Brigadier Mariano José Manuel Bernardo Álvarez Bermúdez de Castro y López Aparicio (September 8, 1749 – January 21, 1810) was a Spanish military officer, and the military governor of

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in 2020. Girona is the capital ...

during the siege by the French during the

War of Spanish Independence The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, ...

Biography

Álvarez was born in Granada. He joined the army in 1768 (aged 19), and studied at the Military Academy of Barcelona, graduating in 1775. He gained steady promotions, saw action in the

siege of Gibraltar There have been fourteen recorded sieges of Gibraltar. Although the peninsula of Gibraltar is only long and wide, it occupies an extremely strategic location on the southern Iberian coast at the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It ...

in 1783, and by 1793 was a Colonel of Infantry. During the

War of the Pyrenees The War of the Pyrenees, also known as War of Roussillon or War of the Convention, was the Pyrenean front of the First Coalition's war against the First French Republic. It pitted Revolutionary France against the kingdoms of Spain and Portug ...

(1793–1795) against France he took part in many notable actions, was wounded, and spent 75 days under fire at the siege of

Collioure Collioure (; ca, Cotlliure, ) is a commune in the southern French department of Pyrénées-Orientales. Geography The town of Collioure is on the Côte Vermeille (Vermilion Coast), in the canton of La Côte Vermeille and in the arrondissement ...

. As a result, he was promoted to Brigadier. On the accession of

Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic of ...

to the throne of Spain in 1808, Álvarez was commander of the castle of Montjuïc in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. On 29 February French troops arrived to take possession of the fortress. Álvarez was preparing to defend it against them when he received direct orders of his Commander in Chief to hand it over. Álvarez fled Barcelona and joined the Spanish rebels against French rule. The

Cortes of Cádiz The Cortes of Cádiz was a revival of the traditional ''cortes'' (Spanish parliament), which as an institution had not functioned for many years, but it met as a single body, rather than divided into estates as with previous ones. The General ...

which served as a parliamentary Regency after

Ferdinand VII , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_plac ...

was deposednamed Álvarez commander of the Army of

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

and Governor of

Siege of Girona

On the 6 May 1809 a French army of 18,000 men besieged the town. Álvarez had only 5,600 men under arms. The French mounted 40 gun batteries that over the next seven months fired some 20,000 explosive shells and 60,000 cannonballs into the city. In August, the French captured the castle of Montjuïc, the main defensive point. Undeterred, Álavarez constructed barricades and trenches inside the city and battle raged for another four months before Álavarez, exhausted and ill, handed over command to a subordinate. Two days later, on 12 December, the town capitulated. It is estimated that some 10,000 people, soldiers and civilians, had died inside. French losses were around 15,000, over half of those to disease.

Death

In spite of Álvarez's poor health, the French imprisoned him at Perpignan. On 9 January 1809 Álvarez was brought to the castle of

San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...

Figueres Figueres (, ; , es, Figueras, ) is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museu ...

, where he was found dead the following day, of a fever according to the French, poisoned, according to the Spanish. He was buried, wrapped in only a sheet, in the cemetery there.

Posthumous honours

He was posthumously promoted to Field Marshal in April 1809 and made a Commander of the First Battalion of the

Spanish Royal Guard The Royal Guard ( es, Guardia Real) is an independent regiment of the Spanish Armed Forces that is dedicated to the protection of the King of Spain and members of the Spanish Royal Family. It currently has a strength of 1,500 troops. While the gu ...

s Regiment in May 1810. In 1815 a black marble tablet was placed on his grave which stated that Álvarez had been poisoned, and was a ''Victim of the Iniquity of the French Tyrant''. In December 1823 French troops, ironically invading Spain in order to restore the tottering throne of

, passed through Figueres, and on the orders of Marshal Moncey, formerly

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's Inspector-General of Police, destroyed the plaque. In 1880 a funerary monument, sculpted by

Jeronimo Suñol Jeronimo Suñol y Pujol (13 December 1839–16 October 1902) was a Spanish sculptor born in Barcelona. His early training was in the atelier of Agapit and , perfecting his art at Rome where he maintained a studio for many years. Never prolific, ...

, was erected in the Church of San Felix in Girona. In 2010, around the 200th anniversary of his death, an exhibition ''Álvarez de Castro y su tiempo'' ("Álvarez de Castro and his times") was held in his honour at the castle of San Fernando in Figueres.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez De Castro, Mariano 18th-century Spanish people Spanish generals Spanish commanders of the Napoleonic Wars 1749 births 1810 deaths