The Marquis of Romana and the patriot Jovellanos.
The romance of Majorcan history seemed to have come to an end with
young Jayme IV. and his sister; but it was renewed in the career of the
Marquis of Romana, the most distinguished of later Majorcans.
Like many other noble families of the Peninsula, the Caros derive their
coat-armour from an incident in the memorable battle of Las Navas de
Tolosa.[25] Juan Caro accompanied En Jayme in the conquest of Majorca.
His descendants were in the conquest of Almeria, the wars of Flanders,
the battle of Los Gelves, the sea-fight of Lepanto, and many other
combats against the enemies of Spain. They held estates in Orihuela,
Elche, Crevillente, and Novelda, and the feudal castle of Maza, as well
as extensive property in Majorca. Don José Caro was created Marquis
of La Romana and Viscount of Benaesa in 1739 for his great services
during the War of Succession. Don Pedro Caro, the third Marquis, was
born at Palma in 1761, and lost his father, a very distinguished naval
officer, when he was only fourteen. The third Marquis entered the
navy, rising to the rank of captain of a frigate, but exchanged into
the army in order to serve under his uncle, General Ventura Caro, in
the first war with revolutionary France. He had risen to the rank of
lieutenant-general when Mr. Hookham Frere came to Madrid as Ambassador
from England in 1803. They at once became great friends, the Marquis
being of immense use to the English diplomatist in explaining to him
the state of parties at the Spanish Court. Southey says of Romana
that he was ‘a man whose happy nature had resisted all the evil and
debilitating influences of the age and rank in which he was born. He
possessed a rare union of frankness and prudence, while he read with
unerring intuition the characters of others. Spain has never produced a
man more excellently brave, more dutifully devoted to his country, more
free from the taint of selfishness, more truly noble.’
When Napoleon got possession of the resources of Spain and was able to
issue his decrees through the corrupt government of Godoy, he sought
to weaken those resources in order that Spain might fall an easier
prey when the time was ripe. With this object the Marquis of Romana
was ordered to march with fourteen thousand men, being the best troops
in the Spanish army, to the other end of Europe. This was in August
1807, when Romana’s force was quartered at Hamburg and Lubeck. The
Spanish contingent was intended to form part of a Franco-Danish army
under Bernadotte for the invasion of Sweden. The Spanish regiments
were then placed in garrisons at Aarhuus, Ebeltoft, Mariager, Aalborg,
and Randers in Jutland, in the island of Funen, and two regiments in
Zeeland. They were closely watched and cut off from all intercourse
with Spain. But an English squadron under Saumarez effectually
prevented an invasion of Sweden.
When the whole of Spain rose against the usurping government of Joseph
Bonaparte it became a matter of the utmost importance to communicate
the news to Romana and his troops, and to restore them to their
country. But it was a service of extreme difficulty. The French cut
off all communication and vigilantly intercepted letters; while the
Spaniards in Denmark were informed that all their countrymen were
unanimous in their allegiance to Joseph. A priest named Robertson, an
accomplished linguist, was selected by Mr. Frere to convey the news
to Romana. To give him written credentials was too dangerous; but Mr.
Frere hit upon a way of convincing Romana that the message was genuine.
Robertson was to quote to him a line from the poem of the ‘Cid,’ with
an emendation. When Romana and Frere were at Madrid together, the
former advised his English friend to read that poem. One day Romana
called upon his friend, when Frere had just made a suggested emendation
in the line:
Aun vea el hora que vos _merezca dos_ tanto.
Frere suggested _merezcades_, and Romana concurred in its propriety.
No one but Romana and Frere knew of this; so that, on quoting it, the
Marquis was convinced that Robertson came from Frere. Romana then
first heard the real situation of his country. They conversed in
Latin. The Spanish general at once resolved to effect his escape from
Denmark with his troops, if he could obtain the help of the British
naval commanders. So Robertson found his way to H.M.S. _Victory_, the
flagship of Admiral Saumarez in the Baltic, and told his story. The
Admiral at once saw that the matter was urgent, and sent a squadron
under Keats, his second in command, to communicate with Romana.
It was necessary to maintain the utmost secrecy while arranging for all
the Spanish garrisons to concentrate for embarkation, in defiance of
French and Danes. Romana and Keats worked in concert, but the operation
was extremely difficult. The various garrisons in Jutland were to seize
vessels in the different harbours, and come to the island of Funen,
where Romana had occupied the town of Nyborg on the Great Belt. Here
Admiral Keats waited with his ships.
All went well. The Jutland garrisons arrived and were embarked, in
spite of some opposition from two Danish gunboats. The Spanish troops
were taken to Gottenburg, where transports had been provided to convey
them to their native country. They were landed at Santander.
The Marquis de la Romana himself went to London to confer with the
British Government. He accompanied Mr. Hookham Frere to Spain, who
had been accredited as Envoy to the Central Junta. Both arrived at
Coruña on October 20, 1808, and Romana proceeded to take command
of the Spanish forces in Galicia. Here the indefatigable Majorcan
maintained an unequal contest with Soult and Ney. Routed in February
1809 at Monterey, he still kept the field, aroused the whole country by
his proclamations and by the sight of his patriotic zeal, and in the
following April captured the French garrison at Villa Franca.
Finding that Ney was collecting a great force to annihilate him, Romana
crossed the mountains at the passes of Cienfuegos and marched into
the Asturias. Leaving his army at Navia de Suara, the general went
on to Oviedo to organise the civil government of the province. Ney
then conceived a plan of surprising the troops at Navia de Suara and
securing the person of Romana. He sent Kellermann by forced marches to
Oviedo, but the Marquis was not to be caught. He galloped down to the
port of Gijon with his staff and returned by sea to Galicia. His troops
also retreated safely across the mountains.
