forced the Regent to abandon the Royal Statute and give more prominence to the liberals with the restoration of the Cádiz Constitution of 1812, also favored the appointment.

The general-in-chief

Reaching the rank of General-in-chief caused the future Duke of la Victoria to moderate his cruelty, limit his impetuous actions and devote some time to reorganizing the Isabelline army, which had two serious problems: first, the need to move through a territory, the Carlist one, that was well established, where the forces loyal to Maria Christina had only a few large cities and fortifications, but no freedom of movement; second, the lack of resources to equip the troops and the absence of internal discipline.

Bilbao again: the Battle of Luchana

Development of the attack on the Luchana bridge by Espartero's troops with the support of the British and Spanish navies. Engraving, reproduced as a woodcut in Panorama Español, 1849.

With almost no military activity, the Carlists took the opportunity to reorganize and besieged Bilbao again in 1836 with more forces and better organized than the first time. From the Ebro and without using the Vitoria road, Espartero led fourteen battalions toward the Biscayan capital on a slow and stormy journey, concentrating in the Mena Valley in November, as he did not yet have enough information about the enemy's possible movements. Finally, while the Spanish-British fleet awaited him at Castro-Urdiales, he managed to arrive on November 20 and embark his army, with three hundred more horsemen, bound for Portugalete, where he arrived on the 27th. He took the heights of Barakaldo, but the Carlists repulsed him in the first attempt to enter Bilbao. Although on the 30th most of the generals advised Espartero to abandon the attempt to lift the siege, he decided to pay no heed: he ordered a pontoon bridge built over the Nervión and on December 1 the Isabelline army was on the other side, having to hold its positions against incessant enemy fire. The second attempt to lift the siege failed again, and the morale of the troops declined. Short of money, which did not arrive until mid-month, Espartero drew up a plan that allowed him to attack simultaneously along both banks of the Nervión. On December 19, the cannons of the Spanish and English Navies supported the advance and the city was liberated in a meritorious action, with Espartero ill and at the head of his troops, entering by the Luchana bridge on Christmas Day.

Especially satisfied, an officer sent, according to his instructions, the following Dispatch to the Government, of which the substance is extracted here:

... The privations and sufferings of the troops under my command have been rewarded on this day. Yesterday at four in the afternoon I ordered the daring operation of embarking companies of light infantry to seize the enemy battery of Luchana. Shortly afterward, although in the midst of a terrible snowfall, the operation was carried out with the happiest success, owing to their bravery and enthusiasm and the effective cooperation of the English and Spanish Navy. The bridge was left in our power; the enemy had cut it; but within an hour and a half it was already restored. The enemy, gathering considerable forces, rushed to that point: the battle was joined at night: the storm of rain, snow and hail was frightful: the losses suffered by this army in the many hours of combat were also considerable. The moments were critical; but resolute bayonet charges made us masters of all their positions, forcing the lifting of the siege of this town, into which I have today made my entry. All their batteries, munitions and immense stores remained in our power... General Headquarters of Bilbao, December 25, 1836. His Excellency Baldomero Espartero. To His Excellency the Secretary of State and of the Office of War.

His victory at the Battle of Luchana «put Espartero's name on everyone's lips, at least in liberal Spain, and made him the subject of paintings, of countless newspaper articles, of parliamentary speeches and also, no doubt, of café conversations. According to Antonio Espina [Espartero's biographer], after Luchana, Espartero "acquired epic proportions". It was an ideal Christmas present for the liberal cause. To the people he became the "Sword of Luchana", and he later received the title of Count of Luchana».

Toward the end of the war: the «Embrace of Vergara»

After Luchana, the balance of the war tilted in favor of the government army. The forces loyal to Isabella II were superior in number and operational capacity. From Bilbao, Espartero moved through the north of the Basque Country to Navarre, concentrated and organized the troops, headed for the Maestrazgo and was forced to confront the so-called Royal Expedition led by the Carlist pretender, the latter's last attempt to conquer Madrid and win the war. Espartero caught up with them at the gates of the capital, where the Battle of Aranzueque was fought, with victory for the "Isabelline" general. The success placed him in a dominant position among the liberals, but also among all the citizens grateful for having been saved from the incursion and for his having brought about the collapse of the enemy army. The public and private tributes and expressions of gratitude convinced Espartero that the popularity he had obtained was very valuable baggage for attaining political power.

