CHAPTER 6
Irish Influence in
Spain
"The Irish established in these
dominions shall keep and maintain the privileges which they have, by which they
are made equal to native Spaniards; and that the formalities of the oath, to
which all other nations have been forced to submit, shall not be exacted from
the Irish, seeing that by the mere fact of their settling in Spain the Irish
are accounted Spaniards and enjoy the same rights."
- Resolution adopted by the Spanish
Council of State on February 3rd, 1792 at
the request of Eduardo Murphy, Enrique Dowell and Juan Walsh to reaffirm the
rights granted to the Irish by King Philip III in 1608.
SPANISH CONNECTION WITH
IRELAND
King
Philip's generous grant of full Spanish citizenship to Irish émigrés stemmed
from the close ties that had developed between Spain and Ireland during the
16th century. The Spanish regarded the
Irish as fellow Catholics who were persecuted by Protestant England for the
sake of their religion. After the
1560's, as Spain found itself pitted against England for control of commerce in
both Europe and the New World, the Spanish kings regarded the rebellious Irish
as potential military allies.
The Spanish
also felt an historical affinity towards the Irish based on ancient and
medieval Celtic influences in their land.
In antiquity, the Celts had ruled Spain from the Pyrenees to
Gibraltar. Local legends had also
enshrined the deeds of the Irish medieval monks who had come to Spain to teach
and found monasteries as they had in the other lands of Europe. From the perspective of the early modern
Spanish, the colony of British Celts that had struggled fiercely against the
Moorish invasions of their province of Gallicia
during the 9th century were ethnically indistinguishable from the Irish.
The Spanish
affinity towards the Irish continued to grow during the Renaissance era. In 1588 when the Spanish Armada was buffeted
by fierce gales after its defeat by the English navy, many ships ran aground on
the rocky shores of Ireland. A large
number of the soldiers and sailors surviving the shipwrecks were massacred by
English soldiers on the beaches as they swam ashore. But some managed to escape, hiding among the
Irish clans that held no love for Queen Elizabeth and her often brutal deputies
and generals. When they returned to
Spain, the surviving sailors widely praised the chieftains Brian O'Rourke and Maglana MacClancey who had given
them refuge despite the risk of English reprisals. As a result, bonds between Spanish and Irish
were further strengthened.
During the
frequent rebellions of the Irish against the English overlords of the 16th
century, the King of Spain, Philip II, sent shipments of arms to Hugh O'Neill,
the Earl of Tyrone, when he led an uprising which became known as the Nine
Years War. Many of the Irish chieftains
even considered asking Philip to be King of Ireland. In 1601, Philip III, who inherited the
Spanish throne in 1598, agreed to send an invasion force to aid O'Neill's
rebellion. When Spanish troops landed at
the southern Irish port of Kinsale, O'Neill marched
his army south to join up with his new Spanish allies. But the two forces were prevented from
joining by the English General, Lord Mountjoy, who
defeated both the Irish and the Spanish armies in separate battles.
Spanish
military assistance to the Irish gradually ended as Spain's wealth and
political prominence began to erode during the 17th century. But the conviction that Spain was a land
friendly to Irish interests was firmly implanted in the minds of many Irish men
and women. So when Irish men and women
left Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Iberian Peninsula seemed like
a logical destination, a haven where they would be welcomed.
THOMAS WHITE AND THE IRISH COLLEGE AT SALAMANCA
One of the
first Irish émigrés to settle in Spain during the 16th century was a young
Tipperary-born man named Thomas White.
He would make an enduring contribution not only to the Spanish
educational system, but also to universities in many parts of Europe. He went to Spain to study for the Catholic
priesthood, a called that was becoming extremely difficult to pursue in his
homeland. The English Anglicans were
closing more and more of the Catholic seminaries throughout Ireland. This land of Spain, where one of the titles
for the King was "His Most Catholic Majesty", seemed like the best
alternative for becoming a priest.
As a lad,
Thomas heard the legend of how the first Celtic inhabitants of Ireland had come
from Spain many centuries before the birth of Christ. According to this legend, the Celts, led by a
chieftain named Mil, sailed northwards across the Bay of Biscay to escape a
famine. During their voyage, they were
guided by the visions of a dying Druid who spoke of the rich and bountiful
island named Innisfail, which was Ireland. But when the Celts finally made landfall,
they were met by the people known as the Tuatha de Danaan who already claimed Innisfail
for their own. With chants of magic and
blades of sharp steel, Mil and his people dispossessed the Tuatha
de Danaan, who retreated forever to the
Otherworld. When Thomas White was a
child in Tipperary, any mystical land beyond the sea was referred to as
"Spain" in Irish legends and folklore.
Thomas
White arrived in the Spanish port city of Bilbao, a
northern city on the Bay of Biscay from where his legendary forebears may have
set sail. From there he travelled inland
tot he city of Salamanca, to a well-known university which had attracted a
number of Irish seminarians. White
enrolled in the course of studies for becoming a Catholic priest. As with the other Irish seminarians, White
was in a situation which made his training for the priesthood even more
difficult than it was ordinarily. The
complex issues in his philosophy and theology courses were taught and debated
in Spanish, giving White and his fellow Irish seminarians an academic
disadvantage when compared to Spanish seminarians. In addition to this language problem, White,
like most of the other Irish students, could barely afford lodging and
food. At the time, there was monetary
inflation and a rising standard of living in Spain created by riches from the
New World passing into the country, as well as the traditionally high standard
of living in the prosperous university town of Salamanca. The Irish students found it difficult to meet
the basic necessities of life with funds available to them from Ireland - with
its much different economic situation.
With the little money he received from relatives in Ireland, White could
afford only crude lodgings and simple meals; and he was never sure that he
would be able to afford even these throughout the course of studies.
When the
difficulties of student life seemed overwhelming, Thomas White sought the
companionship and sometimes the solace of his countrymen who were also studying
for the priesthood in Spain. After
Protestant oppression had swept across Ireland during the 16th century, so many
young Irish men wanted to study at Spanish seminaries they often had to wait
several months for admission. The
administrators of the Spanish universities welcomed them, viewing them as
soldiers in the Catholic counter-reformation movement trying to combat the
spread of Protestant doctrines.
This
Spanish concept of the clergy as spiritual warriors had strong cultural echoes
for many of the Irish seminary students, including Thomas White. Like the medieval monks of Ireland, the
modern Irish seminary students believed that they were engaged in a struggle
for the salvation of their souls. But
the spiritual enemies of their era were different. The foe was no longer solely the needs and
desires of their own bodies. Now the
enemy was also Protestantism, a religion which varied from land to land, was
inimical to Catholicism and was often backed by military and political
force. The Irish seminarians of
16th-century Spain saw themselves as the vanguard of a spiritual army that
would one day reclaim not only Ireland, but all the Protestant parts of Europe
for the Catholic faith.
