Francisco Serrano Domínguez
Francisco Serrano y Domínguez (born September 18, 1810 in San Fernando , † November 26, 1885 in Madrid ) was a Spanish general and politician and since 1861 Duke de la Torre. He was regent of Spain in 1869/70 and, after a coup d'état, dictatorial president of the First Republic in 1874 .
Life
Serrano was born in San Fernando near Cádiz, the son of a liberal general who was a member of the Cortes of Cádiz . Serrano entered the military and rose quickly in the First Carlist War . He was a general as early as 1840. He had already turned to politics in 1839 and was initially a supporter of the progressives around Espartero , in the liberal tradition of his father , in whose government he became Minister of War. In 1843 he turned away from Espartero and joined a revolt by conservative generals that eventually overthrew Espartero. In the new government under López he became Minister of War.
After the constitution was introduced in 1845, he was appointed senator. His attractive appearance earned him the nickname "El General Bonito" (dt. The handsome general ) and won the favor of Queen Isabella II , whose lover he became. This aroused the envy of other influential men in Spanish politics. He was therefore removed from Madrid in October 1847 by his appointment as Captain General of Granada .
After he had been promoted to General Director of Artillery in early 1852 , he was exiled for a short time because of his part in the uprising in Saragossa in 1854, in which he briefly re-allied with Espartero. He then joined the moderate "Liberal Union" of Leopoldo O'Donnell , who promoted him to Captain General of New Castile . Serrano was active in the overthrow of the radical progressives in July 1856, became captain general of the army and ambassador in Paris .
In 1858 Serrano became captain general of Cuba and, after acquiring Santo Domingo for Spain in 1861 , was elevated to Duke de la Torre. In 1862 he returned from Cuba and headed the Foreign Ministry until March 1863 .
When O'Donnell re-emerged as head of government in 1865, Serrano became chairman of the Senate. Because of his services to the suppression of a military uprising in the San Gil barracks in Madrid on June 22, 1866, he received the Order of the Golden Fleece . However, when in December 1866, as opposition leader , he was supposed to hand over a protest note to the Queen's opposition against the delay in the appointment of the Cortes by the government led by the Moderado (moderate liberal) Narváez , he was arrested and exiled in the Balearic Islands , but released after a few weeks.
After O'Donnell's death in 1867, Serrano became supreme leader of the Liberal Union . In July 1868 he was arrested again as such for participating in the plot that was to lead to the Duke of Montpensier's accession to the throne and deported to the Canary Islands .
In the September uprising of 1868 , which had a constitutional monarchy as its goal, he was one of the leaders of the uprising alongside Juan Prim and Juan Bautista Topete (regardless of his earlier intimate relations with Queen Isabella II) . He defeated the royal troops under General Manuel Pavía y Lacy on September 28 at the bridge of Alcolea, so that the popular opponent of the government, General Prim, could move into Madrid. After the queen was driven out, the top management of the state, as the parties could not agree on a new king , first passed to Serrano, who took over the chairmanship of the newly formed cabinet and became honorary president of the central junta .
After the elections to the Cortes in January 1869, the leader of the victorious Progressist Party, General Prim, took over the political leadership of the country. Serrano was elected regent with the title of Highness on June 16, 1869 on his efforts . Despite the prestigious title, it was only associated with limited political influence, because the business of government was now taken over by Prim.
Serrano retained the dignity of regent until King Amadeus of Savoy came into power , who, after a lengthy search and initial rejection, consented to a large majority in the Cortes. As commander-in-chief against the Carlist uprising in May 1872, he apparently ended it through the Amorebieta Convention , then became Prime Minister, but resigned when the King did not approve of his plan for an absolutist coup.
When the President Emilio Castelar remained without a majority in the Cortes of the First Republic proclaimed in 1873 , a coup d'état by the Captain General of Madrid, Manuel Pavía , made Serrano president on January 4, 1874. This dissolved the Cortes and ruled de facto dictatorially. He waged the still ongoing war against the Carlists without any decisive success. On December 29, 1874 General Arsenio Martínez-Campos successfully carried out a coup in Sagunto and brought about the restoration of the monarchy , as a result of which in January 1875 the son of Isabella II, Alfonso XII. , was crowned king.
In 1882 Serrano headed the party of the dynastic left, was sent as ambassador to Paris in November 1883 under the government of José de Posada Herrera , but accepted his dismissal after his resignation in February 1884. He died in Madrid on November 26, 1885.
swell
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| José Gutiérrez de la Concha |
Prime Minister of Spain 1868–1869 |
Juan Prim |
| Juan Bautista Topete | Prime Minister of Spain 1871 |
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla |
| Queen Isabella II |
Regent of Spain 1869–1870 |
King Amadeus of Savoy |
| Emilio Castelar |
President of Spain 1874 |
King Alfonso XII |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Serrano Domínguez, Francisco |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Francisco Serrano y Domínguez, Duke de la Torre |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish general and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 18, 1810 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Fernando |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 26, 1885 |
| Place of death | Madrid |