Between 1837 and 1839, while forming a fleeting government for lack of sufficient parliamentary support, he defeated the Carlist troops at Peñacerrada, at Ramales—which has been called Ramales de la Victoria ever since—and at Guardamino.

He fostered division among the Carlists and signed the peace, very actively promoted by Great Britain's military representative in Bilbao, Lord John Hay, with the Carlist general Rafael Maroto through the Convention of Oñate on August 29, 1839, confirmed by the embrace that these two generals gave each other two days later before the troops of both armies gathered in the fields of Vergara, an act known as the Embrace of Vergara.

The agreement between Espartero and Maroto sealed with the "Embrace of Vergara" on August 31, 1839, consisted in the Carlists laying down their arms in exchange for the officers and soldiers of their army being incorporated into the regular army and for the fueros of Gipuzkoa, Álava, Biscay and Navarre being respected by the government. The idea of using the fueros to achieve peace seems to have arisen in early 1837, although who originated it is debated—Antonio Pirala, in his Historia del Convenio de Vergara published in 1852, attributed it to Eugenio de Aviraneta—.

The signing of the peace agreement with Maroto had been contested by many Carlist sectors, among them General Ramón Cabrera who, holed up in the Maestrazgo, stood up to Espartero until he was defeated with the conquest of Morella on May 30, 1840, an action for which Queen Isabella granted him the title of Duke of Morella and the Golden Fleece. Cabrera fled toward Catalonia with most of the remnants of the Army of the North, pursued by General Leopoldo O'Donnell.

The victorious end of the Carlist war earned him the dignity of Grandee of Spain and the title of Duke of la Victoria, in addition to those of Duke of Morella, Count of Luchana and Viscount of Banderas. Many years later, in 1872, King Amadeo I also granted him that of Prince of Vergara, with the accompanying style of His Royal Highness. Later, this grant was confirmed by King Alfonso XII.

The liberal politician

Espartero's personal coat of arms as Prince of Vergara.

Although in 1826, during the Ominous Decade, he denounced a liberal conspiracy that was being organized in London by some «traitors» led by the exiled general Espoz y Mina to overthrow the absolute monarchy of Ferdinand VII, after the latter's death Espartero was always a supporter of liberalism against absolutism. However, he never put his ideology in writing, and «his political thought never went beyond vague pronouncements about liberty and constitutions, as well as loyalty to the monarchy, which can be summed up in a motto that he himself made famous: "Let the national will be done"». Another of the phrases that sum up his political thought was that what he wanted for Spain was «liberty properly understood», whose model was the British constitutional monarchy, because there «assembly and petition are respected as a right in order to know opinion and avoid the force that a sudden change, which here is called revolution, brings with it». His first political declaration appeared implicitly in a poem written to celebrate the restoration of the Constitution of 1812 after the Mutiny of the Sergeants of La Granja in August 1836:

Amid the most unheard-of despotism

Mother Spain was lately seen
And surrounded by ambitious children
Ruled by private gain.
Not even in hope did she find consolation
Of recovering her lost liberty.
Cast down at her feet and already dissolved
The best of codes lay.
Its beautiful pages torn to pieces
That once made the Spanish people free.
And the noble farmer, the merchant,
The learned Muses and active industry
Were witnesses to her bitter weeping,
And faithfully came to imitate her.
At this, from diligent fame
The echoes are heard, which, asking a reward for the good news,
Proclaim that throughout the towns of Iberia

They achieve their longed-for liberty.

He always showed total loyalty to Queen Isabella II, to the point that at the end of the Progressive Biennium he did not want to lead the resistance to the moderate coup because that could endanger the Isabelline monarchy and «I, a monarchist and defender of that august person, do not wish to be an accomplice in her dethronement»; he even remained in Madrid for a time, before retiring to Logroño, at the express request of the Queen, in order to quell a revolt in the city that had «taken the person of Your Excellency as its banner». This loyalty continued even after she was dethroned in the Glorious Revolution of 1868, as he defended the rights to the throne of her son, the future Alfonso XII.