When he
finished his studies, Thomas White entered the Society of Jesus along with many
of his classmates. The order was
relatively new, but had already gained a reputation for influencing areas as
diverse as local education and international politics. The Society was structured as if it were a
military unity, with a chain of command reporting ultimately to the Father
General. All Jesuits thought of
themselves as soldiers willing to die for the Catholic faith.
The Jesuit
order sent many of its Irish priests educated in Spain back to Ireland to
secretly preach and perform Catholic ritual.
In 1592, Thomas White suggested that the Society keep him in Spain and
assign him to an educational project which would benefit the Jesuits and Irish
Catholics. He wanted to start a college
exclusively for Irish students attending the University of Salamanca. Such a college was not a new idea. An Irish College had been established in 1590
at the University at Alcalá de Henares
by a Portuguese noble whose mother was a MacDonnell from County Antrim. But this Irish College at Salamanca would be
larger than its sister college and under the direct control of the Jesuit
order.
Although
the Father General gave his approval to Thomas White's plan, the Jesuits
provided no resources for the college.
To fund his project, Thomas White turned to Irish merchants and other
Irish émigrés who had settled in the commercial ports of Bayona
and Bilbao along the Bay of Biscay. He received a grant of 200 reales from these merchants, a very modest sum to pay for
the buildings and teachers necessary to operate a college. Eventually, this indefatigable Irish priest
went to the royal palace of Escorial, near Madrid,
and convinced King Philip II to endow the College as well as to give modest
stipends to the students. Because the
University of Salamanca waived tuition for the Irish by granting them pauper
status, these stipends were enough to pay the living expenses of the
students. As a result, many individuals
of Irish heritage who might not otherwise have been able to afford it received
an education. After several decades, the
Irish College admitted Spanish students into its programme.
In the
Irish College at Salamanca, classed were held in the Irish, Spanish and Latin
languages. The course work was quite
eclectic by contemporary standards, educating students in Catholic theology,
science, literature, and history. This
not only reflected the Irish educational tradition which maintained that all
knowledge enhanced human spirituality, but also reflected the Jesuit belief
that Catholic orthodoxy could best be achieved by carefully examining events
and ideas that seemed to contradict the faith and refuting them with clear
logic based on extensive learning.
When the
classes at the Irish College at Salamanca were opened to Spanish students, the
school attracted Spaniards interested in the Irish and their methods of
education. Eventually, the College grew
so crowded that enrolment was limited only to candidates for the priesthood. From the example of the Irish College at Salamanca,
the idea of Irish Colleges supported by both the state and the Irish community
became extremely popular. Other Irish
Colleges on the Salamanca model were founded in Santiago in 1605, Seville in
1612, Madrid in 1619, and Valencia in 1672.
The success of the Irish College at Salamanca also influenced Irish
émigrés in other nations to establish their own versions of an Irish College
modelled on the one begun by Thomas White.
These Irish-inspired centres of learning provided an education for
numbers of Spaniards and other Europeans.
By the
mid-17th century, the Irish Colleges in Spain were controlled by the Jesuits.
With a considerable proportion of graduates of each class joining the Society
of Jesus, the Colleges were like recruiting grounds. They kept the Society's ranks filled with
well-educated and highly-motivated young men, many of whom were Irish. As these Jesuits were sent to other European
lands, they modelled the schools they established, whether to educated young
children or university students, on the Irish Colleges of Spain. These schools and universities emphasized the
study of Catholic theology, Greek, Latin and ancient history.
The Irish
Colleges of Spain were not only the model for the administration and curriculum
in many schools and universities established in several European countries, but
they were also the model for the schools and universities of the educational
systems established in the Spanish colonies of South and Central America. The Jesuits sent to these colonies believed
that such schools and universities were essential for converting the native
inhabitants to Catholicism, as well as keeping the Spanish colonists faithful
to the religion in the New World. By the
18th century, most of the political, religious, and intellectual leaders born
in South and Central America had been educated in these institutions
established by the Jesuits.
Some of the
schools and universities founded by the Jesuits in the 17th century are still
operating. The University of Würzburg in Germany and the University of Córdoba in Argentina are among them. These institutions and many others which have
not survived can be traced back to the Irish College established by Thomas
White at Salamanca. In Europe, these
schools and universities were a part of the Catholic counter-reformation. In the Spanish colonies of Central and South
America, such schools and colleges played a central role in making Catholicism
the prevailing religion. Thomas White's
enterprise in establishing the Irish College at Salamanca hearkens back to the
similar efforts of the medieval Irish monks.
The College affirmed the importance education continued to have in Irish
culture, and also displayed the Irish desire to make education available to
others. Over the centuries of Irish
emigration, founding schools, sharing knowledge, and teaching skills were
important elements in the influence of the Irish in Europe.
THE IRISH REGIMENTS IN
THE SPANISH ARMY
An institution like the Irish Colleges which attracted
generations of Irish émigrés influenced the development of Spanish society for
centuries. Other such institutions were
the Irish Regiments in the Spanish army which fought in battles across Europe
and the New World.
These Irish
Regiments in the Spanish army sprang from the policy of the English Lord Mountjoy who was attempting to forestall trouble in Ireland
during the 1580's by recruiting many young Irish swordsmen to fight in the
armies of England's Protestant allies in Europe. He believed if these potential rebels were
fighting wars in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, they could not rebel in
Ireland. One of the military units
formed by this stratagem was called the Leicester Regiment under the command of
a trustworthy Protestant, Sir William Stanley.
The Leicester
Regiment was assigned to the English forces in the Netherlands to bolster its
strength in a war against Spain, whose forces occupied Flanders and claimed
sovereignty over all of the Low Countries.
The Irish troops fought in many engagements, but eventually they wearied
of spilling their blood for a Protestant cause while their Catholic families
and friends in their homeland were suffering religious persecution. The officers of the Regiment often debated
theological issues with Colonel Stanley.
In 1587, Stanley was convinced by their logic and became a
Catholic. The Regiment then defected to
the Spanish army in Flanders, surrendering the key city of Deventer
to demonstrate their sincerity. The unit
was immediately integrated into the Spanish forces.
During the
Irish rebellion against England at the close of the 16th century that became
known as The Nine Years War, the leader of the rebels, Hugh O'Neill, the Early
of Tyrone, asked Spain to lend him the services of the Leicester Regiment. While the Spanish king agreed, Archduke
Albert, who commanded the Spanish forces in Flanders, had come to rely on the
Irish soldiers in his army. So when he
received O'Neill's request, forwarded to him from Madrid, he ignored it. Shortly afterwards, the Regiment took heavy
casualties while guarding the withdrawal of Albert's army at an engagement in
1600 known as the Battle of the Dunes.
