ESPARTERO, BALDOMERO duke of Vitoria, duke of Morella, prince of Vergara, Count Luchana, knight of the Toison d'Or, etc., Spanish soldier and statesman, was born at Granatulu, a town of the province of Ciudad Real, on Feb. 27, 1792. He was the son of a carter, who wanted to make him a priest, but the lad at 15 enlisted in a battalion of students to fight against the armies of Napoleon I. In 1815 he went to America as a captain under General Morillo, who had been made commander-in-chief to quell the risings of the colonies on the Spanish Main. For eight years Espartero distinguished himself in the struggle against the colonists. He was several times wounded, and was made major and colonel on the battle fields of Cochabamba and Sapachni. He had to surrender to Sucre at the final battle of Ayacucho, which put an end to Cas tilian rule. He returned to Spain, and, like most of his com panions in arms, remained under a cloud for some time.
Espartero became in 1832, on the death of King Ferdinand VII., one of the most ardent defenders of the rights of the daughter, Isabella II. The Government sent him to the front, directly the Carlist War broke out, as commandant of the province of Biscay, where he severely defeated the Carlists in many encounters. At times he showed qualities as a guerrillero quite equal to those of the Carlists, like Zumalacarregui and Cabrera, by his daring marches and surprises. Twice he obliged the Carlists to raise the siege of Bilbao before he was appointed commander-in-chief of the northern army on Sept. 17, 1836, when the tide of war seemed to be setting in favour of the pretender in the Basque provinces and Navarre, though Don Carlos had lost his ablest lieutenant, the Basque Zumalacarregui. In Nov. 1836 he again forced the Carlists to raise the siege of Bilbao. His troops in cluded the British legion under Sir de Lacy Evans. This success turned the tide of war against Don Carlos, who vainly attempted a raid towards Madrid. Espartero was soon at his heels, and obliged him to hurry northwards, after several defeats. In Espartero carefully opened up negotiations with Maroto and the principal Carlist chiefs of the Basque provinces. These ended in their accepting his terms under the famous convention of Vergara. Espartero was styled "El pacificador de Espana," was made a grandee of the first class, and received two dukedoms.
During the last three years of the war Espartero, who had been elected a deputy, exercised from his distant headquarters such influence over Madrid politics that he twice hastened the fall of the cabinet, and obtained office for his own friends. At the close of the war the queen regent and her ministers attempted to elbow out Espartero and his followers, but a pronunciamiento ensued in Madrid and other large towns made the marshal prime minister. He soon became virtually a dictator, as Queen Chris tina resigned and left the kingdom very soon afterwards. The Cortes elected Espartero regent by 179 votes to 103 in favour of Arguelles, who was appointed guardian of the young queen. For two years Espartero ruled Spain in accordance with his Radical and conciliatory dispositions, giving special attention to the re organization of the administration, taxation and finances, declar ing all the estates of the church, congregations and religious orders to be national property, and suppressing the diezma, or tenths. He suppressed the Republican risings with as much severity as he did the military pronunciamientos of Generals Concha and Diego de Leon. The latter was shot in Madrid.
Espartero crushed with much energy a revolutionary rising in Barcelona, but on his return to Madrid was so coldly welcomed that he perceived that his prestige was on the wane. The advanced Progressists coalesced with the partisans of the ex-regent Chris tina to promote pronunciamientos in Barcelona and many cities. The rebels declared Queen Isabel of age, and, led by General Narvaez, marched upon Madrid. Espartero embarked at Cadiz on July 3o, 1843, for England, and lived quietly apart from politics until 1848, when a royal decree restored to him all his honours and his seat in the senate. He retired to his house in Logrono, which he left six years later, in 1854, when called upon by the queen to take the lead of the powerful Liberal and Progressist movement which prevailed for two years. The old marshal vainly endeav oured to keep his own Progressists within bounds in the Cortes of and in the great towns, but their excessive demands for reforms and liberties played into the hands of a clerical and re actionary court and of the equally retrograde governing classes. The growing ambition of General O'Donnell constantly clashed with the views of Espartero, until the latter, in sheer disgust, resigned his premiership and left for Logrono. O'Donnell's pronunciamiento in 1856 put an end to the Cortes, and the militia was disarmed, after a sharp struggle in the streets of the capital.
After 1856 Espartero resolutely declined to identify himself with active politics, and steadily refused office. King Amadeus made him prince of Vergara. The Restoration raised a statue to him near the gate of the Retiro Park in Madrid. Spaniards of all shades, except Carlists and Ultramontanes, paid homage to his memory when he died at his Logrono residence on Jan. 8, 1879. His tastes were singularly modest, his manners rather reserved, but always kind and considerate for humble folk. He was a typical Spanish soldier-politician, though he had more of the better traits of the soldier than of the arts of the statesman. His military instincts did not always make it easy for him to accom modate himself to courtiers and professional politicians.
See Florez, E., Historia de su vida militar y politica Mariano, La Regencia de D. Baldomero Espartero (187o) ; Pirala, A., Historia de la guerra civil, con la regencia de Espartero (188g).