His condition as a military man also influenced his actions as a politician, since he always thought that political life could be handled militarily, as he commented in a letter to his wife in November 1840:

Pay no attention to newspapers or nuances; one commands with the Constitution as with the military ordinances; when the one who commands is just and firm and when he does not depart from the law, nobody should intimidate him and nothing will stop him on his course... I pay no attention to nuances or papers because I am the Spanish flag and all Spaniards will unite around it.

This way of understanding government became evident when in October 1841 he ordered the execution by firing squad of the generals and politicians involved in an attempted coup d'état that included the kidnapping of the eleven-year-old Queen Isabella II, among whom was the young general Diego de León.

Espartero, Regent of Spain (1840–1843)

Main article: Regency of Espartero

Portrait of Baldomero Espartero (1841) by Antonio María Esquivel. Seville City Council.

His military successes during the Carlist war—the Battle of Luchana of December 1835, with which he broke the siege of Bilbao; the Embrace of Vergara, which put an end to the war in the north—gave him enormous popularity, bordering on idolatry, especially among the lower classes—to the people Espartero was the «Sword of Luchana» and, after his victory in the war, he became the «Peacemaker of Spain»—. A United States diplomat described Espartero's entry into Madrid on September 29, 1840, as follows:

His entry was celebrated with the most enthusiastic welcome; for three days the festivities continued on a scale of regal magnificence—the streets illuminated, the houses adorned with hangings, triumphal arches erected on the Prado, and a graceful column with the appropriate symbols in the Puerta del Sol—, as well as dramatic performances and bullfights, to which the spectators were invited with tickets to meet him.

These displays of enthusiasm were repeated in other places, as when he arrived in Valencia on October 8 and the crowd unhitched the horses from his carriage and began to pull it through the streets of the city.

His entry into political life came after the victory at Luchana, when both moderates and progressives offered him a place in the government heading the Ministry of War, but he refused because the War had not yet ended. His leaning toward the progressives, according to Jorge Vilches, was due to the fact that the government of the moderate Evaristo Pérez de Castro did not approve Espartero's request that his aide Linage be promoted to Field Marshal, although his clashes with the moderate general Ramón María Narváez, which went back years, may also have played a part, from the time when he was not supplied with the same troops, materiel and funds as the Espadón de Loja.

Espartero's incursions into politics from 1839 onward were harshly contested by the moderate press. Aware of his power and opposed to Maria Christina's conservatism, after the revolts of 1840 he managed to be appointed President of the Council of Ministers, but insufficient support forced him to resign. Espartero led the Progressive Party unopposed and needed a sufficient majority in the Cortes. The mutiny of La Granja de San Ildefonso had drawn the moderates' attention to the strength of the liberals and, therefore, of Espartero himself. Thus, the confrontation with the Regent over the role of the National Militia and the autonomy of the municipal councils ended in a widespread uprising against Maria Christina in the most important cities—Barcelona, Zaragoza and Madrid being the most prominent—and in her renunciation and handing over of the Regency and of the custody of her daughters, including Queen Isabella, to the general.

Espartero attained the regency while Maria Christina went into exile in France. However, the Progressive Party was divided over how to fill the space left by Isabella II's mother. On one side, the so-called trinitarios advocated the appointment of a Regency shared by three members. On the other, the unitarios led by Espartero himself maintained the need for a solid single-person Regency. Finally, on March 8, 1841, Espartero was elected sole Regent of the Kingdom by 169 votes of the Cortes Generales against 103 votes obtained by Agustín Argüelles. The general's strength allowed him to attain the Regency, but not before he had made enemies of a significant part of the Progressive Party, which saw a latent authoritarianism in the general, and he even had to make use of part of the moderate votes to attain the sole regency.

Revolt in Barcelona of 1842.

