![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/trajectories-of-reform\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/242\/2020\/08\/Elogio-1-240x300.png\")
<\/p>\n
Frontpage of the manuscript version of C\u00f3logan\u2019s \u2018Elogio del Exmo. Sor. Dn. Antonio Benavides\u2019, Municipal Library of Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Ms. 62. (Our thanks to Dr Ana P\u00e9rez \u00c1lvarez for the image).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Although it remained unpublished until the mid-nineteenth century, C\u00f3logan\u2019s manuscript was often referenced by Canarian historians. Fortunately, for our purposes, while the original manuscript hasn\u2019t been digitised, a printed version, published across eight issues of Santa Cruz\u2019s newspaper El Eco del Comercio<\/em> in 1857 is available online through the library of the Universidad de la Laguna<\/a>. Thanks in large part to C\u00f3logan\u2019s account, an image of Benavides as an illustrious son of Tenerife had developed within a few decades of his death and persists to this day: streets in Santa Cruz<\/a> and La Matanza<\/a> still bear his name; in 2012, a series of events were organised to mark the restoration of his tombstone by the municipal council and the local historical association of Santa Cruz, the Tertulia amigos del 25 de Abril<\/em><\/a>; and a couple of years later his life inspired a novel by Ceuta-born, but Tenerife-raised author Jes\u00fas Villanueva Jim\u00e9nez.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Biograf\u00eda del Exmo. Sor. Dn. Antonio Benavides escrita por Dn. Bernardo Cologan\u2026\u2019 [Biography of His Excellency Don Antonio Benavides, written by Don Bernardo Cologan\u2026], El Eco del Comercio de Sta. Cruz de Tenerife, numbers 578-581, 584-587, 1857.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n C\u00f3logan\u2019s biography, written thirty years after Benavide\u2019s death, is the earliest full account of our Wally\u2019s life. It is also full of fantastic episodes that have been tirelessly repeated by local historians and history enthusiasts since the nineteenth century; they have even made their way into Benavides\u2019s Wikipedia entry<\/a> and a myriad other digital sources<\/a>. During the last month, much of our work has focused on crossing these sources with archival evidence, some of it gathered before the onset of the pandemic, some found on digital repositories since, in an effort to corroborate or disprove the multiple threads that make up Benavides\u2019s heroic shroud.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n C\u00f3logan tells us that his \u2018hero\u2019 -a man he describes repeatedly as \u2018honest \u2018, \u2018virtuous\u2019, \u2018affable\u2019, and \u2018fearless\u2019- was born in the small town of La Matanza de Acentejo, in Tenerife, on 8 December 1678 and we have no reason to doubt this. Although we have not been able to see the originals, we\u2019ve seen transcriptions of Benavides\u2019s baptismal and burial records which confirm this information. C\u00f3logan waxes lyrically about our Wally\u2019s childhood, the strength and ability he demonstrated from an early age, and retells a fanciful anecdote about how the young man impressed a military recruiter who helped him secure his father\u2019s permission to enlist in the Spanish armies as a cadete<\/em> and ship for Havana. This \u2018fact\u2019 is constantly repeated in later biographies, like Agust\u00edn Millares\u2019s, which asserts that Benavides was in Cuba from 1699 to 1703.[4]<\/a> Far from finding any evidence to corroborate this, all the information we have suggests Benavides did not cross the Atlantic westward before being appointed governor of Florida in 1717.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n Benavides\u2019 own account of his services to the Spanish crown and official records of his military career suggest that our \u2018Wally\u2019 left the Canary Islands in 1692, as a fourteen-year-old alf\u00e9rez<\/em>, to serve in the Spanish armies in Flanders. There, by 1703, he had reached the rank of teniente de infanter\u00eda<\/em>.[6]<\/a> Thus, instead of rising meteorically through the ranks, in a short four-years of service in Cuba, it took Benavides eleven years of service in Flanders to get promoted just once. While this might seem trivial, it is quite significant. The C\u00f3logan-Millares story suggests that Benavides was drafted into the army, aged 20, through his merits (and the promise the recruiting officer saw in him); moreover, by suggesting he enlisted as a cadete<\/em>, effectively a noble soldier, his biographers hint at an aristocratic ancestry (or equate his physical skills with nobility).[7]<\/a> By contrast, starting a career as alf\u00e9rez<\/em>, the lowest officer rank, aged just 14 and lacking any previous military experience, suggests Benavides\u2019s rank was probably purchased by this father; this would have been a common strategy for a family of well-off landowners without noble ancestry.