Sebastián de Eslava y Lazaga

Sebastian de Eslava

Sebastián de Eslava y Lazaga , (born January 19, 1685 in Enériz , Navarra , Spain , † June 21, 1759 in Madrid , Spain) was a Spanish officer and colonial administrator who served as Viceroy of New Granada .

Eslava came from a noble family from Navarre. He embarked on a military career and was a member of the Order of Santiago .

Military career in Europe

In the Spanish War of Succession he distinguished himself several times. While still in Navarre he reached the rank of ensign in the newly founded Guardias Españoles regiment and fought in Portugal, with the capture of Gibraltar in 1704, the siege of Barcelona (1705) , the battle of Almansa , the battle of Brihuega , the battle of Villaviciosa and at the second siege of Barcelona in 1713 . At the end of the war he had the rank of captain.

In 1715 he re-established the Asturian Regiment, with which he fought for the Spanish crown on the campaigns in Sicily and southern Italy, including the capture of Messina.

Eslava was appointed officer of the Order of Calatrava , he received the rank of lieutenant general of the Spanish army and served as chamberlain to the king.

Appointment as Viceroy of New Granada

In 1739 King Philip V appointed him viceroy of the re-established viceroyalty of New Granada. The arguments for a separation of the areas of today's Colombia , Venezuela , Ecuador and Panama from the administration of the viceroyalty of Peru remained the same as in 1717: Long distances, long and bad roads that paralyzed and made more difficult a centralized administration from Lima. The first establishment of the viceroyalty had failed because of mismanagement, corruption and the negative assessment of the economic prospects by the viceroy Jorge de Villalonga .

Eslava, whose brother Rafael de Eslava had been governor and captain general of Bogotá from 1733 until his death in 1737 , reached Cartagena with 600 men on April 24, 1740.

Tenure as Viceroy, Battle of Cartagena

His tenure was marked by the War ( War of Jenkins' Ear ) against the British. In 1739, the British fleet under Edward Vernon captured Portobelo and destroyed it. In 1740 the British turned their attention to Cartagena. Eslava had the fortifications reinforced.

At the same time, the settlers in Vélez and elsewhere rose in protest against Spanish rule, which is why Eslava had to withdraw parts of his defense troops.

In March 1741 the British reached Cartagena with a fleet of 37 battleships, each equipped with 60 to 90 cannons, and 12 frigates, on which a total of 15,000 sailors and 12,000 infantrymen were transported. On March 17th, the attack on Cartagena began with the bombing of the Spanish fortifications, in which, under the command of Blas de Lezo, only about 3,000 Spanish soldiers stood ready to defend. On March 20, the British went ashore and tried in vain to take the forts of the Spanish. The siege dragged on until May 20th, when the English gave up.

Eslava stayed in Cartagena even after the British withdrew; Vernon made another attempt to capture Cartagena in April 1742, but failed on the second attempt. Eslava went on several campaigns to put down insurgent locals and tried to improve the crown's income. In 1743 the Crown wanted to appoint him Viceroy of Peru, but Eslava asked, given his old age, not to do so.

Several severe earthquakes fell during his tenure in New Granada. In 1749 Spain sent in José Alfonso Pizarro a successor in the office of viceroy.

Old age in Spain

Eslava returned to Spain, he still held high formal positions in the army, such as that of Director General of the Infantry and Secretary of the General Council of War, which he held until his death in 1759. A year after his death, King Charles III raised him . to the marqués de la Real Defensa , since Eslava was childless, his nephew Gaspar de Eslava y Monzón inherited this title.

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• Biography (spanish)
• Biography (spanish)

Web links

Commons : Sebastián de Eslava  - collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Jorge de Villalonga until the abolition of the viceroyalty in 1724	Viceroy of New Granada 1740–1749	José Alfonso Pizarro