His personalist and militaristic way of governing provoked the enmity of many of his supporters. This situation of internal tension among the progressives was exploited by the moderates with O'Donnell's uprising in 1841, which ended with the execution by firing squad of some prominent and esteemed members of the army, such as Diego de León. Later, the uprising in Barcelona in November 1842, caused by the crisis in the cotton sector, was harshly repressed by the Regent when Captain General Antonio Van Halen bombarded the city on December 3, with numerous victims. The famous phrase «Barcelona must be bombarded at least once every fifty years» is attributed to him, but according to the historian Adrian Shubert the phrase is «undoubtedly» a «myth», a «legacy of recent nationalism», and there was a «strong cult of Espartero in Catalonia that lasted thirty years after the bombardment of Barcelona». The then colonel Prim, who had already accused him of favoring English textiles by not imposing heavy tariffs on them and who finally distanced himself from him after the bombardment, rose up in Barcelona; General Narváez landed in Valencia and marched on Madrid, where Prim would later join him.

In 1843 he was forced to dissolve the Cortes, in the face of their hostility. Narváez and Serrano led a joint pronunciamiento of moderate and progressive military men, in which the Regent's own forces went over to the enemy at Torrejón de Ardoz. Seville rose up in July and was bombarded by Van Halen's forces and, from the 24th onward, by Espartero in person.

Exile in England (1843–1848)

After fleeing through El Puerto de Santa María, he went into exile in England on July 30. The new authorities ordered that, if he were found in the peninsula, he should be «executed by firing squad» without awaiting further instructions. But the maneuvers of Luis González Bravo and of Narváez himself against the progressives, especially against Salustiano Olózaga, meant that the latter were not long in calling upon the exiled Espartero to lead the liberals. In England Espartero lived an austere life, although he was constantly feted by the British Court and the entire nobility. He did not lose sight of national politics and, no doubt, a good part of the civil and military actions of the progressives in this period had his approval.

Espartero was received in England with great effusiveness, since his fame was not limited to Spain—he had been decorated by several foreign monarchs: Queen Victoria had granted him the Order of the Bath; King Louis Philippe of Orléans, the French Legion of Honor; Queen Maria II of Portugal, the Order of the Tower—. Only one day after his arrival in London, according to the newspaper The Times, «his hotel was literally besieged by visitors of all ranks. The Duke of Wellington was among the first to pay a visit to His Excellency». The Earl of Clarendon and Sir Robert Peel also went to visit him, and he was invited to dinner by Lord Palmerston, among others. He was received in audience by Queen Victoria, and on September 26, 1843, the Mayor of London organized a dinner in his honor at the Mansion House, during which he gave a speech—which had to be approved after a very long debate by the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, in Spain the publisher Benito Hortelano Balvo published a serialized biography of Espartero, written by Carlos Massa Languinete, which was enormously successful. Hortelano himself recalled in his memoirs the popularity that Espartero continued to enjoy despite his exile:

The people of Madrid were not only great enthusiasts of the general, but also fanatical admirers. During his exile in London, all their hopes were placed in him. He was their savior, their idol; they could not compromise with the moderates, because they had condemned the Messiah of the people to ostracism.

The moderate Constitution of 1845 did not ensure political stability. On the contrary, the distance between progressive and moderate liberals widened. Isabella II, advised by her mother, tried to bring Espartero closer to the Crown again, knowing that, sooner rather than later, she would have to count on a man admired by his people and of such important influence. Thus, on September 3, 1847, the then President of the Government, Joaquín Francisco Pacheco, issued him the Decree by which the Queen appointed him senator and, shortly afterward, plenipotentiary ambassador to Great Britain. It was the time of reconciliation.

Reconciled with the Queen: the Progressive Biennium (1854–1856)

Espartero's house in Logroño. La Ilustración Española y Americana. Madrid, 1879.

In 1848 his honors were restored and he returned to Spain, withdrawing to Logroño and abandoning public life. In this way he fulfilled a wish he had already expressed at the beginning of the regency in a letter to his wife, in which he told her that when he managed «to consolidate the throne of Isabella, the Constitution, sworn peace, the prosperity and independence of my homeland» he would spend the rest of his life «planting trees in La Fombera and improving Logroño as a simple citizen».

However, during his retirement in Logroño his popularity did not decline, as was noted by the publisher of his biography, Benito Hortelano, who went to visit him after his return from exile and found his house surrounded by a crowd, «an immense multitude that settled in day and night in order to see the leader of the people, should he ever go out or appear on the balcony; a glance from him would have been enough to electrify that population».