<\/p>\n 1703, however, was unquestionably a watershed in Benavides\u2019s life. C\u00f3logan claims it was then that his regiment travelled back from Cuba to Madrid, where he gained access to the court and met Philip V. The king then \u2018came to know and esteem [Benavides], developing an affection for him he would feel from then onwards\u2019. The archival records, again, tell another story, suggesting 1703 started very differently for Benavides. Still serving in Flanders, he fought in the battle of \u2018Ecre\u2019 (sic, perhaps for Ekeren) where he was \u2018mortally\u2019 injured in the head.[8]<\/a> This, however, turned out to be a fortunate event as, within a few months, he had been transferred from his regiment to Philip V\u2019s newly created personal guard: the guardias de corps<\/em>.<\/p>\n Soldiers of the 1st Company of the Royal Guard Corps during the reign of Philip V<\/a>. Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Rhode Island, USA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With his new unit, Benavides saw plenty of action during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) and received a series of rapid promotions. Having joined the corps as a guardia<\/em>, a rank roughly equivalent to his previous one of teniente<\/em> in the regular armies, by 1705 he had been promoted to sub-brigadier<\/em> after serving in the campaigns in Portugal and Valencia. Between 1709 and 1710 he fought in the campaign of Catalonia, where Philip V often led his troops into battle, a practice that had earned him the moniker \u2018the brave\u2019.[9]<\/a> Benavides\u2019 actions at the siege of Tortosa, the battles of Zaragoza and Villaviciosa, and the siege of Campo Mayor, earned him a further promotion to the rank of brigadier<\/em> (equivalent to capit\u00e1n<\/em> in the regular armies).<\/p>\n The battle of Villaviciosa, fought near Villaviciosa del Taju\u00f1a<\/a> on 10 December 1710, is often considered a turning point in the war. It is also the background to, perhaps, the biggest myth associated with Benavides. Although the battle itself was a marginal Bourbon victory, it secured Philip\u2019s conquest of Madrid and delivered a significant blow to the pro-Habsburg forces. Thus, it is not surprising that C\u00f3logan would use this event to link the fate of the Bourbon dynasty to the bravery of his Canarian hero.<\/p>\n In a \u2018courageous act deserving of our applause\u2019, Benavides \u2018noticed the king was risking his life with excessive daring\u2019; he approached Philip and warned him the \u2018splendid horse he rode\u2019 made the monarch an easy target for the enemy, offering to swap mounts. The king allegedly accepted the offer and rode on, leaving Benavides to be shot shortly afterwards while riding Philip\u2019s stallion. Thus, C\u00f3logan would have us believe, Benavides saved the king and allowed the Bourbon dynasty to set root in Spain.<\/p>\n Jean Alaux. Bataille de Villaviciosa. 10 decembre 1710<\/a> (1836). Palace of Versailles. Galerie des Batailles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This story is repeated uncritically in most biographies of Benavides, including some recent examples. Yet once again, there is no archival evidence it ever happened. Benavides\u2019s record and his own account of his services make it clear he was present at Villaviciosa, but there is no indication he performed any particularly heroic actions during the battle; moreover, there is no indication of his being injured or receiving a battlefield promotion to the rank of coronel<\/em> as C\u00f3logan and others following him have suggested. In fact, we know that Benavides was not promoted again, to the rank of exempto<\/em> (equivalent to that of coronel<\/em> in the regular army), until August 1714.[10]<\/a> And while we know that by then he had suffered \u2018a serious accident which made it difficult for him to be constantly on horseback\u2019,[11]<\/a> there is no indication he received this injury in battle.<\/p>\n Thus, the often repeated claims that Benavides served in Cuba and saved the life of Philip V at Villaviciosa, the origins of which we\u2019ve traced back to C\u00f3logan\u2019s biography, illustrate how the challenges historians face when retracing life trajectories come from more than lack of sources. Often, myths associated with the individuals we study can pose just as big an obstacle. We shouldn\u2019t forget that while secondary literature from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries may offer hints of where our \u2018Wallies\u2019 were hiding, they can also be deceiving. We shouldn\u2019t lose sight of the fact that C\u00f3logan\u2019s biography was written with the explicit aim of celebrating an \u2018illustrious son\u2019, whose merits and achievements are presented as a reflection of his homeland: the myth of Benavides, the hero, playing a central role in the war of the Spanish Succession and the consolidation of the Bourbon dynasty masks a desire to see the Canary islands as central to Spanish history. Similarly, in the nineteenth century, authors like Millares saw in Banavides\u2019s alleged Cuban sojourn a reminder of the Canaries\u2019 close links to Spain\u2019s last remaining colony. Thus, crossing a range of different sources \u2014digital and in hard copy, primary and secondary, military and literary\u2014 is crucial to the process of tracking the life trajectories of historical subjects. \u00a0Wally is not hiding in every corner of the internet coloured in red and white.