In 1809 Romana was appointed to be a member of the Central Junta at
Seville, and he bade farewell to his faithful troops, who had escaped
with him from Denmark and shared all his desperate campaigning work in
Galicia. As a member of the Central Junta the Marquis drew up a very
able State paper for the better government of the country, which had
the concurrence both of Mr. Frere and of his successor, Lord Wellesley.
In January 1810 he was appointed to command the Spanish army in
Estremadura, where he did excellent service and saved Badajos at least
for the time. When Lord Wellington retreated behind the lines of Torres
Vedras, Romana joined him with four thousand men, and they then first
became acquainted.
Wellington concerted his plans with Romana, who was, in the ensuing
campaign, to keep open communications with Badajos, behind the Gevora.
The Marquis began his march thither, but died very suddenly of
heart-disease on January 23, 1811. A small edition of Pindar was found
in his pocket. His death was most disastrous, for the troops had no
confidence in his successor, and Badajos was lost.
Wellington appreciated the great qualities of this illustrious Majorcan
soldier. He recorded his sense of Romana’s services in the following
tribute to his memory: ‘In Romana the Spanish army has lost its
brightest ornament, his country their most upright patriot, and the
world the most strenuous and zealous defender of the cause in which we
are engaged. I shall always acknowledge with gratitude the assistance
which I received from him, as well by his operations as by his counsel,
since he had been joined with this army.’[26] The body of the great
Majorcan was conveyed to his native island. The funeral took place with
all possible solemnity on June 4, 1811, and a monument was voted by the
Cortes.
The monument is on the east wall of one of the northern side-chapels in
the cathedral. The recumbent figure of the Marquis of Romana rests on
a tomb, all in white marble, and beside it is another figure, pointing
upwards, supposed to be the Duke of Wellington. Below there is a
bas-relief with Romana and Admiral Keats superintending the embarkation
of Spanish troops and baggage at Nyborg, in the island of Funen.
The son of the great general, also named Pedro, succeeded as fourth
Marquis of Romana, and married Doña Tomas Alvarez de Toledo y Palafox,
Duchess of Montalto. He died in 1848, and was succeeded by Don Pedro
Caro, the fifth Marquis, who married a Hungarian lady of rank, Isabel
Szechenyi Zichy-Ferraris. She built the castle of Bendinat, as has
already been mentioned; but afterwards disposed of all the Caro
property in Majorca, and went to Madrid, where her son, the present and
sixth Marquis of La Romana, now resides.
Every visitor to Palma should go to the tomb of the illustrious
Majorcan, whose splendid career was so closely connected with most
interesting episodes in English history. Romana was the intimate friend
of Hookham Frere, one of the most distinguished among the diplomatists
and men of letters of the last century; and he won the esteem and
friendship of the great Duke of Wellington.
At the same time that the corrupt government of Godoy sent the Marquis
of Romana and fourteen thousand patriotic soldiers to Denmark, an
equally illustrious man was sent a prisoner to Majorca. Jovellanos is
connected with the island, not as a native, but as one whose iniquitous
imprisonment won for him the warm sympathy of the islanders.
Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos was born at Gijon, the chief seaport
of the Asturias, in 1744, and received a liberal education. After a
close study of civil and canon law, he became a judge at Seville,
and afterwards at Madrid. He was a student of political economy and
history, while he also attained eminence as a poet. His prose writings
proved him to be a philosophical statesman as well as a very able man
of letters. His liberal views were not acceptable to the favourite of
Charles IV., and Jovellanos was sent into exile in his native province
of Asturias. In 1797 he was recalled and became Minister of Justice.
But Godoy still hated his enlightened opinions, and in the following
year he was again banished to the Asturias.
The wretched favourite of Charles IV. was not yet satisfied. In 1801,
in violation of law and decency, the illustrious statesman was seized
in his bed, hurried across Spain like a common criminal, and sent
a prisoner to Majorca. At first he was confined in the Cartuja at
Valdemosa, but after a year he was removed to a prison in the castle of
Belver. He was treated with such rigour that almost all communication
with the outer world was cut off.
Latterly he was allowed to receive papers, and was even enabled to
make researches in the archives. We are indebted to Jovellanos for an
excellent account of the building of the cathedral and for learned
pamphlets on the ‘Lonja’ and on the castle of Belver.
At last came the fall of the favourite and the abdication of Charles
IV. This at once led to the liberation of Jovellanos, who was welcomed
back and received the admiration of his countrymen for his great
services and for the calm patience with which he had endured his unjust
sufferings. He represented Asturias in the Central Junta at Seville,
and on its dissolution he returned to his home in the hope that he
would be allowed to end his days in peace. He was at Gijon, his native
town, when the French made the sudden incursion into the Asturias in
the hope of capturing the Marquis of Romana. He sought safety on board
a small vessel, which landed him at the little port of Vega. There he
died on November 27, 1811, at the age of fifty-seven. Ticknor, who was
well acquainted with the writings of Jovellanos, wrote of him that ‘he
left behind him few men, in any country, of a greater elevation of
mind, and fewer still of a purer or more irreproachable character.’[27]
The old castle of Belver continued to be misused during the dark
times of recent Spanish history for the imprisonment of Carlist and
other political victims. But the interesting building is now declared
to be ‘patrimonio real,’ is inhabited by courteous and intelligent
guardians, and is pen to the public.
In the gloomy vaulted room where Jovellanos was imprisoned for six
years his island admirers have put up a marble tablet recording the
fact and commemorative of his patriotic virtues.