He reappeared in public life in the Progressive Biennium of 1854–1856 alongside Leopoldo O'Donnell after the triumph of the Revolution of 1854. During those two years he was once again President of the Council of Ministers of Spain. Before returning to active politics he issued this brief proclamation to his fellow citizens of Logroño:

Riojans: I leave Logroño, my adopted town, because the Homeland and its liberty demand my presence in unvanquished Zaragoza. I take with me the pleasant memory of seven years in which I have been your fellow citizen. I leave you a single charge: Obey the patriotic Junta that has been installed this day, respect its provisions and keep order, the sure guarantee of triumph.

Obverse of a medal with the effigy of Baldomero Espartero. Legend: Baldomero Espartero, Duke of la Victoria, 1855.

Proof that Espartero's popularity remained intact after five years of exile and six in retirement in Logroño is offered by the British ambassador in Madrid, who declared:

There is no doubt that the lower classes of Madrid, Zaragoza and most of the principal cities are Esparterists... Like Napoleon in France, his portrait is universal in the huts of the poor, and it is the only one.

Other diplomatic representatives expressed themselves in the same vein, as did Spanish observers and politicians such as Fernando Garrido, leader of the Democratic Party and a pioneer of Spanish socialism:

The triumphant revolution, national sovereignty, cannot be worthily represented except by the soldier of Liberty, by the man of the People, by the citizen who wrote on his banner, when the armed people offered him the dictatorship: Let the National Will be done.

Espartero was also considered the symbol of the struggle of the working class, even in Barcelona, the city he had ordered bombarded sixteen years earlier. Thus, in the strike of the selfactinas between July and December 1854, the workers said: «Y perque nols engañen / dos pilars hi han posat / lo un es Espartero / i l'altre la Societat» ("And so that they do not deceive us / two pillars have been set up / one is Espartero / and the other the Society"). And when the general strike was declared in 1855 and a workers' delegation was preparing to leave for Madrid, a manifesto was drawn up that ended with «Long live Espartero! Long live the National Militia! Long live liberty! Long live free association, order, work and bread!».

But O'Donnell himself ended up displacing him from power with his Liberal Union project, scheming from his post as Minister of War whatever suited his interests. Espartero was no longer the man capable of exerting himself to the utmost, and he understood that Queen Isabella had placed, in the words of Romanones, «two roosters in the same henhouse» in order to keep two of the most prestigious generals on her side.

Retirement in Logroño (1856–1879)

Portrait of Baldomero Espartero, lithograph by Santiago Llanta y Guerin. Inscription: «First candidate for king of Spain/ Baldomero I». National Library of Spain.

After definitively leaving the government of the Progressive Biennium, Espartero never had any intention of returning. Anyone who approached him to get news, receive advice, or gather information for a historical work was well received. He himself was aware that his time had passed, but he enjoyed the company of old comrades-in-arms, liberal deputies, and English nobles passing through Spain who visited him to recall the times of his exile in England.

A crown for the soldier

When Queen Isabella II was dethroned by the Revolution of 1868, Juan Prim and Pascual Madoz offered him the Crown of Spain, a position he did not accept. The years had taken their toll on him and he did not consider himself strong enough for so lofty an undertaking. The citizenry and a good part of the liberal press called for the old septuagenarian general to be proclaimed King. Pamphlets, articles—above all in the newspapers La Independencia and El Progreso—and even songs of better or worse fortune and taste demanded in the large cities that the Crown be offered to the general.

One of the popular songs in favor of Espartero as the new King of Spain went as follows:

Happy would Spain be

under democratic command,
haughty, not tolerating
the crown on a foreign brow;
the fury of the Bourbons
we must never forget,
Montpensier, we do not want him,
Espartero is popular,

King we must raise him.

Juan Prim y Prats.

