“Death to the French!”: the damaging occupation of notary within the War of Independence | Culture | EUROtoday

On Monday, May 2, 1808, early within the morning, maybe with out figuring out what was coming, Miguel de Iranzo, colonel of grenadiers “with an upcoming departure for Lisbon,” gave energy of legal professional to his spouse. It was licensed by the Madrid notary Valerio Cortijo, who from 1811 to 1813 would sign up Cádiz, the place he would flee through the War of Independence, and he wouldn’t be the one one. Rafael Maroto, with an workplace on Calle de las Huertas, would write: “Due to the French invasion and not wanting to succumb to his ideas, I had to go to Seville and Cádiz in 1809.” When he returned in 1813, he discovered that his spouse and his mom had died.

On May 1 there had been a market and this had attracted many individuals to the capital. Given the information that spoke of the approaching departure of the members of the Royal Family who nonetheless remained in Madrid, after the departure to France of Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII, on May 2 many waited expectantly within the neighborhood of the Royal Palace. What occurred subsequent is thought. The combat in opposition to the French would final till three within the afternoon, and the reprisals within the type of shootings, the rapid morning, are additionally identified: “All those who have been arrested or found with weapons in their hands will be shot,” the order learn. given by the French Marshal Murat.

This takes us to the secluded and little-known cemetery of La Florida, subsequent to the hermitage of San Antonio. Part of those that fell through the repression are buried there, and had been later immortalized by Francisco de Goya.

Among them, two notaries: the primary, Francisco Sánchez, energetic since 1805 and with an workplace at 31 Barrionuevo Street, was shot with 42 different those that fateful day. He left two daughters, who went to dwell in Segovia, and a widow, who would additionally die shortly afterwards. His final deed, an influence of legal professional, he had signed the earlier Thursday. The different, Andrés Ibáñez, died within the General Hospital (now the headquarters of the Reina Sofía Museum), the place he had been admitted with a gunshot wound.

The French invasion divided the notaries—then known as notaries—amongst French and patriots, as occurred with the remainder of the Spaniards. Among the primary we will cite the case of Francisco Camps, from Gerona, who interrupted his work on July 13, 1808, not returning to his work till 1818. Upon resuming it he would observe: “Young and single, he left the pen for the sword and enlisted in the army to fight the invader” (younger and single, he left the pen for the sword and enlisted within the military to combat the invader).

In the identical metropolis, Joan Mallol started to function captain of an organization for the protection of Gerona, on June 29, 1808. When the town surrendered, he was deported to France as a prisoner of conflict. He returned after the armistice, in May 1814. He would state this when exercising once more.

In Malaga, two different notaries, the brothers Bernardo and Rafael San Millán, who had identified in opposition to the French, had been hanged in 1810 by order of General Sebastiani. While Francisco de Roa, from Antequera, organized a really energetic guerrilla group within the Malacitana mountains.

Among these Frenchified, the notary of Villaviciosa de Córdoba, Miguel de Vargas, was murdered in 1810 by guerrillas for collaborating with the French. For the identical motive, Tomás de Arteaga from Villafranca del Bierzo was imprisoned and his property seized.

Notarial documentation through the French occupation fell considerably. What is clear, logically, is the rise in wills, one thing just like different crucial moments in our historical past. When the State of Alarm declined through the Covid pandemic (after 88 days, between March and June 2020), I licensed 22 wills in a single day, a determine by no means earlier than, nor, almost definitely since, repeated.

Returning to the War of Independence, the paperwork granted in that interval enable us to get nearer to the private dramas that occurred. Like the case of María Bosch, from Nerja, a widow with two minor youngsters, who needed to promote her solely property in 1812. A notarial doc defined her scenario: “On the night of December 13 of last year, [en el pueblo] a party of insurgents and in [su] house they murdered her husband with fistfuls and shotguns [a ella] They broke his arm, destroying everything in the house, leaving him [ella] and their children in the greatest misery, supporting themselves on alms.”

Antonia Rodríguez from Malaga, in her will of 1811, acknowledged the son she had had with Joaquín Sierra, “enlisted in defense of the Homeland due to the circumstances that prevailed at the time” and that had prevented them from marrying. When she fell in poor health, she acknowledged that she had her son “under promise.” [de casamiento]”. And she added: “Carried away by love and sensual appetite, we met carnally, from whose actions I became pregnant.” The youngster had been famous as “son of the Church.”

After the conflict, the “hateful” (because it was described) “forced command or legacy” was applied. a authorized imposition created to assist these affected by the battle and that lasted till 1845! It needed to be included in all wills. The quantity was 12 reales in Spain and three pesos in America. Thus, the Ponferrad notary José Gasalla left in 1821 “twelve reales for the widows and children of those who died as a result of the last war.” In 1843, María Gallardo, from Crevillente, ordered in her will “12 reales for the relief of families orphaned by the War of Independence.”

I confess that generally I query whether or not a lot struggling in these days was value it, and what adopted, allow us to bear in mind the horrible famine of 1812 and a lot destruction and looting – the property injury was incalculable – to finally obtain the return of the “Desired” Ferdinand VII.

Ten years later, in 1823, after the arrival of the One Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis, a contingent of the French military, the Liberal Triennium got here to an finish. Then the work of the liberal scribes shall be questioned and we’ll witness a purge In all guidelines. A decree of 1824 will form it, to be able to prosecute attainable collaboration with the deposed liberal regime and, if that is confirmed, separate them from his workplace. For instance, in 1826, the notary of Capellades (Barcelona), Francesc Pujol, upon re-entering the occupation, was pressured to declare “not belonging to any secret association, nor recognizing the absurd principle that the People are the arbiters in varying the form of the established Governments.”

The heroic efforts of so many individuals weren’t reciprocated by a king so ungrateful that, as well as, as a posthumous legacy, he would go away us a civil conflict in three successive installments over half a century.

The two Spains had been born.

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