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> (Guimer\u00e1 Peraza 1979) A similar migratory and commercial processes has been identified for the Portuguese case of Madeira, see (Hancock 2009)<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> (Real Torres 2015)<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> (Villanueva Jim\u00e9nez 2017)<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> (Millares 1878, 120\u201336)<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> AGMM Libro 88, f.86 v. \u2013 87. \u201cGrado de Caballer\u00eda de Antonio Benavides\u201d 19\/09\/1716<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> AGS, GM, Exp.Pers., L.7; AGI, Panama, 172, R.V, Doc. 109<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> (And\u00fajar Castillo 2004, 61\u201374)<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> (AGI, Panama, 172, Ramo V, Doc. 109)<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> (Kamen 2001)<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> (AGMM, Libro 88, ff. 86v-87)<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> (AGI, Panama, 172, Ramo V, Doc. 109)<\/p>\n And\u00fajar Castillo, Francisco. 2004. El sonido del dinero: monarqu\u00eda, ej\u00e9rcito y venalidad en la Espa\u00f1a del siglo XVIII<\/em>. Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia.<\/p>\n Guimer\u00e1 Peraza, Marcos. 1979. ‘Bernardo C\u00f3logan y Fallon (1772-1814)’. Anuario de Estudios Atl\u00e1nticos<\/em> 25. pp. 307-355.<\/p>\n Hancock, David. 2009. Oceans of Wine: Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste<\/em>. The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History. New Haven: Yale University Press.<\/p>\n Kamen, Henry. 2001. Philip V of Spain: the King who Reigned Twice<\/em>. New Haven: Yale University Press.<\/p>\n Miralles, Agust\u00edn. 1878. Biograf\u00edas de canarios c\u00e9lebres: hijos ilustres de las Islas Canarias<\/em>. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Imprenta de Francisco Mart\u00edn Gonz\u00e1lez. http:\/\/www.mdc.ulpgc.es\/u?\/MDC,182731.<\/p>\n Real Torres, Carolina. 2015. ‘Del humanismo a la Ilustraci\u00f3n: Bernardo C\u00f3logan Fallon’. In Humanismo y pervivencia del mundo cl\u00e1sico. V. Homenaje al Profesor Juan Gil<\/em>, ed. by J.M. Maestre Maestre, S.I. Ramos Maldonado, M.A. D\u00edaz Gito, et al. Alca\u00f1iz: Instituto de Estudios Humanisticos \/ CSIC. pp. \u00a02229\u201339.<\/p>\n Villanueva Jim\u00e9nez, Jes\u00fas. 2017. La Cruz de Plata<\/em>. Madrid: Libros Libres.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Connect Title” module_class=”footer-section” _builder_version=”3.0.90″ background_color=”#1d1d1d” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” prev_background_color=”#ffffff” global_module=”380″][et_pb_row global_parent=”380″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Contact Us Title” global_parent=”380″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_layout=”dark”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Contact Us” global_parent=”380″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_layout=”dark”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image global_parent=”380″ src=”https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/trajectories-of-reform\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/242\/2020\/05\/UKRI_AHR_Council-Logo_Horiz-RGBW.png” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Find Us Title” global_parent=”380″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_layout=”dark”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Find Us ” global_parent=”380″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_layout=”dark”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Connect Title” global_parent=”380″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_layout=”dark”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Social Media” global_parent=”380″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_code][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Where\u2019s Wally? Tracing the life-trajectory of Antonio de Benavides. Part 1 Pretty much anyone born since the 1980s (and their parents) is familiar with the practice of looking for Wally. Since Martin Handford published the first book in the popular series in 1987, children all around the world have spent countless hours