The severity of their losses rendered the Regiment unfit for duty for
more than a year while the Irish soldiers rebuilt the strength of their unit in
the Netherlands by recruiting among the civilian Irish émigrés in Spain. By the time the Regiment recovered, the Nine
Years War in Ireland had ended.
When many
Irish soldiers arrived in Spain seeking political asylum after the surrender of
O'Neill and the end of his rebellion, they were sent to the Leicester Regiment
in the Netherlands which was enlarged and renamed in 1605. It became known ass the First Regiment of
Tyrone and King Philip III placed it under the command of Henry O'Neill, a
younger son of the O'Neill. When Henry
died, his half-brother, John, was placed in command. For the next hundred years, the regiment
would have a direct descendant of Hugh O'Neill as its colonel. Because so many Irishmen trained and
experienced in warfare had come to Spain, the regiments of O'Donnell, Owen Roe
O'Neill, and Preston were formed, all named for their colonels as was the
custom of the times.
The numbers
of Irish serving in the Spanish army were again inadvertently bolstered by the
English in 1609. In that year, a convoy
of transport ships laded with 6000 Irish fighting men who had been recruited by
Lord Mountjoy was bound for the ports of Denmark and
Sweden. But a storm forced the ships to
find shelter in a Dutch harbour. Hugh
O'Neill's nephew, Oghy O'Hanlon, seized the
opportunity to lead a thousand men who had grown disgruntled with their lot
over the sides of their ships. They swam
for shore, and eventually most of them made their way into the First Regiment
of Tyrone stationed in Flanders.
During the
17th century, the First Regiment of Tyrone fought on many European
battlefields. During the Thirty Years
War, it was stationed in the Low Countries and fought at Amiens and Dourlen and in the siege of Louvain. Its valour became legendary, a model for
other Spanish regiments to follow. Over
two hundred officers and men were made Knights of Santiago by the Spanish
monarchs in recognition of their exploits.
Many of the commanding officers of the regiment were also admitted into
the Orders of Alcántra and Culatrava,
an honour which was usually reserved only for the highest of the Spanish
nobility.
As the 17th
century came to a close, Spain no longer needed a large army because it had
lost most of its possessions in Italy and Flanders to France and the
Netherlands. The grandeur and power
Spain had enjoyed which had been largely supported by the riches from Spanish
colonies in the Americas waned as imports from these colonies decreased, forcing
Spain to reduce the size of its army.
The First Regiment of Tyrone was disbanded in the 1680's. But the Spanish military leaders did not want
to reduce the number of Irish soldiers since they were among the most highly
trained and effective troops in the Spanish army. So what the military planners did was
incorporate the Irish soldiers into other Spanish units.
All-Irish
units were reintroduced into the Spanish military in 1703 when France lent the
cavalry regiments of Daniel O'Mahoney - famous for
his defence of Cremona in 1701 - and Henry Crofton to
Spain to bolster Spanish forces during the War of Spanish Succession. In 1709, Spain formed the Ultonia,
Hibernia, Limerick, Waterford and Irelanda Regiments
made up of infantry. In 1733, the
Waterford Regiment was incorporated into the Irlanda
Regiment; and in 1735, the Limerick Regiment was transferred to the army of the
King of Naples. Throughout the 18th
century, the officers from these Irish Regiments distinguished themselves in
battle, were frequently promoted to general and were placed in command of
Spanish troops, thereby exerting a widespread influence on the Spanish army.
The Irish
soldiers in the armies of Spain felt an intense loyalty towards one another and
to their units. The officers were
usually Irish clan leaders who pledged their allegiance to the king of
Spain. But many of the foot soldiers
found the idea of a national monarch too remote from their day-to-day
lives. Their loyalties lay with the
regiment, with their comrades who shared their food and the dangers of combat. In essence, they transferred their clan
allegiance to the military unit. It no
longer mattered if the men they trusted with guarding the flank were members of
the same clan. It was enough that they
were Irish. This bonding based on common
culture made the Irish Regiments extraordinarily effective fighting units. In accordance with the Spanish military
practice of the time, individual Irish Regiments operated during wartime as
quasi-independent units that were assigned objectives that could be achieved
without support from other units. Only
when the Regiments were deployed as part of a larger force were they under the
direct command of a Spanish general.
Otherwise, a Regiment's officers were free to make decisions about when
and where to engage the enemy. Hence,
Irish Regiments were often free to harry or attack
enemy forces with the ambush-and-manoeuvre tactics Irish warriors had developed
in Ireland against the Anglo-Normans.
When
cannons and hand-held firearms began to be used in warfare during the late 16th
century, the value of the tactic of ambush-and-manoeuvre in many circumstances
was reconfirmed for the Irish. Despite
the devastating impact of cannon and firearms on a stationary body of troops, European
armies continued to engage in battles where large bodies of troops would face
each other in open fields. The opposing
forces would take up fixed positions against each other and fire volley after
volley into each other's stationary ranks of troops. Often, after many such volleys, the two sides
would engage in deadly hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, pikes and
sabres. Such a rigid style of warfare
resulting in high, unnecessary casualties had no romantic or heroic allure and
made no sense to the Irish. When they
could, the Irish avoided pitched battles against large enemy formations in
favour of attacking enemy forces when they were most vulnerable, such as when
they were marching in a column or setting up camp.
Through the
example of the Irish Regiments, ambush-and-manoeuvre became a tactic of the
entire Spanish army. It was particularly
effective during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century when Spanish
soldiers were faced with superior French forces invading their country. During this time, the Spanish soldiers became
known as "guerrillas", Spanish for "small wars". This tactic has since become a standard part
of military operations for all the armies of the world.
For the
soldiers of the Irish Regiments in the 17th and 18th centuries, life was
hard. Although the Regiments were
headquartered in Spain, they were usually on operations in Flanders and Italy,
and some contingents were even dispatched to Cuba and Mexico. Inefficient supply systems often deprived
them of food and clothing. Pay was
meagre and frequently behind schedule.
Yet despite the hardships, the Irish seemed to thrive on Spanish army
life. Wives accompanied their soldier
husbands as camp followers. The children
of such couples grew to adulthood familiar with the tattoo of drums and the
call of bugles. Although all written
orders were issued in Spanish, the soldiers and their families continued to
speak Irish among themselves. The Irish
Regiments became outposts of Irish culture in Spain and its dominions in both Europe
and the New World. For the soldiers and
their families, the Regiments slowed the process of assimilation into Spanish
culture and enabled them to provide an ongoing Irish influence on the Spanish
military.
