José María de Torrijos y Uriarte
Jose Maria Torrijos y Uriarte (March 20, 1791December 11, 1831), Count of Torrijos, a title granted posthumously by the Queen Governor, also known as
General Torrijos, was a Spanish Liberal soldier. He fought in the
Spanish War of Independence and after the restoration of absolutism by
Ferdinand VII in 1814 he participated in the pronouncement of
John Van Halen of 1817 that sought to restore the
Constitution of 1812, for which he spent two years in prison until he was released after the triumph of the
Riego uprising in 1820. He returned to fight the French when the
Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis invaded Spain to restore the absolute power of
Ferdinand VII and when those triumphed ending the liberal triennium exiled to England. There he prepared a statement which he himself led, landing on the coast of
Málaga from
Gibraltar on December 2, 1831, with sixty men accompanying him, but they fell into the trap that had been laid before him by the absolutist authorities and were arrested. Nine days later, on December 11, Torrijos and 48 of his fellow survivors were shot without trial on the beach of
San Andres de Málaga, a fact that was immortalized by a sonnet of
José de Espronceda entitled ''To the death of Torrijos and his Companions'', 's ''A la memoria del General Torrijos'', and by
a well-known 1888 painting by
Antonio Gisbert. "The tragic outcome of his life explains what has happened to history, in all fairness, as a great symbol of the struggle against despotism and tyranny, with the traits of epic nobility and serenity typical of the romantic hero, eternalized in the famous painting by
Antonio Gisbert." The city of Málaga erected a monument to Torrijos and his companions in the Plaza de la Merced, next to the birthplace of the painter
Pablo Picasso. Under the monument to Torrijos in the middle of the square are the tombs of 48 of the 49 men shot; One of them, British, was buried in the
English cemetery (Málaga).
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