Ricardo Wall

Ricardo Wall Devreux

Ricardo Wall Devreux , born Richard Wall , (born November 5, 1694 in Nantes , France , † December 26, 1777 in Romilla , Granada province , Spain ) was an Irish-born officer, diplomat and politician in the service of the Spanish Crown.

Life

Origin and family

The Wall family originally came from Normandy and had lived in Ireland since the 11th century. The family seat was Kilmallock in County Limerick . Wall's father, Matthew Wall, served in the army of King James II. After the Catholic King was overthrown by the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the Jacobites were persecuted and the Wall family had to flee Ireland in 1691. She found refuge with relatives in France.

Richard Wall was born here in Nantes in 1694. He initially served as a page with the Duchess of Vendôme . With their recommendation to Cardinal Giulio Alberoni , the Spanish Prime Minister, he went to Spain in 1716.

Career in the Spanish Armed Forces

With the highest recommendations, he began his service as a midshipman at the Spanish Naval Academy ( Colegio Real de Guardiamarinas ). After completing his training, he served aboard the Real San Felipe under Admiral Antonio Caztaneta . He took part in the naval battle of Capo Passero in 1718, in which the Spanish were defeated by the British . The defeat and health aspects (probably a tendency to seasickness) made him switch to infantry.

He fought in Sicily in 1718/19 and took part in the siege of Ceuta (1720). Under the King of Sicily, later King Charles III of Spain . he fought in the conquest of Tuscany (1731) and in the battles for Naples (1734/35). During the Austrian War of Succession under the Infante Philip , he was used again. At the beginning he was given the rank of colonel in 1740 and fought in northern Italy from 1743 to 1746.

During this war he became friends with Fernando de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo , Duke of Huéscar and later of Alba.

Diplomatic career

During his active military career, Wall took on his first diplomatic missions. In 1727 he accompanied James Fitz-James Stuart, 2nd Duke of Berwick , who was sent to the Russian court as the Spanish ambassador . Fitz-James, who like Wall was born a Jacobite in exile in France, supported Wall and promoted his career as much as he could.

Wall spent some time at the Prussian royal court of Friedrich II in Berlin and Potsdam . There he received the Order of the Red Eagle . He was proposed as an ambassador, but nothing came of it. Wall was accepted into the Order of Santiago and received an encomienda with several villages.

Thanks to the protection of his friend, the Duke of Huéscar and Alba, who was also married to the sister of James Fitz-James, Wall finally switched from the army to diplomacy.

After a station in Genoa (1747), he was sent to London, where he was supposed to achieve rapprochement between Spain and England on a secret mission. At that time, Spain, ruled by Bourbon, was usually on the side of France in international conflicts, while relations with England were very tense and repeatedly led to wars (as in the War of Jenkins' Ear or the War of the Austrian Succession ). The direct competition between the colonial powers in southern North America (Florida) and the Caribbean and the practice of using privateers made the situation worse. After the Peace of Aachen (1748) Wall was promoted to General Plenipotentiary in London and in 1752 to Ambassador. While the tensions between France and England continued (and eventually led to the Seven Years' War in 1756 ), Wall took a strictly neutral position for Spain in London.

Term of office as Minister of State

In 1752, on a visit to Madrid, Wall was promoted to lieutenant general militarily. Apparently his appearance impressed King Ferdinand VI. , because when the Foreign Minister ( Secretario de Estado ) José de Carvajal y Lancaster died in 1754 , Wall was appointed as his successor.

Wall was in opposition to Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea , Margrave of La Ensenada, the Prime Minister who had also been his predecessor as Ambassador to London. Ensenada pursued a policy in which Spain should stand firmly on the side of France. When Ensenada was overthrown by a plan by the Duke of Alba and the British Ambassador Benjamin Keene , Wall took over his role as Prime Minister in July 1754.

His position survived in 1759 when Charles III took over the throne . after the death of Ferdinand VI. Wall also took over the War Ministry in 1759.

In the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) he initially asserted Spanish neutrality, but demanded consistent compensation from the British for the raids of British privateers on Spanish ships. In 1761 Spain finally entered the war on the French side after the Bourbon house contract was renewed . Wall was concerned, but consistently advocated the new direction.

After the end of the war in 1763 the king granted him the dismissal, for which he had previously asked in vain several times. He was succeeded by Jerónimo Grimaldi .

Late years

In return for his services, the king gave him the Soto de Roma country estate near Granada . Wall spent the last years of his life here, directing the restoration work on the Alhambra , the Moorish Palace . Ricardo Wall, who had never married, died on Boxing Day 1777.

literature

• Diego Téllez Alarcia: Richard Wall, the Irish-Spanish Minister . In: Irish Migration Studies in Latin America . tape 5 , no. 2 , July 2007, ISSN  1661-6065 , p. 131-134 ( irlandeses.org [PDF]).
• Diego Téllez Alarcia: D. Ricardo Wall. Aut Caesar aut nullus. Madrid, 2008.
• Diego Téllez Alarcia: Absolutismo e Ilustración en la España del s. XVIII. El Despotismo Ilustrado de D. Ricardo Wall. Madrid, 2010.
• Diego Téllez Alarcia: El ministerio Wall. La “España Discreta” del “Ministro Olvidado”. Madrid, 2012.

Web links

• Biography (spanish)