In the spring of 1870, a commission of deputies traveled to the general's retreat in Logroño to ask him to accept the undertaking. They carried a letter from the then President of the Council, Juan Prim, which read:

Madrid, May 13, 1870. Most Serene Lord: the Government of the Regent considers that the moment has come to give a definitive solution to the times we are going through. The worthy ministers who make up the Government that I have the honor to preside over long for the good of the homeland and the consolidation of its liberties. It is well known that, in resolving the question of the Monarch, friends and devoted admirers of Your Highness remembered the services rendered to the constitutional cause by the peacemaker of Spain. For this case, and as I have done, authorized by the Government, as I am on this present occasion, in all the candidacies previously initiated, with due respect, I would like to know whether Your Highness's acceptance could be counted on for King of Spain in the event that the sovereign Constituent Cortes should deign to elect you. The Government does not sponsor any candidacy, leaving the Assembly the most complete freedom. It has, however, the duty to prevent passions from being stirred uselessly if the candidate elected by the Cortes were not to accept. Your Highness will know how lofty and patriotic is the thought that, in the name of the Government, obliges me to address to Your Highness this letter, of which the bearer is my old friend and Deputy to the Cortes His Excellency Don Pascual Madoz, who is certainly one of the persons most devoted to Your Highness. I remain, with the most distinguished consideration, Your Highness's affectionate and most respectful servant, Signed: The Count of Reus. To His Most Serene Highness and Captain General of the Army Don Baldomero Espartero, Duke of la Victoria.

The letter, then, invited him to be a candidate rather than to be King, with the precaution that he should not rise up if he were not elected. Such was the fear that the old Captain General still produced in the ranks of some Army commanders. He sent a brief, courteous negative reply to Prim—in which he told him «that it would not be possible for me to accept so lofty an office because my many years [75] and my poor health would not allow me to perform it well»— and to Nicolás Salmerón, who headed the parliamentary delegation, he expressed, among other things:

... when you convey the expression of my gratitude to General Prim and the other friends who set their sights on me with so lofty a thought, tell them on my behalf to abandon it completely and to quicken their step along the path of the monarchical constitution of the country. Let them desist from bringing any foreign prince to the Spanish throne, because that would be to prolong the dangerous interim in which we live...

He thus warned them about the baleful consequences that a foreign monarchy could have for Spain and the frustration it was going to generate among the people.

After the failure of the democratic monarchy of Amadeo I, which gave way to the First Spanish Republic, it seems that he was sounded out about accepting the presidency of the Republic, although Espartero rejected it.

Honored by successive heads of State

Baldomero Espartero, by José Casado del Alisal (1872), a work housed in the Palacio de las Cortes.

Once Amadeo of Savoy was elected King of Spain, in September 1871 he publicly announced his wish to visit General Espartero at his residence in Logroño. It is not known whether he was advised to do so, but in the convulsive period of the Democratic Sexennium and with an atypical King elected in the Cortes, it seemed advisable to the Monarch to win the trust of the man who was a legend of liberalism.

The Duke of la Victoria himself went to receive him at the railway station dressed in full-dress uniform as Captain General, accompanied by the civil and military authorities of the city, and together they traveled the route to the Duke's house amid the jubilation of the population, which acclaimed them both. The Monarch spent two days lodged in Espartero's residence and had hardly any more contact with the population than attending two official functions. The content of their conversations during the time they were together is unknown, but Espartero, when he accompanied him back to the train station, showed joy and respect and treated him as the legitimate King of the Spanish, a recognition that might very well have been what Amadeo was seeking. On his return to Madrid, the King granted him the title of Prince of Vergara (January 2, 1872), with the style of Royal Highness.

Equestrian statue of Espartero on the Paseo del Espolón in Logroño.

He would also receive at his home Estanislao Figueras himself after the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic, and another king who would come to pay his respects to him three times: Alfonso XII.

King Alfonso came for the first time in the same year as his election, on February 9, 1875, accompanied by the Minister of the Navy, and, like Amadeo, he also spent the night at the Duke's house. The old general's delicate health prevented him from going to receive the Monarch, who found an aged man, but one who retained some of his former strength. The King informed him of the award of the Grand Cross of Saint Ferdinand, whereupon Espartero himself had someone search among his decorations for one of those he had won earlier and wished to bestow it on Alfonso XII so that, in his own words:

Espartero's tomb in the cathedral of La Redonda in Logroño.