Besides
their victories in battle and the tactic of ambush-and-manoeuvre they contributed
to Spanish military operations, the Irish Regiments also made an important
contribution in the field of medical treatment in the Spanish military. This contribution of the Irish émigrés was
similar to the role of the medieval Irish monks who attended to the illnesses
and the battlefield wounds of the soldiers of the feudal lords and kings. As in feudal times, in the 16th and 17th
century Spanish military, more soldiers died from disease and infected wounds than
from direct combat with an enemy. Thus,
the knowledgeable and skilled Irish regimental physicians were prized by the
Spanish military. The physicians
combined ancient Celtic herbal remedies with the surgical techniques and
medicines being developed as a part of the increased interest in science at the
time. With their knowledge and
ingenuity, the Irish physicians were often able to cure illnesses and treat
wounds that other physicians were helpless against. John Nynan was the
first of the First Regiment of Tyrone's doctors in the early 17th century. He had been Red Hugh O'Donnell's personal
physician and became a military doctor after Red Hugh's death. Nynan was succeeded
as Regimental Physician by Owen O'Shiel, who
eventually became chief of the medical faculty at the Spanish Royal Military
Hospital at Mechlinburg. Both men emphasized the need for an effective
system of military hospitals to care for sick and wounded soldiers.
The story
of Lucy Fitzgerald, the wife of a captain of the Ultonia
Regiment, shows a different aspect of the commitment of the Irish to the care
of soldiers wounded in battle and illustrates the role women could take on
among the Irish. In 1808, the Regiment
was stationed in the northern Spanish city of Gerona to keep Napoleon's army
from occupying it. The city had
strategic importance because it was at the Spanish end of a pass through the
Pyrenees. After the Spanish army had
been defeated by the French and Napoleon had crowned his brother Joseph King of
Spain, the Regiment remained in Gerona although they were no longer opposing
the French.
The
defeated Spanish army reluctantly pledged its loyalty to King Joseph. But the officers and men rankled under the
leadership of the foreign King. The
large majority of the population also continued to resent the French occupation
of their country and the coronation of a Frenchman as their monarch.
In May of
1808, the people of Madrid rose up against the French. Other cities soon joined the rebellion. The first regular Spanish army unit to
declare its support for the rebellion was the Ultonia
Regiment, under the command of Antonio O'Kelly. Because they could not leave the
strategically-important mountain pass in the hands of the Spanish, the French
military leaders sent an army of six thousand men to capture the city from the
Regiment. When the French attacked,
murderous fire from the fortified walls of Gerona forced them to withdraw. After this defeat, the French commander sent
an army of thirty-three thousand French veterans complete with artillery and
siege guns. This force surrounded the
city, attempting to starve the garrison into submission. But within the walls of Gerona, the heavily
outnumbered Ultonia Regiment husbanded their supplies
and would not surrender.
To bolster
the combat strength of the soldiers manning the defences, Lucy Fitzgerald
organized the wives, mothers and daughters of the Ultonian
soldiers into the Company of Santa Bárbara. Their mission was to support the soldiers by
tending the wounded and passing the ammunition.
Some of the women also took the place of soldiers on the ramparts who
had been struck by an enemy musket ball or grapeshot.
Forming the
Company of Santa Bárbara and encouraging other
Irishwomen to join it was an audacious step for Lucy Fitzgerald. She had been raised in the strict patriarchal
culture of Spain which allowed women few choices in behaviour, education or
career. Women were under the
"protection" of a man, either their father, husband or occasionally a
grown son. Only in the strict regimen of
Catholic religious orders could a woman find an alternative way of life, but
still the nuns remained under the "protection" of a bishop who could
forbid any activity which displeased him.
As a member
of an Irish émigré family, Lucy Fitzgerald had greater opportunity to take on
roles not generally accepted for women in Spanish society. While Irish women were not as unfettered in
their actions as their Celtic ancestors, they were active in affairs beyond the
home and family. They expected access to
education and the right to offer any skills they developed to the
community. So when Lucy Fitzgerald
married a captain of the Ultonian Regiment, she did
not hesitate to participate as much as possible in the non-military aspects of
regimental life. Since the Ultonian soldiers remained largely Irish in their customs
and beliefs, they welcomed Lucy's active involvement in the defence of Gerona.
On August
10th, 1809, the French wearied of the protracted siege and began an all-out
assault. First they barraged a small
outpost, called Fort Montjuich, beyond the town
walls. In a short time, the fort was
devastated, and every defender lay dead or wounded. Rather than abandon the defenders of Montjuich, Lucy Fitzgerald led her company of women
volunteers through a rain of bombs and musket shot to the fort to evacuate the
injured. Despite withering enemy fire,
they carried the blood-soaked survivors back to the relative safety of the
town. Inspired by her courage, the
defenders of Gerona successfully resisted the French assault. The Regiment continued to hold the town for
another five months until relieved by Spanish forces in December of 1809. Afterwards, the Company of Santa Bárbara became a model for other regiments of the Spanish
army to form their own auxiliary nursing and convalescent organizations staffed
principally by women.
It was
unlikely that Lucy Fitzgerald's bold break from a traditional role for a woman
would have been permitted in a fully-Spanish regiment. But because Irish heritage included active
female intervention in the affairs that Spain considered the exclusive domain
of men, the Ultonian Regiment encouraged and
applauded her. The fact that the Company
of Santa Bárbara became a permanent part of military
life indicated the level of esteem that the other soldiers of Spain felt
towards their Irish comrades.
For many
Irish émigrés, service in the Irish Regiments was often a stepping-stone to
higher rank in the military. An
Irish-born soldier who became commander-in-chief of the Spanish army in the
late 18th century was from the Ultonia Regiment. Alejandro O'Reilly was born in Ireland,
emigrated to Spain and became an officer in the Ultonia
Regiment. Because he impressed his
superiors in Madrid with his organizational ideas and abilities, he received
rapid promotion. After becoming a
general, he was detached from regular duty and sent to Prussia as an
observer. There he studied the tactics
and training methods of Frederick the Great which were brining the Prussians
victory after victory on the battlefield.
Upon his return to Spain, he established the Spanish Military Academy at
Avila which focused on engineering as well as infantry and cavalry
tactics. After his promotion to
field-marshal, he insisted that the entire Spanish army adopt the Prussian
tactic of a three-deep line for combat on open terrain. This meant that companies would line up in
three ranks, one behind the other. The
first rank would fire their muskets while the other two ranks were
reloading. Then the first rank would
step behind their comrades, enabling another line to fire. This created a constant barrage of musket
balls firing at the enemy. Other Spanish
generals who began their military careers in the Ultonia
Regiment were José O'Donnell and Pedro Sarsfield y
Waters.
During the
17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, all of the Spanish people knew that their
Irish countrymen would be at the forefront of the fighting whenever war broke
out. It was not only the battlefield
valour of the Irish that contributed to Spanish victory and history. The Regiments also produced innovators such
as Alejandro O'Reilly who influenced training and tactics throughout the
Spanish army, and Lucy Fitzgerald who improved the way that wounded Spanish
soldiers received medical treatment. The
loyalty, courage and dedication of the Irish émigrés made their Regiments a
respected institution in Spanish society.
