- Pedro Caro y Sureda, 3rd marqués de La Romana
Don Pedro Caro y Sureda, 3rd marqués de La Romana (
October 2 ,1761 –January 23 ,1811 ) was a distinguished Spanishgeneral of thePeninsular War .Born at
Palma de Mallorca to a family of Balearicnobility , La Romana was educated inFrance and, upon the death of his father, was awarded a commission in the Spanish Royal Navy by King Charles III. He studied at theUniversity of Salamanca and entered the "Seminario de Nobles " inMadrid .Like many Spanish officers of the Napoleonic era, La Romana served in the
American Revolutionary War in his youth. In 1783, he participated in the reconquest ofMinorca from the British. In the final months of the war, he was assigned to the blockade ofGibraltar .La Romana retired from the military after the war and began travelling
Europe . Evidence suggests he was actually dispatched on missions ofdiplomacy orespionage , for which his knowledge of foreign languages would have been a unique asset.In 1793, La Romana entered the army as a
cavalry colonel and fought againstFrance in theWar of the First Coalition . He was madeCaptain-General ofCatalonia in 1802 and Chief of the Engineering Corps in 1805.King Charles IV, bullied and pressured by Napoleon, agreed in 1807 to provide a veteran infantry division to bolster the French army in
Germany . La Romana was made commander of this "Division of the North " and spent 1807 and 1808 performing garrison duties inHamburg and laterDenmark under Marshal Bernadotte.When the
Peninsular War broke out, La Romana made plans with the British to repatriate his men to Spain. That 9,000 men of the 14,000-strong division were able to board British ships onAugust 27 and escape to Spain was chiefly creditable to his subterfuge and resourcefulness.La Romana arrived at Santander on the
Cantabria n front and received command of the Army of Galicia onNovember 11 . Fate was crueler to him than he deserved, as this army, under General Blake, was destroyed in battle that same day. OnNovember 26 , La Romana assumed effective command of what remained of the army – 6,000 men all told.With this force he fought some rearguard actions for General Moore's retreat westwards to Corunna. Using his limited means, La Romana conducted small scale attacks against the French in 1809. These met with success and his men were able to distract the French and overwhelm isolated garrisons such as Villafranca. Following the French defeat at Puente San Payo on
June 6 , Marshal Soult abandoned his attempts to reestablish French rule in Galicia. When Soult moved against the British on the Portuguese frontier, La Romana drove the French fromAsturias as well.La Romana was appointed to the Central Junta on
August 29 and served until 1810. He then returned to military operations under Wellington but died suddenly onJanuary 23 ,1811 while preparing the relief of Badajoz. With Castaños, La Romana was the Spanish general most trusted and respected by Wellington. [Longford, p. 254] At news of his death, Wellington wrote, "his loss is the greatest which the cause could sustain." [Longford, p.309]Notes
References
*Longford, Elizabeth. "Wellington: The Years of The Sword". New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1969.
External links
* [http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/biographies/c_romana.html A biography of the Marquis of La Romana by Jose Manuel Rodriguez]
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