Agustín Argüelles

Agustín Argüelles, portrayed by Leonardo Alenza

Agustín Argüelles (born August 18, 1776 in Ribadesella ( Asturias ), † March 26, 1844 in Madrid ) was a Spanish liberal politician .

Life

Agustín Argüelles came from a respectable family, studied law at the University of Oviedo and then went to Madrid, where he was employed by Espinosa, director of the repayment fund, at the Interpretacion de lenguas secretariat . The government gave him important missions to Portugal and London . After his return from England, Napoleon's war against Spain had broken out. Thereupon Arguelles joined the forces resisting the French occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in 1808, was a member of the Cortes in Cádiz and of the commission charged with drafting the liberal Spanish constitution of 1812 , and wrote the famous report it produced when the draft was presented. He advocated liberal principles such as freedom of the press , the abolition of torture and prosecution of the slave trade. Because of his brilliant, fiery eloquence, he was nicknamed il divino .

When the absolutist reaction began after the return of King Ferdinand VII (1814), Argüelles was arrested on May 10, 1814 and, after several negotiations, finally sentenced by the king himself to ten years in prison. He served this first in Ceuta until he was transferred to Alcúdia on Mallorca at the request of the local bishop , where he suffered inhuman treatment on the orders of Captain General Coupigny. Argüelles was freed again by the revolution of 1820 . He was taken to Madrid by his followers and appointed Minister of the Interior by the King on April 3, 1820; but his administration lasted less than a year, since Argüelles, in the hope that the king would now keep the constitution, pursued a moderate policy and repeatedly opposed the radicals. Fiercely hostile by them, not supported by the king, he and his colleagues had to resign on March 1, 1821 and became the leader of the moderate party in the Cortes with the future prime minister José María Calatrava .

When the king repealed the constitution after the French intervention of 1823 in order to reintroduce absolutism , Argüelles fled to England. He stayed there until the amnesty proclaimed in 1833 and his recall by the former Queen Maria Christina, who was proclaimed regent . As a member of the Cortes, however, he adhered to the left-liberal party of the Progresistas and was thus in opposition to the moderados with whom the regent sympathized and who from January 1834 to September 1835 the cabinet led by Francisco Martínez de la Rosa and then by the Count of Toreno posed.

Argüelles then supported the government of the politician Juan Álvarez Mendizábal , who belonged to the Progresistas and was Prime Minister of Spain from September 1835 to May 1836. He supported Mendizábal's proposals in the Cortes, including the confiscation of the monasteries and spiritual foundations, the sale of national goods, unlimited freedom of the press, the abolition of tithes, the extension of the right to vote and the exclusion of the clergy from representation. After Maria Christina was forced to reinstate the constitution of 1812 in August 1836 and Calatrava was appointed the new Prime Minister, Argüelles became chairman of a commission charged with revising the constitution of 1812 in the moderate sense and thereby co-authored the constitution of 1837 .

Argüelle's portfolios were repeatedly offered, but he turned them down. In 1837 the regent appointed him a member of the newly established Senate . When Maria Christina finally resigned her long contested reign in October 1840, Argüelles was Congress President and one of the first candidates for the reign. In May 1841 he was defeated by Baldomero Espartero in the election as regent, but after all he received the most votes next. Thereupon the Cortes transferred the guardianship of the minor Queen Isabella II and her sister to him on July 10, 1841 . In 1843 he resigned his guardianship when Espartero was expelled and parliament prematurely declared 13-year-old Isabella II to be of legal age. He died in Madrid on March 26, 1844 at the age of 67.

Argüelles was one of the most prominent members of the Spanish Liberal Party of 1812. His public and private life was immaculate. Even at an advanced age he spoke in the Cortes for hours and with fiery energy.

literature

• Agustín Argüelles . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 1, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 802.

Web links

Commons : Agustín Argüelles  - collection of images, videos and audio files