PRIM, JUAN, MARQUIS DE LOS CASTILLEJOS, COUNT DE REUS (1814-1870), Spanish soldier and statesman, was born at Reus, Catalonia, on Dec. 12, 1814. He served in the volunteers of Isabella II. in 1834, becoming lieutenant-colonel during the Carlist War. In 1839, as a progressist opposed to the dictatorship of Espartero, he was exiled. Elected deputy for Tarragona in 1843, he defeated Espartero at Bruch and entered Madrid in triumph with Serrano. The regent Maria Christina made him major-general and count of Reus. Narvaez, the prime minister, who did not understand what constitutional freedom meant, sen tenced Prim to six years' imprisonment in the Philippine islands; the sentence was not executed, and until the amnesty of 1847 Prim remained an exile in England and France. On his return he was made captain-general of Porto Rico and military represen tative with the sultan during the Crimean War. Elected to the Cortes in 1854, he supported O'Donnell, who promoted him lieutenant-general in 1856. He was made marquis de los Castil
lejos and a grandee of Spain for his valuable services in Morocco (1860). A member of the opposition against Narvaez, at his death (1868) Prim and Serrano raised the standard of revolt at Cadiz, with Admiral Topete commanding the fleet. In July 1869 Serrano was elected regent, and Prim became president of the council and was made a marshall. He was shot by unknown assassins on leaving the chamber of the Cortes on Dec. 28, 1870.
See F. Jimenez y Guited, Historia militar y politica del general D. Juan Prim . . . (2 vols., 186o) ; L. Blairet, Le General Prim et la situa tion actuelle de l'Espagne (1867) ; Guillaumot, Juan Prim et l'Espagne (587o) ; H. Leonardon, Prim (5901, bibl.) ; F. Gonzalez Llanos, Bio grafici politica y militar del . . . general . . . Prim . . . (186o).