MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA, a 15 r5'sa, FRANCISCO (1789-1862). A Spanish statesman and man of letters. He was born in Granada, March 10, 1789; studied law at the University of Granada, and was appointed lecturer on ethics there when less than twenty years old. The French had just invaded Spain. and he en tered enthusiastically into the national move ment. He was employed by the Junta of Granada to procure arms and supplies at Gibraltar. and he afterwards went to England on the same errand. There, in 1811. his first poem. Zaragoz-a, was published. On his return to Spain. he produced, at Cadiz, a tragedy called La rind(' de Padilla, which was successful, and was followed by a comedy. Lo Tie puede vn eat pleo, satirizing political life. In 1813 he was returned to the Cortes from Granada, and at once took a high position as an orator. Ile was a supporter of the Constitution of 1S12, on the abolition of which, in 1814. Martinez, was sen tenced to imprisonment for ten years. Released by the insurrection of 1820, he was for a short time head of the Ministry, but resigned and took up his residence in Paris. Between 1827 and
1837 lie published a collection of his Obrus liter arias in five volumes. In 1830 he was permitted to return to Spain. and began to write an his torical novel, Duna Isabel de Solis. In March, 1834, he became the head of a Liberal Ministry, and was the author of the royal statute of 1834 which created a constitutional government and took away the ancient privileges of the provinces. Martinez de la Rosa became more and more un popular, and in 1835 he resigned. On the fall of Queen Maria Christina in 1840 he went to Paris, and resumed the composition of Espiritu (la siglo, a, work dealing with the French Revolu tion, which had been begun in 1835. Uptui the fall of Espartero he entered in May. 1844, the Narvaez Cabinet, and was from 1847 to 1851 Ambassador to Paris. He died at Madrid, February 7, 1562. Consult Godard, Martinez- de la Rosa (Paris, 1862).