PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Martínez Marina, Francisco (1754-1833)

Fechas de existencia:

Oviedo (Asturias, España) 1754-05-10 - Zaragoza (provincia) 1833-07-25

History:

Spanish priest, deputy, writer, archivist, librarian and historian. He was the son of Isidro Martínez Fernández and Micaela Francisca Marina y Fernández de Puerna. He studied in the University of Oviedo in 1769, in the University of Toledo, where he become a priest and where he obtained his PhD. He achieved a position as intern in San Ildefonso's college in the University of Alcalá de Henares, where he was librarian and rector. He was a royal chaplain, he was very famous for his studies, so much that the Council of Castilla commissioned him to censure, and he was a judge in public examination of chairs.

He did a lot of historical and economic studies, so he was designated member of the Spanish Royal Academy of History, where he was librarian, director and archivist. He wrote and participated in different works like: Diccionario histórico-geográfico, Teoría de las Cortes and others. He was an important figure to the Spanish historiography in the XIX century as he lived between two trends: Enlightenment and Liberalism. He was one of the founders of the History of Spanish' Law, a member of the Real Academya de la Lengua Española (RAE) and of the Royal Academy of Belles Lletres of Barcelona.

During the years of the French invasion, he had different positions in the government administration of José Bonaparte, which gave him the reputation as a liberal, which caused the censorship of his books, and for him to be imprisoned in Lérida between 1818 and 1820, when Ferdinand VII returned.

During the Constitutional Triennium, he was deputy to Cortes of Asturias, and he was appointed honorary PhD by the University of Toledo. When absolutism returned, he had to go into exile to Zaragoza, where he wrote Los principios naturales de la moral, de la política y de la legislación and La vida de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo y de la doctrina y moral cristianas.

Liberal Triennium, 1820-1823

Date of the event: 1820 - 1823

Guerra de Independencia Española, 1808-1814