Fernando Marquez de la Plata

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Fernando Marquez de la Plata

Fernando Marquez de la Plata y Orozco (* August 1740 , according to other sources: September 3 , in Seville , Spain ; † December 17, 1818 in Santiago de Chile ) was a Spanish colonial official and member of the First Government Junta in Chile .

Life

Youth and education

Márquez comes from a noble family from Andalusia ; his parents were Rodrigo Marquez de la Plata y García de Celis and Luisa de Orozco y Martel. His father was a judge and, as a member of the Consejo de Indias (German: India Council), was one of the highest administrative officials of the Spanish colonial empire. Fernando studied law at the University of Seville after attending the Colegio de Santo Tomás . After completing his studies, he entered the service of the colonial administration. He was married to the Chilean María Antonia Calvo de Encalada y Recabarren.

Colonial Official in South America

In 1776 he went to South America . He began his career there in La Paz in what is now Bolivia . In 1781 he was appointed judge ( Oidor ) at the Real Audiencia of La Paz. In 1783 he was given the post of provincial governor of Huancavelica in Peru . He began his service the following year and remained in office until 1789. Then he went to Lima as a judge .

His wedding in Santiago in 1786 had to take place without the bridegroom, as he was indispensable in Peru.

In 1798 he was given the chairmanship of the Supreme Court ( Real Audiencia ) of Quito in what is now Ecuador and in 1803 the chairmanship of the Real Audiencia in Chile in Santiago de Chile.

Member of the government junta

With Napoleon's invasion of Spain, the imprisonment of King Ferdinand and the formation of the Junta Suprema Central , the urge to set up a junta also arose in Chile. On September 18, 1810, the governor of Chile, Mateo de Toro Zambrano y Ureta , called a meeting to deliberate on the government of the country.

At the assembly that marked the beginning of Chile's independence , a government junta was elected, chaired by Toro Zambrano. Among the dignitaries who belonged to the body (such as the Vice-President of the Bishop of Santiago, José Martínez de Aldunate ) was also Márquez, as chairman of the Supreme Court.

After Toro Zambrano's death, his deputy and designated successor, Bishop Martínez de Aldunate, was himself seriously ill and close to the death that hit him in April 1811. Juan Martínez de Rozas , the leader of the Exaltados - the most radical part of the independence movement - initially took the chair, but had to resign after the unfortunate figure he had made in the suppression of the Tomás de Figueroa coup . In his place, Marquez de la Plata took over the office of junta chairman.

At the instigation of Martínez de Rozas, the government dissolved the Real Audiencia at the end of April following the Figueroa coup . On July 4, 1811, the National Congress met and replaced the junta as the government institution.

Further career as a judge and exile

In September 1811, Márquez de la Plata was sent as a member to the newly created Court of Appeal ( Tribunal de Apelaciones ).

When the independence army was defeated at the Battle of Rancagua in 1814 , Márquez de la Plata went into exile in Mendoza, Argentina, like many other leaders of the independence movement (including José Miguel Carrera , Bernardo O'Higgins and Manuel Rodríguez ) . Unlike most other revolutionaries, he managed to take away most of his considerable fortune.

After the victory of the independence movement in the Battle of Chacabuco , he returned to Chile in 1818. In the young republic he took over the post of chief judge. He died in office a year later at the age of 78.

Web links

• Biography at Icarito (Spanish)