Skip to main content

José Rebolledo de Palafox and Melzi Biography

José Rebolledo de Palafox y Melzi

Spanish military (Zaragoza, 1776-Madrid, 1847).Coming from a noble family, he belonged to the body of the Royal Guards of Corps since 1792.When the French invasion broke out the War of Independence (1808-14), José de Palafox had already been promoted to brigadier; and the popular rebellion of his city proclaimed him captain general of Zaragoza.

José de Palafox (detail of a portrait of Goya)

He immediately summoned the Cortes of Aragon (which had not met for a century), which confirmed in office.He organized the general mobilization for the defense of the city, which withstood two long sieges against Napoleon's troops (1808-09).The city ended up capitulating, against the advice of Palafox, who was taken prisoner and remained confined in Valençay until the end of the war.

Restored to the throne of Fernando VII, Palafox was appointed Duke of Zaragoza, captain general of Aragon, head of the Halberdiers corps, general director of the War Invalids corps, inspector of the Provincial Militias, commander of the Royal Guard and senator of the kingdom.The siege of Zaragoza quickly became one of the most prominent symbols of the Spanish resistance against the French, shrouded in a legend of patriotic heroism.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Josef Hoffmann Biography

Josef Hoffmann (Pirnitz, 1870-Vienna, 1956) Austrian architect, decorator and urban planner.He was a disciple of O.Wagner and participated, along with J.M.Olbrich and other architects, in the creation of the avant-garde movement of the Secession (1897).His work is characterized by the careful treatment of the surfaces achieved through geometric decorations; The Stoclet Palace in Brussels stands out for its calculated elegance of style (1905-1911).
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Bramah Biography

Joseph Bramah (Stainborough, 1749-London, 1814) British inventor.A mechanic by profession, he carried out numerous practical inventions: a security lock, a hydraulic press, the water-closet or toilet system, a printer to number banknotes, etc.
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph H. Maclagan Wedderburn Biography

Joseph H.Maclagan Wedderburn (Forfar, 1882-Princeton, 1948) British mathematician.Professor at Princeton University, he was editor of the Proceedings of the Edinburgh mathematical society (1905-1909) and the Annals of mathematics (1912-1928).He stated a theorem ( Wedderburn's theorem ) according to which every finite field is commutative.
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Mauri Biography

José Mauri (Valencia, 1856-Havana, 1937) Spanish composer.Installed in Cuba for most of his life, he founded the conservatory that bears his name there (1914).His work includes numerous songs and the opera The Slave (1921).
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Refugio Velasco Biography

José Refugio Velasco (Aguascalientes, 1851-Mexico, 1923) Mexican military.He evicted Pancho Villa de Torreón during the Huerta regime and, after the latter's fall, was part of the interim Carbajal government.Appointed commander-in-chief of the army, he signed the Teoloyucán Accords (1914) with the constitutionalists, which put an end to the Huerta period.
Post a Comment
Read more

Heinrich maier Biography

Heinrich Maier (Heidenheim, 1867-Berlin, 1933) German philosopher.He produced a "critical realism", along the lines of H.Driesch.He is the author, among other works, of Aristotle's syllogistics (1896-1900) and of The philosophy of reality (1926-1935).
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Reinach Biography

Joseph Reinach (Paris, 1856-1921) French journalist.He started in the journalistic profession through the Parisian newspaper La République Française , where from 1877 he began to publish interesting political analyzes that placed him at the epicenter of French public life in the last quarter of the century XIX.He acquired such importance in such a short space of time that in 1881, following the proclamation in France of the Third Republic, President León Gambetta called him to his side to place all his trust in him and appoint him head of his secretariat. At only thirty years old (1886), he became editor-in-chief of La République Française .Once this position was released, he directed a noisy journalistic campaign from the pages of the newspaper against the nationalist and populist politics of Georges Boulanger (the " General Revanche ").With this and other similar matters of maximum national interest, Joseph Reinach continued to rise in French public life and, in 188...
Post a Comment
Read more

Frédéric August Bartholdi Biography

Frédéric August Bartholdi (Colmar, 1834-Paris, 1904) French sculptor.He studied architecture in his hometown and later traveled to Paris to study painting; there he came into contact with the painter Ary Scheffer and the sculptors Jean-François Soitoux and Antoine Étex.He soon concentrated his efforts on sculpture, the art for which he would be best known.His works are characterized by monumentality and by large-scale commemorative pieces of historical and patriotic events.He also made works in honor of well-known personalities of the time. Inspired by the Lion of Lucerne , (1819-1821, Lucerne) monument erected in honor of the Swiss Guards of Louis XVI by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), Bartholdi erected the gigantic Lion of Belfort (1880, Belfort).Although it was created for the cemetery in which the soldiers lay, it was placed on top of a hill from where you can see the entire city.The lion, which rises imposingly to repel the enemy's attack, contrasts with the dejected f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Maria Galvez Alonso Biography

José María Gálvez Alonso (Matanzas, 1834-Havana, 1906) Cuban lawyer and politician.After studying law at the University of Havana, he sympathized with the independence movement of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes that led to the Ten Years' War (1868-1878), and served their cause from New York, taking charge of the leadership of the newspaper The Revolution .Due to the complaints and appeals that he published on its pages, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish authorities, and released with the amnesty that was granted once the war ended. José María Gálvez Alonso then founded the Partido Liberal Autonomista (1881), formation that during the following years competed for power with the Conservative Party.Gálvez, who advocated bringing Cuban society and institutions to a point of maturity and sufficient stability as a step prior to independence, also directed the Economic Society of Friends of the Country.He was president of the short-lived autonomous government of Cuba (1897-18...
Post a Comment
Read more