Bernardino Fernández de Velasco-Pacheco y Benavides, 14th Duke of Frías,

Grandee of Spain Grandee (; , ) is an official royal and noble ranks, aristocratic title conferred on some Spanish nobility. Holders of this dignity enjoyed similar privileges to those of the peerage of France during the , though in neither country did they ha ...

, KOGF (1783 in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

– 1851) was a Spanish

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Gr ...

, politician, diplomat and writer who served in 1838 as

Prime Minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...

. He was one of the most important Spanish nobles of his time, and held, among other titles, the dukedoms of Frías,

Escalona Escalona is a municipality located in the north of the province of Toledo (province), Toledo, which in turn is part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2017 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain), ...

and Uceda, the Marquisates of Villena and Berlanga, and the Countships of Alba de Liste, Oropesa and Peñaranda de Bracamonte.

Biography

Son of the

Afrancesado ''Afrancesado'' (, ; "Francophile" or "turned- French", lit. "Frenchified" or "French-alike") refers to the Spanish and Portuguese partisan of Enlightenment ideas, Liberalism, or the French Revolution, that supported Napoleon's occupation as ...

(pro-French) XIII Duke of Frías, Diego Fernández de Velasco, who died in France in 1811, and his wife Francisca de Paula de Benavides de Córdoba. He joined the Walloon Guards around 1796 at the age of just thirteen, becoming a lieutenant at 19, circa 1802.
He first participated in the

Invasion of Portugal (1807) French and Spanish forces invaded Portugal from 19–30 November 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars, sparking the Peninsular War. The Franco-Spanish invasion force was led by General Jean-Andoche Junot, while the Portuguese were under the nom ...

alongside the French army, but then deserted to join the Spanish resistance during the

War of Independence Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

, unlike his father who took part in the commission that drafted the

Bayonne Statute The Bayonne Statute (),Ignacio Fernández Sarasola, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Retrieved 2010-03-12. also called the Bayonne Constitution () or the Bayonne Charter (), was a constitution or a royal charter () approved in Bayonne, Fra ...

. As Lieutenant Colonel, he participated between November 1808 and May 1812 in different campaigns and actions of the war, for which he received the Cross of San Fernando, the Cross of Talavera and other decorations.Real Academia de la Historia, Biography
/ref> Upon the return of King Ferdinand VII, in 1814 and already with the rank of Colonel, he advocated that the Monarch swear the oath of the

Spanish Constitution of 1812 The Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy (), also known as the Constitution of Cádiz () and nicknamed ''La Pepa'', was the first Constitution of Spain and one of the earliest codified constitutions in world history. The Constitution ...

. This was a position that excluded him from the following meetings which led to the return of the Absolute regime. He returned to active political life in 1820 with the Liberal Triennium. He was a member of the moderate group of the ''Anilleros'' and became Spanish Ambassador in London (1820–21) and a State Councilor. With the restoration of absolutism in 1823, he had to go into exile in Montpellier, until he could return to Spain in 1828. He was a member of the Estamento de Próceres in the Cortes from 1834 to 1836. Francisco Martínez de la Rosa sent him to Paris to obtain French support during the

First Carlist War The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833 to 1840, the first of three Carlist Wars. It was fought between two factions over the succession to the throne and the nature of the Monarchy of Spain, Spanish monarchy: the conservative a ...

, intervening in the negotiations for the signing of the

1834 Quadruple Alliance The Quadruple Alliance was a treaty signed between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Kingdom of France, Spain and Kingdom of Portugal on 22 April 1834, by which the four States undertook to expel from Portugal the Portuguese Infante ...

and the dispatch of the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...

. In 1838 he was elected senator for León. On 6 September of that year he was named President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister), replacing Narciso Heredia, Count of Ofalia. He unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the European Absolutist powers (Austria, Prussia and Russia) to withdraw their support for the Carlists, who were fighting in favor of Fernando VII's brother, Carlos María Isidro. In domestic politics, his attempts at reconciliation immediately clashed with the interests of the various political factions and the army. He was overwhelmed by the struggle for power between

Ramón María Narváez Ramón María Narváez y Campos, 1st Duke of Valencia (5 August 180023 April 1868) was a Spanish general and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Spain, Prime Minister on several occasions during the Reign of Isabella II of Spain, reign of ...

and

Baldomero Espartero Baldomero Fernández-Espartero y Álvarez de Toro (27 February 17938 January 1879) was a Spanish marshal and statesman. He served as the Regent of the Realm, three times as Prime Minister and briefly as President of the Congress of Deputies ...

. Although he managed to control the insurrection of

Luis Fernández de Córdova Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

in Seville, he was unable to face the opposition in the Cortes and was forced to resign on 8 December 1838. In 1845 he returned to political activity as a senator for life, although he devoted his time to literature, joining the

Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophon ...

in 1847. As a lyrical poet of moderate importance, he followed in the footsteps of Juan Nicasio Gallego, with whom he had a close friendship. The Academy published his Poetic Works in 1857, with a prologue by the Duke of Rivas and a biographical and critical study by Mariano Roca de Togores.

Marriage and children

The Duke of Frías married 3 times : * in 1802 with María Ana de Silva Bazán y Waldstein (1787-1805), daughter of José Joaquín de Silva-Bazán, no issue * in 1811 with María de la Piedad Roca de Togores Valcárcel (1787-1830), daughter of the Count of Pinohermoso, one daughter : ** Bernardina María Fernández de Velasco Pacheco Téllez-Girón y Roca de Togores (1815-1869), X Duchess of Uceda * in 1839 with Ana de Jaspe y Macías, after the birth of their 3 children : ** Ana Valentina Fernández de Velasco (1833-1852), XI Countess of Peñaranda de Bracamonte ** José María Fernández de Velasco y Jaspe (1836-1888), XV Duke of Frías ** Mencia Fernández de Velasco.Geni
/ref>

Ancestry

, - , -

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez de Velasco, Bernardino 14 1780s births 1851 deaths Counts of Alba de Liste Counts of Spain

114 114 may refer to: *114 (number) *AD 114 *114 BC *114 (1st London) Army Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, an English military unit *114 (Antrim Artillery) Field Squadron, Royal Engineers, a Northern Irish military unit *114 (MBTA bus) *114 (New Je ...

109 Bernardino 14 Foreign ministers of Spain Grandees of Spain Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain Lords in Spain Marquesses of Spain Members of the Royal Spanish Academy Moderate Party (Spain) politicians Prime ministers of Spain Ambassadors of Spain to the United Kingdom Ambassadors of Spain to France