THE SPANISH ADMIRALTY
Although
they lived on an island, the Irish, as the Celts before them, were not drawn to
the sea. Unlike the Vikings, the English,
the Portuguese and other island and coastal peoples, the Irish did not develop
superior seafaring skills or build ships for trade, exploration or
colonization. According to their
legends, St. Brendan had set sail in the frail Irish boat made of hide and skin
called a coracle and discovered a mystical land to the west. Since this mythic exploit in the 6th century,
the people of Ireland confined themselves to coastal fishing and did not sail
large vessels to Europe for commerce or into the Atlantic for exploration. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the
English established the shipbuilding industry in Belfast, but these shipyards
were far smaller than the yards in Rotterdam or Portsmouth. Yet despite their lack of a seagoing
heritage, many of the Irish émigrés entered the Spanish navy.
The Irish
émigrés were attracted to the Spanish navy because of the high social standing
accorded to naval officers. In the 16th
and 17th centuries naval officers were highly regarded because it was mainly
the navy that protected Spain's rich, far-flung empire. Spain's large navy had a complex
mission. Ships had to patrol the
Atlantic, protecting convoys of galleons laden with the treasures and products
of the New World. At the same time,
ships had to guard the Spanish and South American shoreline from privateers and
pirates who would raid coastal settlements.
In times of war against naval powers like England, France and the
Netherlands, the navy had to blockade enemy ports and engage enemy squadrons to
deny them the use of the seas. To
support its large navy, Spain needed many officers and sailors to crew the
ships.
Because the
Irish émigrés were well-educated and many of them came from families that the
Spanish recognized as noble, they were ideal candidates for naval
officers. All naval officers required
enough education to grasp spherical trigonometry and astronomy in order to
navigate vessels on the high seas. Once
naval officers advanced to the rank of captain and commanded a ship, they often
operated independently with little communication with the Spanish
Admiralty. Ship captains on an
independent mission were at liberty to interpret and change their orders in
accordance with the varying circumstances they encountered on distant
seas. This self-reliance required of
ship captains appealed to the vision of the lone Celtic warrior challenging his
enemy in battle that was inherent in Irish heritage. The Spanish naval service provided one of the
few opportunities in the contemporary world for an individual to exercise
independent judgement in warfare.
Tómas Geraldino Fitzgerald was
one notable Spanish naval officer with an Irish heritage. He was descended from the clan that initiated
the rebellion known as the Geraldine Wars against Henry VIII in the 16th
century. When Cromwell came to Ireland
in 1642 to purge the island of Catholics once and for all, Fitzgeralds
were among the leaders of the defence of the city of Drogheda when it came
under siege by Cromwell's army. After
the city finally fell and the English forces slaughtered all the Irish
defenders who had not fled into the countryside, the Fitzgeralds
managed to escape by hiding in the countryside.
A short time later, some of the clan fled to safety in Spain. A hundred years later, Tómas
Geraldino Fitzgerald was born to successors of the
Fitzgerald family in Spain.
Tómas joined the Spanish navy as a midshipman in the
mid-18th century. By 1782, he had risen
to the rank of captain and had led several expeditions to the Caribbean to keep
the waters off Spanish colonies free from English privateers. Although England was not at war with Spain,
the two nations were vying for supremacy in the New World and control of its
wealth. English kings had granted
authority to privately owned warships to plunder Spanish ships in the Caribbean
because England believed that if Spain were unable to protect the trade with
its colonies, they would rebel against Spain and thus become markets for
English goods. Tómas
thwarted the activities of the privateers by keeping his ships at sea for long
periods of time. During voyages back and
forth across the Atlantic and across the oceans of the globe to discover
unknown lands, ships had to frequently make landfall to replenish their supply
of fresh water. But Tómas
increased the length of time his ships could stay on patrol searching for
English privateers by devising a filtering for sea water so that it would
become fresh water. By the 1790's, Tómas's desalinization method was adopted for the entire
Spanish fleet.
Ten years
after serving in the Caribbean, Tómas again faced
English ships, this time warships. Spain
had been part of the First Coalition formed by England, Austria, Prussia and
Holland to wage war against the recently-established Republic of France. In 1795, Spain not only left the Coalition,
but made a military alliance with Republican France. Angered by this apparent betrayal, the
English government declared war on Spain.
Two years later in this war, attempting to drive off English ships
blockading the port of Cadiz, Tómas was killed.
During the
Napoleonic Wars a few years later, another captain of Irish ancestry in the
Spanish navy clashed with British men o'war. At the Battle of Trafalgar fought off the
coast of Spain, Rear Admiral MacDonald led a squadron against the English fleet
commanded by Lord Nelson. He had started
his career of service to the monarchs of Spain as a lieutenant in the army. Then MacDonald requested a transfer to the
navy, and fought in naval engagements from Africa to the West Indies. For a time, he was detached from the Spanish
Navy to counsel the Swedish King on tactics and strategy in Sweden's war
against Russia. In 1814, MacDonald was
promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Spanish Fleet.
One Irish
family in particular stands out for its career in the Spanish navy. This family was the O'Doghertys. Although the family did not arrive in Spain
until the late 18th century - quite a bit later than most other Irish émigrés -
the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century presented members of the O'Dogherty family with an opportunity to display daring and
intelligence in a time of crisis for Spain.
The story
of the O'Doghertys' decision to emigrate to Spain
began in the early 1600's, with the Irish rebellion against the English led by
O'Neill. Seán óg ó Dochartaigh had remained
neutral during O'Neill's rebellion, hoping that this would keep the English
from seizing the family lands in Inish Eoghain between Lough Swilly and Lough
Foyle which he had inherited. When he
died in 1601, Seán was succeeded as Lord of Inish Eoghain by his son Cahir. After the
unsuccessful rebellion and the Flight of the Earls in 1607, Cahir
was the foreman of a grand jury convened by the English which produced an
indictment known as a Bill of Treason against O'Neill. This Bill was necessary under English law for
the crown to confiscate O'Neill's lands.
Despite the loyalty to the English of the ó Dochartaigh
family, the Governor-General of Derry, Sir George Poulet,
coveted Inish Eoghain. Attempting to acquire the territory by public
insults and destruction of property aimed at driving Cahir
off the land, Poulet provoked Cahir
to a rebellion to try to save his family's land. Within a short time, Cahir
was killed in a skirmish with the English at the Rock of Doon in Donegal.
After Cahir's death, his brother Seán
became Lord of Inish Eoghain
and continued fighting the English. But Seán received no support from the other Irish clans, and
his forces were soon defeated by the English.
