Angel de Saavedra

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Ángel de Saavedra, duque de Rivas

Ángel de Saavedra y Ramírez de Baquedano , known as Duque de Rivas (born March 10, 1791 in Córdoba , † June 22, 1865 in Madrid ) was a Spanish writer, diplomat, politician and Prime Minister of Spain ( Presidente del Gobierno ) .

He is particularly famous for his drama Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (1835), with which the literary epoch of Romanticism was founded in Spain and which served as a model for the opera Die Macht des Schicksals by Giuseppe Verdi .

Life

Military career and rule of Ferdinand VII.

Saavedra came from an aristocratic family from Cordoba. At the age of nine he became a corresponding member of the Guard Corps ( Cruz de Caballero de Malta ) in 1800 . In 1806 he finished his training started in 1795 at the Seminario de Nobles in Madrid .

He then joined the Royal Guard ( Guardia Real ) as a sub-lieutenant ( Alférez ) in 1807 and took part in the Spanish War of Independence for them. In 1809 he was wounded fighting the troops of Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Ontígola . Subsequently, he was promoted by General Francisco Javier Castaños to captain of the light cavalry and then served this as first adjutant on the general staff. Over the next few years he rose to the position of colonel ( coronel ) in the cavalry.

During the Spanish Revolution of January 1820 and the subsequent three-year period of government characterized by liberalism ( Triennio Liberal ), his political career began in 1822 with the election of Member of Parliament ( Congreso de los Diputados ), where he represented the interests of the constituency of Córdoba for one term.

After the French invasion of Spain and the subsequent re-assumption of the throne by the absolutist ruling King Ferdinand VII , he had to go into exile in England in 1823 because of his liberal attitude after his property was confiscated . After a five-year stay in Malta, he went into exile in 1830 France .

Reign of Isabella II and Prime Minister

Only after the death of Ferdinand VII in September 1833 and the amnesty decreed by the regent Maria Christina of Sicily did he return to Spain. In addition to his property, he was also awarded the title of Duke ( Duque ) de Rivas after the death of his older brother in 1834 .

During the legislative period from 1834 to 1835 he was a member of the Senate as a representative of the minor Queen Isabella II . On May 15, 1836 he was appointed Minister of the Interior ( Ministro de Gobernación ) in the cabinet of Francesco Xavier de Isturiz , to which he belonged until the end of his term on August 14, 1835. Then he was in the legislative period from 1837 to 1838 as a representative of the province of Cádiz again a member of the Senate.

After unrest emerged, he went into exile in Portugal for some time . After his return he was re-elected Senator as representative of the Province of Cordoba during the legislative period from 1843 to 1844 . Because of his political merits, he was finally appointed Senator for life ( Senador Vitalicio ) on August 15, 1845 . He was later from 1844 to 1850 Envoy Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Naples , where Juan Valera served as secretary.

During the unrest of July 1854, he was appointed Prime Minister of Spain ( Presidente del Gobierno ) on July 18, 1854 as the successor to Fernando Fernández de Córdova, who had only been appointed the day before . At the same time he took over the office of Minister of the Navy ( Ministro de Marina ). On the following day, however, he was replaced as Prime Minister by the former regent Baldomero Espartero , who thereby established the two-year rule of the Partido Progresista ( Bienio Progresista ).

From 1857 to 1858 he was still ambassador to Paris . He then largely withdrew from political life.

Honorary positions in cultural policy

Due to his services to Spanish literature, Saavedra was appointed honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando ( Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando ) on May 28, 1834 , before being appointed a member on April 1, 1846. On February 1, 1852, he was appointed advisor ( Consiliario ). Finally, on September 3, 1854, he was appointed President of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

From 1835 to 1837 he was also the founding president of the Ateneo Científico y Literario ( Ateneo de Madrid ), a private cultural institution.

In addition, he became a member of the Real Academia Española in 1847 , where he was the first to take the armchair ( Sillón ) "c".

plant

Ángel de Saavedra has written a total of 14 plays, as well as romances and legends, which have largely been forgotten. He became famous for his groundbreaking drama Don Álvaro o La fuerza del sino (1835), with which the heyday of Spanish Romanticism began and which Verdi served as a template for his opera. It is a love intrigue in five acts, in which folk and tragic elements, verse and prose are mixed and the three units are dissolved.

Other dramas include Ataúlfo from 1814 (not listed), Aliatar 1816, Malek-Adhel (1820), Arias Gonzalo 1827, El desengaño en un sueño , Lanuza , Arias Gonzalo and the comedy Tanto vales cuanto tienes .