looking for an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3228,"featured_media":2214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" Pretty much anyone born since the 1980s (and their parents) is familiar with the practice of looking for Wally. Since Martin Handford published the first book in the popular series in 1987, children all around the world have spent countless hours looking for an individual called by different names in different languages and parts of the world (Charlie in French, Walter in German, Ubaldo in Italian, Ali in Turkish, and, for some reason, Waldo in the US), but always dressed in iconic red and white stripes. In our way, us historians also spend hours looking for our own \u2018Wallies\u2019, searching for clues about where they were, what they were doing, who they were interacting with, and trying to understand the reasons behind their actions. Our \u2018Wally\u2019 this month was Antonio de Benavides, a Canarian soldier who fought in Flanders and the Iberian Peninsula, served as provincial governor in Florida, Veracruz and the Yucatan, and eventually returned to the Canary Islands to live out his retirement in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.<\/p> If finding Wally across the myriad scenes where he has been hidden over the last 32 years can be difficult, reconstructing Antonio de Benavides\u2019s trajectory over 84 years across both sides of the Spanish Atlantic has been equally challenging. The clues are scattered across are range of different archives (civil, notarial, ecclesiastical, libraries\u2019 special collections, etc), in various countries (Mexico, Spain, the United States), and at various administrative levels (municipal, provincial, and national). Finding Benavides has been made even more complicated by the current travel restrictions affecting many of the places where those archives are located. Consequently, this and our following post are dedicated to our experience of looking for Benavides online. As is often the case in Handford\u2019s books, our task was complicated by an abundance of false clues, myths about our \u2018Wally\u2019 that have become perpetuated over time.<\/p> In March 1795, the Sociedad Econ\u00f3mica de Amigos del Pa\u00eds<\/em> of Tenerife, a private association devoted to the economic and intellectual development of the island, invited the public to participate in a competition to see who could write the best commemorative account of Benavides\u2019s life. More than a year and a half later, the prize, an ounce of gold, was awarded to Bernardo C\u00f3logan y Fallon, the 24-year-old grandson of Irish immigrants who had made a fortune in the wine trade.[1]<\/a> C\u00f3logan, however, was more interested in literature and natural history than in his family\u2019s commercial enterprises.[2]<\/a> In fact, six years later, C\u00f3logan hosted Alexander von Humboldt in his house during the Prussian naturalist\u2019s visit to Tenerife. From C\u00f3logan, Humboldt obtained abundant information about the 1798 eruption of the Chahorra volcano, today\u2019s Pico Viejo<\/em>, the second highest mountain on the island. C\u00f3logan went on to become a prominent figure in Canarian politics and society. Eventually, his biography of Benavides became quite influential too.<\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_2207\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"240\"] Although it remained unpublished until the mid-nineteenth century, C\u00f3logan\u2019s manuscript was often referenced by Canarian historians. Fortunately, for our purposes, while the original manuscript hasn\u2019t been digitised, a printed version, published across eight issues of Santa Cruz\u2019s newspaper El Eco del Comercio<\/em> in 1857 is available online through the library of the Universidad de la Laguna<\/a>. Thanks in large part to C\u00f3logan\u2019s account, an image of Benavides as an illustrious son of Tenerife had developed within a few decades of his death and persists to this day: streets in Santa Cruz<\/a> and La Matanza<\/a> still bear his name; in 2012, a series of events were organised to mark the restoration of his tombstone by the municipal council and the local historical association of Santa Cruz, the Tertulia amigos del 25 de Abril<\/em><\/a>; and a couple of years later his life inspired a novel by Ceuta-born, but Tenerife-raised author Jes\u00fas Villanueva Jim\u00e9nez.[3]<\/a><\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_2208\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"] C\u00f3logan\u2019s biography, written thirty years after Benavide\u2019s death, is the earliest full account of our Wally\u2019s life. It is also full of fantastic episodes that have been tirelessly repeated by local historians and history enthusiasts since the nineteenth century; they have even made their way into Benavides\u2019s Wikipedia entry<\/a> and a myriad other digital sources<\/a>. During the last month, much of our work has focused on crossing these sources with archival evidence, some of it gathered before the onset of the pandemic, some found on digital repositories since, in an effort to corroborate or disprove the multiple threads that make up Benavides\u2019s heroic shroud.