Poulet seized the ó Dochartaigh
lands and Seán fled to Brífne
in central Ireland where he lived in secret to
preserve his own life. Seán and his descendants became farmers, eking out a meagre
living on land owned by an English lord near Clankee
in County Cavan. By the mid-18th
century, they were impoverished and bitter, the days of their former family
prominence only a memory.
In the
1760's, a descendant of Seán's named Henry O'Dogherty emigrated to Spain to study for the
priesthood. Once he saw how well the
Irish émigrés in Spain were living, once he saw that it was possible to be both
Spanish and Irish, he wrote letters to his nephews in Ireland urging them to
join him. In 1790, Seán,
Henry and Clinton O'Dogherty arrived in Cadiz. Because they had become interested in the sea
during their voyage from Ireland, the three brothers wanted to join the Spanish
navy. To become officers, they had to
present a genealogy which showed noble origins.
While these documents were being compiled and certified, they were
permitted to become cadets of the Ultonia Regiment,
then stationed at Ceuta, a city under Spanish control
on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar.
When the brothers eventually presented the Spanish Admiralty with their
certified genealogy, the title of earl held by Seán óg ó Dochartaigh during the
Elizabethan period was deemed sufficient to allow them to become midshipmen.
When the
Napoleonic Wars broke out, both Clinton and Henry were dispatched to the Caribbean
with the navy. A short time later, Seán achieved widespread fame for repelling a French
invasion force attempting to land in the Atlantic port of Vigo
near the Portuguese border. Spain had
ended its alliance with France, and Napoleon sent his troops to invade Spain
rather than risk having a potentially hostile nation on the southern border of
France. At Vigo,
Seán O'Dogherty had only
two small gunboats to engage a much larger French force. He ordered his sailors to remove the cannon
from the gunboats and place them in a castle overlooking the harbour
approaches. From this fortified
position, Seán was able to damage the French ships
enough to force them to withdraw. O'Dogherty's victory became a part of Spanish naval
tradition. The exploits of Seán O'Dogherty at Vigo were told and retold to each new generation of Spanish
midshipmen, giving them an example of the courage and intelligence that Spain
expected of its naval officers.
Many of the
descendants of Seán O'Dogherty
followed in their famous ancestor's footsteps by entering the Spanish
navy. As was common in naval families, O'Dogherty's daughters and granddaughters married naval
officers. One of his descendants was Pascual O'Dogherty, a
20th-century admiral who was an internationally known authority on naval
architecture.
Those
émigrés who had been nobles in Ireland saw the naval service as a way to obtain
the prestige and position they had lost with the English occupation of their
land. Besides, naval service uniquely
offered the Irish an opportunity for adventure which appealed to their ancient
Celtic traits. Even though a life at sea
was unfamiliar to them, with their ability to adapt to new situations and their
desire to play a productive role in their new countries, many émigrés readily,
and eagerly, joined the Spanish navy - where many of them served with
distinction and a few became legendary.
MERCHANT ADVENTURERS
During the
15th century, a large number of merchant families in the Irish port cities of
Galway, Cork and Waterford had become wealthy by trading with European
countries. They mostly shipped Irish
butter and beef to the continent on English merchant vessels, which then
returned to Ireland with casks of wine.
During the
reigns of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth, the Lord Deputies in charge of
Ireland placed many restrictions on Irish merchants. Merchants who did not convert to the new
Anglican religion found themselves harassed by customs agents, and sometimes
they had their premises sacked by soldiers.
As O'Neill's rebellion spread across Ireland in the late 16th century,
Irish merchants were heavily taxed by the English to pay for the defence of
Irish cities against a rebel army that many of them sympathized with. In addition, the continual strife between the
warring sides and the scorched-earth policy of the English army frequently cut
the merchants off from their interior markets for their imported goods and also
from the domestic goods they exported.
Seeing their revenues plummet with little likelihood of recovery, many
Irish merchants moved their headquarters to European port cities such as Cadiz
and Bilbao in Spain with which they had been trading
for many years while continuing to operate in Ireland as best they could.
The
majority of merchants in Ireland and Spain were small businessmen, usually
employing only family members. With
their base of operations shifted to Spain and business prospects in Ireland
uncertain, they changed their business activity to importing goods and
materials from the New World and the Far East and distributing these goods to
other European countries. In the ports
of Cadiz, Bilbao and Barcelona, the Irish merchants
imported coffee, cocoa, rum and other products and made arrangements to send
them to other European countries. To ensure
that their affairs abroad would be handled effectively and reliably, the Irish
merchants often sent their sons or nephews to cities in Europe, the New World,
and the Far East to be their agents. In
many parts of Europe, though, the Irish merchants did not need to dispatch an
agent to handle their affairs because they could call on members of their clans
who had emigrated to do this. This was
often the case in France and Austria and even in faraway Russia. Having clan members they could rely on in foreign
countries usually gave the Irish an advantage over their business rivals.
After the
Flight of the Earls in 1607, members of the clan O'Sullivan, MacCarthy and O'Driscol settled
in the cities of Santender and Bilbao
on the shores of the Bay of Biscay.
Within a few generations, they became very prosperous merchants who
traded with all parts of Europe. But not
all of the Irish merchants remained in the north of Spain. Some, like Pedro Alonzo O'Crowley,
settled in the southern port city of Cadiz.
He devoted his time not only to his business interests, but also to
writing and historical research. The
king acknowledged his scholarship by ennobling O'Crowley,
granting him the right to call himself hidalgo, the equivalent of an
Irish baron. After his death, O'Crowley left behind documents identifying him as a member
of clan O'Sullivan who had changed his name to escape English reprisals for his
part in O'Neill's rebellion.
One of the
most noted and successful Irish émigrés who went into business in Spain was not
originally a merchant, but an émigré soldier who had served in the French
forces sent to Spain in support of its new King, Philip V, in the War of
Spanish Succession in the early 1700's.
General Terry, one of the Wild Geese arriving in France in 1693, played
a major role in the growth of the export of sherry from Spain to all parts of
Europe; and he was also responsible for the famed Lippezaner
horses of Austria. But Terry's path to
becoming a prominent émigré businessman was roundabout.
