PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Silva-Bazán Waldstein, José Gabriel de (1782-1839)Other forms

Fechas de existencia:

Madrid (España) 1782 - Madrid (España) 1839-11-04

History:

X Marquis of Santa Cruz. Academic, diplomat, politician. Son of José Joaquín de Silva-Bazán, IX Marquis of Santa Cruz, and his second wife Maria Anna von Waldstein.

He first married María Fernández de la Cueva, daughter of the Duke of Alburquerque, who died without leaving children. He remarried a second marriage to Mariana Waldstein, an Austrian nobleman. José Gabriel remarried on June 11, 1801, in Alameda de Osuna, with Joaquina María Téllez-Girón Alfonso-Pimentel, thanks to which he had nine descendants.

When the occasion of the War of Independence arrived, José Gabriel was taken prisoner by the French in the early date of 1808, spending five years in the fortress of Fenestrelle in the Alps. Upon his release, he was appointed supernumerary of the Royal Spanish Academy at the beginning of the year 1814 and, in the November session of the same year, he was elected as a full-time academic. Also in 1814 he was appointed chaplain of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

On December 31, 1820, as it was during the liberal triennium, he was elected the first constitutional mayor. During this brief period, he witnessed the street fight between the National Militia and the rebellious Royal Guard, the revolt against the ministers Count of Toreno and Martínez de la Rosa for the Press Law, the Riego parade before Congress, and was also then when the sculptor Antonio Solá offered the sculptural group of "Dos de Mayo" and presided over the funeral of Lieutenant Lamdaburu. During his mayoralty, the solemn inauguration of the University of Alcalá in Madrid was also verified. The Cortes granted him, precisely for those events referred to here, the Civic Crown for the shield of Madrid.

At the end of his term as mayor, he was appointed ambassador of Spain in London (1823). In 1828, he was appointed perpetual director of the Royal Spanish Academy, a position he held until his death, on November 4, 1839.

It is necessary to add to his honors those of major butler of the Palace, counselor of the Regency of the Kingdom and commander of the Order of Calatrava. In 1820, he was elected an academic at the Royal Academy of History, after being an honorary academic, but his appointment as ambassador in Paris did not make it possible for him to take up his post.

Liberal Triennium, 1820-1823

Date of the event: 1820 - 1823

Guerra de Independencia Española, 1808-1814