... he might remember that the Constitutional King, besides being valiant, must be just and a faithful guardian of public liberties, with which he will ensure the happiness of the people and succeed in winning their love...

The Monarch returned on September 6, 1876, to inform the victorious general of the First Carlist War that, once again, Carlism had been defeated, and some time later, on October 1, 1878, when a religious ceremony was held for the souls of the wives of both men, who had died a short time before.

Last years

He spent the last years of his life at his home, surrounded by the affection of his fellow townspeople, as a point of reference for many of the politicians of the time. His well-known haughtiness gave way to a statesman, an adviser to all, who expressed on every occasion he could his wish that disagreements between the various political factions should no longer be settled by force of arms. The death of his wife Jacinta plunged him into deep sorrow, and thereafter he attended to nothing but his own end.

His will had been executed on June 15, 1878, barely six months before he died and shortly after the death of his wife. Having no children, Espartero named as universal heir his niece Eladia Espartero Fernández y Blanco, of whom he was especially fond. The inheritance, consisting of a large fortune, was accompanied by all the titles and honors.

To his other nephews and nieces and to the staff of his household he left bequests and legacies, and to his former aide, the Marquis of Murrieta, he gave the sword that Bilbao had presented to him and the equestrian statue given to him by the City of Madrid, in addition to other minor military belongings.

Historical memory

Espartero's funeral procession passing along the Calle del Mercado, in Logroño.

The general's funeral was paid for by the State and his remains received the protocol due to a Captain General who had died on active service, despite his having long been retired from active military and political life. The government of Cánovas del Castillo assigned the largest possible number of soldiers to take part in the ceremony. Shortly afterward a statue paid for with public funds was erected to him in Madrid, to «represent the illustrious Prince of Vergara as the peacemaker of Spain, a title that condenses all his lofty gifts and the deeds of his glorious life, and explains the fervent and lasting gratitude of the homeland». However, this attempt by the elites of the Bourbon Restoration to use the figure of Espartero to «nationalize the masses» failed, since when he died at the age of eighty-six «his memory had been substantially lost among the majority of the population». In its chronicle of his funeral, La Ilustración Española y Americana noted that he was «vaguely remembered by the people». Miguel Maura relates that, during the first days of the Second Spanish Republic, he came across a crowd trying to tear down the equestrian statue located in front of the Retiro; someone shouted: «Let's execute that guy», to which he replied that «that guy had been a liberal».

Death of Baldomero Espartero, by José Nin y Tudó. 1879. (Museo de La Rioja).

One of the first decisions taken by the Francoist authorities after the end of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 was to change the name of Calle Príncipe de Vergara to that of General Mola. According to the historian Adrian Shubert, today the memory of Espartero «is even weaker. Little remains: a few statues; a few street names; a Metro station—Príncipe de Vergara, whose identity is unknown—in Madrid; a crude saying about his horse... In Bilbao, the place where his only great victory occurred, nothing remains: the first democratic city council, led by the PNV, renamed Espartero street in favor of one of its own nationalist heroes, Juan Ajuriaguerra. However, Zumalacárregui kept the street the Francoists had given him».

In memory of Espartero monuments were built, such as the well-known equestrian statues in Madrid; in Granátula de Calatrava (Ciudad Real), his birthplace; and in Logroño, his wife's city, where he retired in his old age. Streets were dedicated to him, such as Príncipe de Vergara in Madrid and Duque de la Victoria in Granátula de Calatrava, and also in Valladolid or Alicante. In Logroño, the name Príncipe de Vergara was given to the Espolón, the city's main promenade, where the equestrian statue was erected to him by popular subscription. His name was also given to a street that Francoism later renamed General Franco and which, with democracy, became Avenida de la Paz, but he was not left without a street, since another one was named General Espartero.

According to Adrian Shubert, «Espartero has been erased from Spanish historical memory».

