Mariano de Urquijo y Muga

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Mariano de Urquijo y Muga

Mariano Luis de Urquijo y Muga (born September 8, 1769 (according to other information: 1768) in Bilbao , Spain , † May 3, 1817 in Paris , France ) was a Spanish representative of the Enlightenment , who briefly served as Prime Minister under King Charles IV of his country and was head of government in Spain from 1808 to 1813 under Joseph Bonaparte .

Youth and education

Mariano de Urquijo was born in Bilbao to Francisco Policarpo de Urquijo and Manuela Andresa de Muga. First he studied theology in Madrid and Paris, later he switched to law , which he studied in Madrid and at the University of Salamanca . In Salamanca he was a student of Juan Meléndez Valdés .

enlightenment

In 1791 in Madrid he translated Voltaire's tragedy La mort de César (Caesar's death) into Spanish and wrote a foreword Discurso sobre el estado de nuestros teatros y la necesidad de su reforma (Discourse on the state of our theater and the need for its reform). The Italian translation brought him into massive conflict with the Church : In the same year he was jailed in Pamplona and only released on condition that he did not leave the Basque Country.

The Inquisition started a trial against him; Only through the intervention of the influential courtier and later Prime Minister Pedro Abarca, Count of Aranda , could he escape the trial.

In civil service

Count Aranda first gave him a position in the State Ministry in 1792.

In 1795 he was appointed secretary of the Spanish embassy in London, where he stayed until 1797. In 1797 the court sent him as ambassador to the newly founded Batavian Republic in the Netherlands. In 1798 the declared anti-cleric in the order of Charles III. recorded.

Term of office as Prime Minister under Charles IV.

For a short time he served twice as Prime Minister of Spain: after the overthrow of long-time Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy and the temporary retirement of Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis in the late summer of 1798 and again from February 1799 to December 1800.

Urquijo continued the coalition with republican France, which was laid down in the Second Treaty of San Ildefonso and which, in opposition to Great Britain, almost brought economic exchange with the colonies in Central and South America to a standstill.

The Treaty of San Ildefonso had a secret amendment that was not made official until 1801 in the Treaty of Aranjuez . Spain ceded Louisiana (colony) to France, which in return for the Bourbon Duke of Parma, Ferdinand (Parma) , who had been disempowered by Napoleon, promised a new domain and royal dignity: the Grand Duchy of Tuscany became part of the Kingdom of Etruria .

Domestically, Urquijo promoted the ideas of the Enlightenment: he had slavery abolished, promoted the newly discovered vaccinations and promoted Alexander von Humboldt's study trip to Spanish South America.

When Napoleon conquered the papal state in 1799 and Pope Pius VI. died in French captivity, Urquijo seized the opportunity to transfer ecclesiastical privileges into the hands of the Spanish court - including the extremely lucrative right to annul marriages.

Despite his progressive and pro-France politics, Napoleon Bonaparte mistrusted him . Napoleon's resistance and Godoy's intrigues towards the queen ultimately led to his overthrow in December 1800. He was succeeded by Pedro Ceballos Guerra .

Urquijo was imprisoned in Pamplona and the church trial against him resumed. From 1802 he was a prisoner in Bilbao and stayed there until 1808.

Head of government under Joseph Bonaparte

In 1808, Napoleon obtained the abdication of Charles IV and installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain in place of the heir to the throne Ferdinand VII, who was interned in France . This let Urquijo free, called him to the constituent assembly, where he signed the statute of Bayona , the Napoleonic constitution. Finally, Joseph Bonaparte made him his head of government (Ministro Secretario de Estado) .

The Napoleonic troops met resistance from the Spaniards, who saw Ferdinand VII as their legitimate king. In addition, British and Portuguese troops fought against the armies of Joseph Bonaparte. Government work in the classical sense was impossible during the Wars of Liberation . Urquijo therefore supported Joseph Bonaparte on his campaigns during the war.

After the decisive defeat of the Bonapartists in the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813, Joseph Bonaparte initially withdrew to Burgos . With the Treaty of Valençay of December 1813, Bonaparte renounced the Spanish throne and returned to France. Mariano de Urquijo accompanied him.

He died in exile in France in 1817, two years after the final end of Napoleon's rule.

literature

  • Actas de la Diputación General de Españoles que se juntó en Bayona. Bayona 15 de junio de 1808, Madrid, 1874.
  • José de Aralar: Los adversarios de la libertad vasca . Ekin, Buenos Aires, 1944.
  • Antonio Beraza: Elogio de D. Mariano Luis de Urquijo, ministro secretario de Estado de España . París, 1820.
  • Francisco Elías de Tejada: El Señorío de Vizcaya . Minotauro, Madrid, 1963.
  • Teófilo Guiard: Historia de la Noble Villa de Bilbao . Bilbao, 1912, IV.
  • Estanislao de Labayru: Historia General del Señorío de Vizcaya . 1895–1903, Bilbao, VII.
  • M. Lafuente: Historia general de España . Madrid, 1858, t. 22nd
  • C. Pereyra: Cartas Confidencias de la reina María Luisa a don Manuel Godoy , s / f; Prontuario de las Leyes y Decrees del Rey nuestro Senor Don José Napoleón I . Madrid, 1810.
  • Aleix Romero Peña: Mariano Luis de Urquijo. Biografía de un Ilustrado. In Sancho el sabio: Revista de cultura e investigación vasca. ISSN 1131-5350, Nº 34, 2011, pp. 55-78.
  • Fidel de Sagarminaga: El Gobierno y régimen foral de Vizcaya . Bilbao, 1892, VI.
  • Ramón Sierra Bustamante: Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo, Secretario de Estado con Fernando VII y colaboracionista con José I . Madrid, 1950; Sinfonía bilbaina en tres tiempos , CAV, Bilbao, 1967.
  • A. Zabala Ozámiz: A. Historia política de Vizcaya, 1808-1832, El acoso, los planes de Napoleón, "Yakintza", 1933. I.

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