After
arriving in France in 1693, like most of the other Wild Geese, Terry joined the
French army, where he rose to the rank of general. He left the military when Philip V of Spain
renounced his claim to the French throne, thus ending the crises to the European
balance of power from the possibility that Philip could wear the crown of both
Spain and France. Philip V, who had been
named heir to the Spanish throne by his uncle, King Carlos II of Spain, was
also in line to be King of France as a grandson of Louis XIV. Shortly before the death of Carlos and his
will appointing Philip as his successor was known, France, England, Austria and
the Netherlands made an agreement to partition the Spanish territories in
Europe after the death of Carlos II - who was childless. The agreement came apart from Louis XIV of
France learned that his grandson, Philip, was to be King of Spain, and France
might control all the Spanish territories in Europe as well as Spain itself. Alarmed by Louis XIV's
reneging of the agreement and the possibility of an increase in French power
and territorial possessions which would upset the balance of power, England,
Austria and the Netherlands went to war against France and Spain - hoping to
replace Philip V with the Archduke Charles of Austria. The Archduke felt that he had the stronger
claim to the Spanish throne because he and Carlos II belonged to the royal
family of the Hapsburgs: and thus, with him as the Spanish King, the Hapsburg
lineage as rulers of Spain would continue.
Philip V
rewarded Terry for his service to Spain with a tract of land. Terry was given an estate with vineyards near
the southern city of Jerez, in the region of
Andalusia. The area surrounding the city
was famous for its sweet wine which was known as sherry from the garbled
attempts of foreigners to pronounce Jerez. Terry decided to stay in Spain to oversee his
estate. When he went to take over his
estate, Terry found that the harvest of grapes produced by the tenant farmers
on their plots of land varied widely. Some
plots were adequately fertilized and produced satisfactory harvests; while with
others the soil was so depleted that they yielded hardly anything. Having no farming background, Terry went to
other Irish émigrés who were farmers for advice on agricultural techniques
which would improve the harvests of his estate.
After following their advice to organize his vineyards into a single
agricultural unit with uniform methods of cultivation and fertilization taught
to him by the farmers, Terry's estate began to yield consistently good
harvests. In fact, his estate became
widely known for the abundance of its harvests, and Terry's neighbouring
landowners soon began following the Irish farming methods he had implemented.
It was
about this time in the early 1700's that sherry became a "fortified"
wine by adding brandy to it to give it a higher alcohol content. No record exists which credits General Terry
with this innovation, but what is known is that he began to produce fortified
sherry around this time. He quickly
established trade connections with other Irish merchants throughout Europe for
the export of the fortified sherry wine from his vineyards. Sherry already had a large market in England. Folklore in Jerez
claimed that the English had acquired a taste for the wine from supplies of it
on captured Spanish galleons. With the
addition of brandy to it, this soon became popular in many other countries as
well. General Terry led the way in
stimulating not only greater production, but also greater exports, laying the
foundation for Andalusia to become the most important viable wine-growing area
of Spain. Terry's descendants continued
in the wine business and today Fernando Terry heads the Terry Corporation, the
second largest exporter of Spanish sherry.
Besides
wine production, General Terry became involved in raising horses after visiting
the Cartusian Monastery near his estate. He discovered that the monks had bred an
unusual herd of horses which were born black and gradually turned white as they
grew older. When they were fully mature,
they achieved the uncommonly tall height of eighteen hands, or 72 inches at the
shoulder. In southern Spain, the horses
were called Cartusian after the monastery.
General
Terry brought several of the horses back to his Andalusian
estate and began his own breeding programme.
Eventually, Philip V saw one of the magnificent horses owned by General
Terry and suggested that Terry present several of them to the Archduke Charles
of Austria. Philip hoped that a gift of
the horses would help to soothe any resentments harboured by Charles in the
wake of the War of Spanish Succession.
Not wishing to offend the king who had given him so much, General Terry
sent several horses to Vienna. Archduke
Charles immediately established the Spanish Riding School and called the horses
the Lippezaners.
During the course of the next few centuries, they became famous
throughout the world for their precision movements in formation.
The Irish
merchants were particularly beneficial to Spain considering the decline in the
Spanish economy during the 17th and 18th centuries. Not only did they noticeably add to Spain's
commercial activity in general and stimulate particular areas of its economy,
but there were times when the émigrés exclusively could maintain economic
activity which was barred to native Spaniards.
When because of war or changed political or military alliances Spain was
unable to trade with a particular country or its colonies, the Irish émigré
merchants were often able to use their international clan connections to get
around trade bans against Spain, and thereby continue to maintain some level of
trade with these countries. Thus, the
Irish merchants in Spain brought some stability to economic activity and
relations in a time when international commerce was tentative and
unpredictable.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
Although
there were many Irish émigrés and their descendants who influenced commerce,
medicine, education and military affairs in Spain, none was more important to
Spanish society than Leopold O'Donnell.
In the mid-19th century, he became the head of the Spanish
government. As President of the Council
of Ministers, he played a critical role in the reform movement which led to the
development of a constitutional monarchy in Spain.
Leopold was
a direct descendant of Red Hugh O'Donnell, the clan chieftain who had fought
alongside O'Neill in the 16th-century Irish rebellion known as the Nine Years
War. After English soldiers defeated the
rebels, Red Hugh fled to Spain, where he and his sons entered the Spanish army,
thus beginning the O'Donnell tradition to pursue military careers. Leopold's grandfather, José, had commanded
the Ultonia Regiment and risen to the rank of
general; his father, Carlos, was a general in command of Spanish artillery; and
his two uncles were infantry generals.
Leopold began his military service in 1819, at the age of ten, as a
cadet in the Ultonia Regiment.
Leopold
O'Donnell began demonstrating his extraordinary leadership capabilities in 1833
during a war to determine who should wear the crown of Spain. In that year, King Ferdinand VII died after
rescinding a law which prevented a woman from ruling Spain. This enabled his infant daughter, Isabella,
to succeed him. Ferdinand's brother,
Carlos, who would have become king under the old law, marshalled an army to
contest the right of the new queen to rule.
Far more was at stake than the succession to the crown. Isabella and her mother, the Queen Regent María
Christina, believed that the common people of
Initially,
Carlos pinned his hopes of becoming King on two generals of Irish descent, José
O'Donnell, Leopold's grandfather, and Pedro Sarsfield
y Waters. Because of his military
exploits in the 1808 uprising against the French occupation and subsequent
leadership of Spanish troops in North Africa, O'Donnell had great prestige in
the Spanish military. His support would
ensure that most of the Spanish army units would side with Carlos. Sarsfield commanded
the Army of Observation which had been stationed to guard the Portuguese border
since the close of the Napoleonic Wars, despite the fact that Portugal no
longer posed any military threat to Spain.
At the time, this Army was the finest fighting force in the Spanish
army. Carlos assumed that both generals
would support him because they frequently counselled the government against
implementing democratic reforms too rapidly.
In addition, he believed that no self-respecting Spanish general would
accept the leadership of a woman.
To the
surprise of Carlos, General O'Donnell and General Sarsfield
committed their forces to the infant Queen Isabella and her mother, the Queen
Regent María Christina. They felt that the radically conservative
programmes advocated by Carlos, which included re-establishing the Inquisition,
would add more fuel to the anarchist movement which was growing stronger in
Spain. Their decision was also prompted
by their Irish and Celtic heritage which raised no objection to women
rulers. They saw no compromise to their
honour in pledging their loyalty to a queen.
