WEYLER Y NICOLAU, VALERIAN°, marquess of Tenerife (1839-1930), Spanish soldier of Prussian descent, born at Palma de Majorca. He entered at sixteen the military college of infantry at Toledo, and when he attained the rank of lieutenant, passed into the staff college, from which he came out at the head of his class. Two years afterwards he became captain, and was sent to Cuba at his own request. He distinguished himself in the expedi tion to Santo Domingo, especially in a daring reconnaissance with few men into the heart of the enemy's lines, for which he got the cross with laurels of San Fernando. From 1868 to 1872 he served also brilliantly against the Cuban rebels, and commanded a corps of volunteers specially raised for him in Havana. He returned to Spain in 1873 as brigadier-general and took an active part against the Carlists in the eastern provinces of the Peninsula in 1875 and 1876, for which he was raised to the rank of general of division.
Then he was elected senator and created marquess of Tenerife He was captain-general in the Canary Isles (1878-83) and after wards in the Balearic islands and in the Philippines ( r888)— where he dealt very sternly with the native rebels of the Carolines, of Mindanao and other provinces. On his return to Spain in 1892 he was put in command of the 6th Army Corps in the Basque Provinces and Navarre where he soon quelled agitations, and then became captain-general at Barcelona until Jan. 1896. In Catalonia,
with a state of siege, he made himself the terror of the anarchists and socialists. On the failure of Martinez Campos to pacify Cuba, Weyler was sent out by the Conservative government of Canovas del Castillo, and this selection met the approval of most Spaniards, who thought him the proper man to crush the rebellion. Weyler attempted to do this by a policy of inexorable repression which raised a storm of indignation and led to a demand from America for his recall. This recall was granted by the Liberal Government of Sagasta, but Weyler afterwards asserted that, had he been left alone, he would have stamped out the rebellion in six months. After his return to Spain his reputation as a strong and ambitious soldier made him one of those who in case of any constitutional disturbance might be expected to play an important role, and his political position was naturally affected by this consideration ; his appointment in 1900 as captain-general of Madrid resulted indeed in more than one ministerial crisis. Twice minister of war (1901, 1905), he was captain-general at Barcelona (Oct. 1909) and, without bloodshed, quelled the disturbance connected with the execution of Francisco Ferrer. Weyler died Oct. 2o, 1930.