The tragedy Aliatar is about the love between an Arab and the Christian Elvira, an allegory of the Spanish nation in the style of Moorish romances, El Duque de Aquitania deals with the subject of the tyrant and the struggle for freedom, the verse drama Lanuza thematizes the end of Aragonese freedoms among the troops of Philip II and represents an indirect criticism of Ferdinand VII and his tyranny. The main figure, Mayor Lanuza, finds himself in the conflict between civic duty and love (here, too, the main female character is Elvira), in the end he is executed .

The most important lyrical work of the Duque de Rivas is Romances históricos (1841), adaptations of folk legends in the popular form of romance , but also Poesías (1814), El desterrado , El sueño del proscrito , A las estrellas and Canto al Faro de Malta . In Al faro de Malta (To the Lighthouse of Malta) is about the new natural feeling of internally torn emigrants. The preface by Antonio Alcalá Galiano his El moro expósito o Córdoba y Burgos en el siglo X (The Arabic waif or Cordoba and Burgos in the 10th century) of 1834 became the manifesto of the Spanish romance, comparable to the de Préface Cromwell by Victor Hugo from 1827; is a cycle of romances in Elfsilblern about the legend of the Infantes de Lara.

He wrote three prose works, Sublevación de Nápoles, capitaneada por Maniselo and Historia del Reino de las Dos Sicilias .

As an essayist, he distinguished himself in Los españoles pintados por sí mismos (Madrid, 1843-1844).

He also wrote several Costumbrist sketches.

Poetry

  • Poesías (Cádiz: Imprenta Patriótica, 1814)
  • Florinda (1826)
  • Al faro de Malta (created 1828, published 1834)
  • Romances históricos (1841)
  • El moro expósito o Córdoba y Burgos en el siglo X (The Arab foundling or Córdoba and Burgos in the 10th century). Paris, 1834
  • La azucena milagrosa (1847)

Sonnets

  • A Lucianela
  • A Dido abandonada
  • Cual suele en la floresta deliciosa
  • El álamo derribado
  • Mísero leño
  • Ojos divinos
  • Receta segura
  • Un buen consejo

drama

  • Aliatar (tragedia en cinco actos. Madrid, 1822)
  • El Duque de Aquitania (1817)
  • Lanuza (tragedia en cinco actos. Madrid, 1822)
  • Arias Gonzalo (1827)
  • Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (Madrid: Tomás Jordán, 1835)
  • Tanto vales cuanto tienes (comedia en tres actos y en verso. Madrid, 1840)
  • La morisca de Alajuar (comedia en tres jornadas. Madrid, 1841)
  • Solaces de un prisionero o tres noches de Madrid , comedia en tres jornadas compuesta para el Liceo Artístico y Literario de Madrid ..., Madrid, 1841.
  • El crisol de la Lealtad (comedia en tres jornadas. Madrid, 1842)
  • El desengaño de un Sueño (drama fantástico en cuatro actos. Madrid, 1844)
  • El parador de Bailén (comedia en tres actos y en verso, Madrid, 1844)

prose

  • Los españoles pintados por sí mismos (Madrid, 1843–1844).
  • Sublevación de Nápoles, capitaneada por Masaniello, con sus antecedentes y consecuencias hasta el restablecimiento del gobierno español . Estudio histórico. Madrid, 1848

See also

literature

  • Martin Franzbach: History of Spanish Literature at a Glance . Reclam, Stuttgart (Universal Library; No. 8861) ISBN 3-15-008861-5
  • Hans U. Gumbrecht: A history of Spanish literature. 1484 pages, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1998, ISBN 3-518-58062-0
  • Hans-Jörg Neuschäfer: Spanish literary history. 446 pages, Stuttgart: Metzler, 2nd edition 2006, ISBN 3-476-01857-1
  • Christoph Strosetzki: History of Spanish Literature. 404 pages, Niemeyer, Tübingen, 2nd, unchanged. Edition 1996, ISBN 3-484-50307-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of Members of Parliament from 1810 to 1977
  2. ^ The Senate between 1834 and 1923 - Senators , accessed June 7, 2017.
  3. ↑ María Pilar García Sepúlveda, Esperanza Navarrete Martínez: Relacíon de Miembros pertenecientes a la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (1752-1983, 1984-2006) . Madrid 2007, p. 356 ( online ( Memento from August 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish), PDF, 1.29 MB)
  4. ^ The Presidents of the Ateneo de Madrid
  5. ^ Members of the Real Academia Española - Sillón c ( Memento of December 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
predecessor Office successor
Fernando Fernández de Córdova Prime Minister of Spain
1854 		Baldomero Espartero
personal data
SURNAME Saavedra, Ángel de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saavedra y Ramírez de Baquedano, Ángel de; Duque de Rivas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish writer, diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Cordoba
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1865
Place of death Madrid