Despite receiving no support from O'Donnell and Sarsfield,
Carlos ordered troops loyal to him to depose the Queen, initiating a conflict
which became known as the Carlist War.
At the
outbreak of the Carlist War in 1833, Leopold, the
grandson of General José O'Donnell, was a newly commissioned young
officer. In skirmishes and battles
against the Carlists in northern Spain, he served
with such distinction that he rapidly rose in rank. As a colonel in 1838, he was placed in charge
of the defence of San Sebastián, a major port city on
the Bay of Biscay. After repelling an
assault on the city by a superior Carlist force, he
earned promotion to the rank of general.
The war concluded a year later when General Espartero,
the commander-in-chief of Isabella's forces, agreed with the Queen's approval
to recognize the noble titles granted by Carlos to the officers who sided with
him. This induced substantial numbers of
his officers to defect to Isabella's side, taking their troops with them. Abandoned by much of his forces, Carlos left
Spain.
Much to the
dismay of Leopold O'Donnell and many other Spaniards, General Espartero took control of the government and began to
behave like a military dictator. In
1840, the young Queen Isabella and her mother fled to France to escape being
made prisoners in the royal palace by Espartero. Leopold O'Donnell helped to arrange for their
escape and accompanied them to France.
Three years later, liberal supporters of the Queen overthrew Espartero and drove him into exile. O'Donnell returned to Spain with Isabella and
resumed his interrupted army career. As
a reward for his faithful service to her, Isabella appointed him
Governor-General of Cuba.
Soon after
his return to Spain, Isabella established a legislative assembly called the
Cortes composed of a Senate and a General Assembly. Some of the senators were appointed by the
crown and some were appointed by towns, universities and the Church; while
members of the General Assembly were elected by the people. The General Assembly appointed Ministers,
usually the leaders of the political party which had gained a majority, who
formed a Council to run the government.
The Council then elected one of its Ministers as its President. This President was the head of state. The role of the monarch in this governmental
scheme was limited to granting noble titles, appointing Senators, and calling
new elections. All other governmental
activities were left to the Cortes and the Council of Ministers.
In 1847,
when Leopold O'Donnell's tour of duty in Cuba ended, he returned to Spain. In recognition of his able administration of
the colony, Isabella made him the Count of Lucerna
and appointed him Senator. In order to
devote his full attention to his new duties as Senator, O'Donnell turned down another
military command. When he began
attending the Cortes, however, he quickly discovered that many Senators and
members of the Assembly were corrupt and indifferent to the social and economic
problems of Spain, using their position primarily to increase their
wealth. O'Donnell advocated the gradual
introduction of democratic reforms, fearing that continued governmental
corruption would serve only to alienate conservatives while encouraging
radicals.
At the
time, the Count of San Luís was the President of the
Council of Ministers, and as such was head of the government. He passed laws and regulations requiring that
the Cortes in Madrid make virtually all decisions formerly made locally by
mayors, provincial councils and provincial governors. This was an attempt to shift meaningful
political power away from the merchants and landowners who elected local
officials to the Ministers and other politicians in Madrid. With the Ministers appointed by the Cortes in
control of even the lowest level of government, all tax revenues and
administrative requests from private citizens - which were often accompanied by
bribes - would pass through the hands of the Ministers and their agents. Although San Luís
claimed to be a liberal, many Spaniards believed his policies were as
oppressive as the policies of Isabella's father, the absolute monarch Ferdinand
VII, or the dictator Espartero. Opposition to the government from trade
unions, merchants, and farmers grew intense, and many people refused to follow
the decisions made by the government in Madrid.
The ability of San Luís and the Council of
Ministers to rule Spain was further undermined by the anarchist movement which
was gaining many followers among the factory workers in Cataluńa,
the most industrialized province of Spain.
Incidents of bombings, assassinations and strikes increased, and because
the government in Madrid did not have the cooperation of local officials, it
could not suppress the anarchists.
By 1854,
civil war again threatened to erupt in Spain when anti-government rioting broke
out in Madrid. Large crowds of
anarchists carrying muskets, swords and pitchforks converged on the building
where the Cortes was housed. Because many
army officers did not support the corrupt government, no order was issued to
suppress the rioting. Although Leopold
O'Donnell was also strongly opposed to the policies of the government, he
feared that the rioting might encourage conservatives to seize power, depose
Isabella from the throne, and restore an absolute monarchy. So he made his way through the rioting mob to
the camp of a regiment stationed on the outskirts of Madrid and returned with
the regiment to the streets of the city, where the soldiers restored order.
The rioting
forced San Luís and the other ministers to resign,
leading Isabella to call for new elections for the General Assembly of the
Cortes. When Isabella asked O'Donnell to
become a Minister in an interim government until the elections could be held,
he readily agreed. He resigned as
Senator and became the Minister of War.
While serving in the interim government, he founded and organized the
Liberal Union Party. Because of his
prestige as the hero of San Sebastián, his role in
suppressing the rioting in Madrid, and his reputation for honesty and commitment
to the Queen, the Liberal Union Party attracted many followers. When the elections were held in 1856, the
Party won a majority of the seats in the General Assembly, and most of the
Ministers appointed by the General Assembly were Liberal Unionists. The Ministers then elected O'Donnell as the
President of the Council of Ministers.
As head of
the new government, O'Donnell convinced both liberals and conservatives to
adopt a compromise plan that restored local control to government in cities and
provinces, but left the Cortes in overall supervision of their activities. Because the Carlist
wars and the corruption which followed had left Spain impoverished, O'Donnell
invited foreign capitalists to invest in Spanish industry by having the
government give them land on which they could build factories. Under his direction, the government also gave
land to railroads to stimulate the growth of the Spanish rail system.
By the time
O'Donnell retired in 1865, most of the Spanish people no longer doubted that a
constitutional monarchy with an elected assembly was the best means to
effectively govern Spain. The reforms
and policies that he established helped steer Spain not only through a
governmental crisis, but also helped to lay the foundation for the future
economic development of the country. A
year after he left office, he died at his estate in Biatriz. The Spanish government brought his body back
to Madrid, buried him by the church known as Las Salesas
on the Plaza de Santa Bárbara, and erected a statue
of him to commemorate his contributions to Spanish society.
The career
of Leopold O'Donnell was an example of the strong influence that the Irish
émigrés and their descendants had on the development of Spanish culture. Because of the contributions of many
generations of Irish émigrés to education, commerce and the military, the
Spanish people did not hesitate to entrust their government to a descendant of
Irish émigrés. Once in office, he
demonstrated the adaptability, loyalty and talent for compromise characteristic
of the Irish émigrés in Europe.