Service record

Year	Day and month	Rank
1809	November 1	Distinguished Soldier
1812	January 1	Second Lieutenant
1814	September 2	Lieutenant
1816	September 9	Captain
1817	August 1	Second Commandant
1821	February 26	Commandant
1822	March 23	Brevet Colonel of Infantry
1823	February 1	Full Colonel of Infantry
1823	October 9	Brigadier
1834	February 17	Field Marshal
1836	June 21	Lieutenant General
1838	May 1	Captain General

See also

• Reign of Isabella II
• Regencies of Maria Christina and Espartero
• First Carlist War
• Isabella II of Spain

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Bermejo Martín, Francisco (2000). Espartero, hacendado riojano (in español). Logroño: Instituto de Estudios Riojanos. ISBN 84-206-6768-4. Colección Logroño, no. 24
• Burdiel, Isabel (2004). Isabel II. No se puede reinar inocentemente (in español). Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. ISBN 84-670-1397-4.
• Conde de Romanones (1932). Espartero. El general del pueblo (in español). Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.
• Fernández Bastarreche, Fernando (1978). El Ejército Español en el siglo XIX (in español). Madrid: Siglo XXI. ISBN 84-206-6768-4.
• Gómez, Francisco Javier (1893). Logroño histórico. Descripción detallada de lo que un día fue y de cuanto notable ha acontecido en la ciudad desde remotos tiempos hasta nuestros días (in español). Logroño: Ayuntamiento de Logroño. ISBN 84-89362-42-4. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) Reissued in a facsimile edition by the Logroño City Council in 1998. First reprint 2000
• Shubert, Adrian (2000). "Baldomero Espartero (1793-1879). Del ídolo al olvido". In Burdiel, Isabel; Pérez Ledesma, Manuel (eds.). Liberales, agitadores y conspiradores. Biografías heterodoxas del siglo XIX (in español). Madrid: Espasa Calpe. ISBN 84-239-6048-X. OCLC 45619844.
• Vilches, Jorge (2001). Progreso y Libertad. El Partido Progresista en la Revolución Liberal Española (in español). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. ISBN 84-206-6768-4.

Further reading

• Espadas Burgos, Manuel. Baldomero Espartero, un candidato al trono de España. Ciudad Real: Diputación Provincial, 1984. ISBN 84-505-0556-9
• San Baldomero Ucar, José Manuel. «La imagen de Espartero en los artículos de Carlos Marx en el New York Daily Tribune. Investigación humanística y científica en La Rioja: homenaje a Julio Luis Fernández.» Sevilla y Mayela Balmaseda Aróspide, 2000, ISBN 84-89362-92-0, pp. 257–278. For direct download

Sources and documents

• Pérez Galdós, Benito. España sin rey. Madrid, 1908.
• Gómez, Francisco Javier. Logroño histórico. Descripción detallada de lo que un día fue y de cuanto notable ha acontecido en la ciudad desde remotos tiempos hasta nuestros días. Logroño, 1893. Reissued in a facsimile edition by the Logroño City Council in 1998. First reprint 2000 ISBN 84-89362-42-4
• Ruíz Cortés, F., and Sánchez Cobos, F., Diccionario Biográfico de Personajes Históricos del Siglo XIX Español. Madrid, 1998.
• Segundo Flórez, José. Espartero. Imprenta Sociedad Literaria. Madrid 1843.
• Journée de Torrejon D'Ardoz (Le 22 juillet 1843) par un espagnol. Paris 1843.
• Vida militar y política de Espartero. Imprenta de la Sociedad de Operarios del mismo Arte. Madrid 1844.
• Galería Militar Contemporánea. Sociedad Tipográfica de Hortelano y Compañía. Madrid 1846.
• La España salvada o Espartero en el poder Digitized edition of the original. Imprenta de Domingo Ruíz. Logroño (undated). c. 1840.
• Crónica de la Provincia de Logroño by Giménez Romera, Waldo. Madrid, 1867.

• Service record of Baldomero Espartero.

• Biographical record of Baldomero Espartero at the Congress of Deputies.
• List of parliamentary elections in which he was elected Deputy in the Historical Archive of the Congress.
• Historical archive of the Provincial Council (Diputación Foral) of Álava.
• Archive of the Provincial Council of Albacete. Photographic documents of Luchana. Printed material.
• Municipal Archive of Estella, Navarre.

External links

• Enciclopedia de Historia de España, vol. IV (Diccionario biográfico). (1991). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.