Pedro Girón de Ahumada

Pedro Agustín Girón

Duke Don Pedro Agustín Girón de Ahumada , Marques de las Amarillas, (* 1778 in San Sebastián , † May 14, 1842 in Madrid ), was a Spanish general and statesman.

He became an officer in the Royal Guard in 1806 and performed important services in the struggle for independence as Chief of the General Staff of the Spanish Army, although his pride reluctantly bowed to Wellington's command . After Ferdinand VII returned , he withdrew to his estates, suspicious of his tendency towards moderate constitutionalism.

After the outbreak of the revolution of 1820, he became Minister of War on March 19, but resigned on August 11, faced with hostility by the radicals for resisting their excesses. Ferdinand VII appointed him in his will in 1833 as a member of the Regency Council appointed for the period of his daughter's minority.

In this he worked with particular zeal to establish a first chamber with hereditary members and thereby lost his popularity. But he made a name for himself in the Proceres Chamber, of which he had become president, and was made Duke of Ahumada by the Queen-Regent.

When Toreno took over the administration in 1835, Girón took over the portfolio of the war. But his designs failed due to financial hardship and the ineptitude of his subaltern . When Girón had appointed his son, who was inexperienced in the war, captain-general of Andalusia and military governor of Cadiz , the press attacked him so violently for nepotism that he resigned his office and only took part in the negotiations of the First Chamber. In 1836 he was made Duke of Ahumada .

Tired and persecuted by popular hatred, he withdrew from public affairs and left his fatherland after the constitution of 1812 was reestablished. He settled in Bordeaux , but later returned to Cádiz, then back to Madrid , where he died on May 14, 1842.