Baldomero Espartero (27 February 1793 – 8 January 1879) was Prime Minister of Spain from 18 August to 18 October 1837 (succeeding Jose Maria Calatrava and preceding Eusebio Bardaji), from 16 September 1840 to 10 May 1841 (succeeding Vicente Sancho y Cobertores and preceding Joaquin Maria Ferrer y Cafranga), and from 19 July 1854 to 14 July 1856 (succeeding Angel de Saavedra and preceding Leopoldo O'Donnell). Espartero also served as Regent of Spain from 1840 to 1843, succeeding Maria Christina and preceding Queen Isabella II herself. He was the leader of the radical wing of the Progressive Party of Spain.
Biography[]
Early career[]
Baldomero Espartero was born in Granatula de Calatrava, Spain in 1793, and he served in the Spanish Army during the Peninsular War and during the South American Wars of Liberation; as a colonel, he surrendered to Antonio Jose de Sucre following the final Battle of Ayacucho in 1824. He returned to Spain, and he served as commandant of Vizcaya during the First Carlist War of the 1830s. He was an ardent defender of the claim of Queen Isabella II of Spain to the throne, and he forced the Carlists to end their siege of Bilbao and inflicted several more defeats on them.
Statesman[]
Espartero in 1840
In 1837, Espartero served as Prime Minister for two months. Following the Battle of Ramales on 12 May 1839, he was created "Duke of La Victoria", and he defeated the last Carlist forces in 1840. However, following the end of the war, Queen regent Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies and her ministers attempted to eliminate Espartero and his radical devotees, but Espartero succeeded in forcing Maria Christina into exile due to her conspiracy. Espartero crushed military rebellions across Spain in 1841, but his brutality towards the rebels and his hasty and ungrateful dissolution of the radical juntas that had ended the rebellions led to decreased popularity for him. He ruled Spain as Regent from 1840 to 1843, and he declared the estates of the Catholic Church, congregations, and religious orders to be national property and suppressed republican rebellions. In 1843, a rebellion in Barcelona broke out, led by Ramon Maria Narvaez, and the rebels overthrew Espartero and claimed that Queen Isabella was of age to rule. Espartero went into exile in the United Kingdom, and, in 1848, a royal decree restored all of his honors, and he returned to Spain. During the 1850s, he again championed reform, but this was resisted in the Cortes by a reactionary and clerical court. He resigned as premier in 1858, and he died a respected statesman in 1879.