Francisco Javier de Elío

General Francisco Javier de Elío . Atribuido to Miguel Parra . ( Museo del Prado ).

Francisco Javier de Elíoy Olóndriz (born March 4, 1767 in Pamplona , Navarra region , Spain , † September 4, 1822 in Valencia , Spain) was governor of Montevideo and the last viceroy of the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata . He was also involved in the absolutist suppression after the rehabilitation of Ferdinand VII as King of Spain. He was executed for this during the Trienio Liberal .

Origin and early career

Francisco Javier de Elío was born the son of the governor of Pamplona and began a military career at the age of 18. He took part in the Spanish campaign in Algeria and fought in the Pyrenees and Roussillon during the First Coalition War . After several promotions he reached the rank of colonel ( coronel ) in the Spanish army.

In 1806 he was transferred to South America and from then on served on the Río de la Plata

Governor of Montevideo, fighting against Viceroy Liniers

As an officer in the Spanish troops, he took part in the battles against the British who had conquered Buenos Aires and Montevideo in 1806 and 1807 . After the expulsion of the British troops, Viceroy Santiago de Liniers appointed him governor of Montevideo.

When Napoleonic French troops wanted to bring Joseph Bonaparte to power in Spain in the place of King Ferdinand VII in 1808 , resistance arose against the viceroy Liniers of French descent. One of the spokesmen was Elío, in association with Martín de Álzaga .

On September 10, 1808 Elío sued Liniers at the Real Audiencia . Liniers, who was supported by the later independence fighter Cornelio Saavedra and his militias, rejected the accusations and ordered Elío to be removed from his office and replaced as governor by Captain Juan A. Michelena. However, he could not get his way. Elío appointed a loyal junta in Montevideo, as it had been formed in the motherland in the absence of the monarch, to defend the interests of the royal family.

Acting Viceroy of the Río de la Plata

The Junta Suprema Central decided in 1809, in view of the ongoing charges against Liniers, to replace him with Baltasar de Cisneros . After almost a year in office, he was overthrown by the May Revolution in May 1810 .

Elío retained control of the area north of the Río de la Plata with the royalist troops, which was called Banda Oriental and essentially includes the area of ​​present-day Uruguay . After the fall of Cisneros, Elío declared himself viceroy of the Río de la Plata on August 31, 1810 and took over the administration of the remainder of the Spanish colony from Montevideo, which he made the capital of the viceroyalty on January 19, 1811. On January 19, 1811 Elío was confirmed in office by the Junta of Cadiz.

A month later, the rural population rebelled against the Spaniards. Elío's troops were defeated on May 18, 1811 at the Battle of Las Piedras . When he only had control of Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo, he handed over the supreme command of the Spanish troops to Gaspar de Vigodet and set off for Spain on November 18, 1811. There he resigned as viceroy of Rio de la Plata in 1812.

Late years in Spain

Elío fought against the French occupiers in Spain in the War of Independence. He took over the supreme command of the royalist units in Catalonia and Valencia . When the French withdrew, he became governor and captain general of Valencia and Murcia .

When Ferdinand VII returned from exile in France in March 1814 , he was asked by the Cortes of Cádiz to accept the new liberal Spanish constitution , which limited royal power. Ferdinand refused and went to Valencia instead of Madrid. On April 17th, he invited General Elío. He should help him to regain his absolute rights.

As a supporter of absolutism , Elío played a major role in suppressing the constitutional supporters in 1812. As a general, Elío ordered numerous tortures and executions of liberals and constitutionalists.

1820 brought the liberals against the absolutist rule of King. The Duke of Almodóvar had Elío arrested. He was charged and sentenced to death by the Garotte for high treason . The sentence was carried out on September 4, 1822 in the Campo de la Libertad in Valencia, the same place where Elío had many of his political opponents executed.

After King Ferdinand VII had regained his absolute rights, he gave Elío's son, Bernardo Elío, the title of Marqués de Lealtad ( German : Margrave of Loyalty) for the services of his father .

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• Biography (spanish)
• Biography (spanish)

predecessor	Office	successor
Pascual Ruiz Huidobro	Governor of Montevideo 1807–1810	Joaquin de Soria
Baltasar de Cisneros	Viceroy of the Río de la Plata 1810–1811	End of the viceroyalty