<\/p> C\u00f3logan tells us that his \u2018hero\u2019 -a man he describes repeatedly as \u2018honest \u2018, \u2018virtuous\u2019, \u2018affable\u2019, and \u2018fearless\u2019- was born in the small town of La Matanza de Acentejo, in Tenerife, on 8 December 1678 and we have no reason to doubt this. Although we have not been able to see the originals, we\u2019ve seen transcriptions of Benavides\u2019s baptismal and burial records which confirm this information. C\u00f3logan waxes lyrically about our Wally\u2019s childhood, the strength and ability he demonstrated from an early age, and retells a fanciful anecdote about how the young man impressed a military recruiter who helped him secure his father\u2019s permission to enlist in the Spanish armies as a cadete<\/em> and ship for Havana. This \u2018fact\u2019 is constantly repeated in later biographies, like Agust\u00edn Millares\u2019s, which asserts that Benavides was in Cuba from 1699 to 1703.[4]<\/a> Far from finding any evidence to corroborate this, all the information we have suggests Benavides did not cross the Atlantic westward before being appointed governor of Florida in 1717.[5]<\/a><\/p> Benavides\u2019 own account of his services to the Spanish crown and official records of his military career suggest that our \u2018Wally\u2019 left the Canary Islands in 1692, as a fourteen-year-old alf\u00e9rez<\/em>, to serve in the Spanish armies in Flanders. There, by 1703, he had reached the rank of teniente de infanter\u00eda<\/em>.[6]<\/a> Thus, instead of rising meteorically through the ranks, in a short four-years of service in Cuba, it took Benavides eleven years of service in Flanders to get promoted just once. While this might seem trivial, it is quite significant. The C\u00f3logan-Millares story suggests that Benavides was drafted into the army, aged 20, through his merits (and the promise the recruiting officer saw in him); moreover, by suggesting he enlisted as a cadete<\/em>, effectively a noble soldier, his biographers hint at an aristocratic ancestry (or equate his physical skills with nobility).[7]<\/a> By contrast, starting a career as alf\u00e9rez<\/em>, the lowest officer rank, aged just 14 and lacking any previous military experience, suggests Benavides\u2019s rank was probably purchased by this father; this would have been a common strategy for a family of well-off landowners without noble ancestry.<\/p> 1703, however, was unquestionably a watershed in Benavides\u2019s life. C\u00f3logan claims it was then that his regiment travelled back from Cuba to Madrid, where he gained access to the court and met Philip V. The king then \u2018came to know and esteem [Benavides], developing an affection for him he would feel from then onwards\u2019. The archival records, again, tell another story, suggesting 1703 started very differently for Benavides. Still serving in Flanders, he fought in the battle of \u2018Ecre\u2019 (sic, perhaps for Ekeren) where he was \u2018mortally\u2019 injured in the head.[8]<\/a> This, however, turned out to be a fortunate event as, within a few months, he had been transferred from his regiment to Philip V\u2019s newly created personal guard: the guardias de corps<\/em>.<\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_2206\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] With his new unit, Benavides saw plenty of action during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) and received a series of rapid promotions. Having joined the corps as a guardia<\/em>, a rank roughly equivalent to his previous one of teniente<\/em> in the regular armies, by 1705 he had been promoted to sub-brigadier<\/em> after serving in the campaigns in Portugal and Valencia. Between 1709 and 1710 he fought in the campaign of Catalonia, where Philip V often led his troops into battle, a practice that had earned him the moniker \u2018the brave\u2019.[9]<\/a> Benavides\u2019 actions at the siege of Tortosa, the battles of Zaragoza and Villaviciosa, and the siege of Campo Mayor, earned him a further promotion to the rank of brigadier<\/em> (equivalent to capit\u00e1n<\/em> in the regular armies).<\/p>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/trajectories-of-reform\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/242\/2020\/08\/\u2018Biograf\u00eda-del-Exmo.-Sor.-Dn.-Antonio-Benavides-escrita-por-Dn.-Bernardo-C\u00f3logan\u2026\u2019-El-Eco-del-Comercio-de-Sta.-Cruz-de-Tenerife-n\u00fameros-578-581-584-587-1857-1-300x131.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBenavides & the Fate of the Bourbon Spanish Empire<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/trajectories-of-reform\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/242\/2020\/08\/Soldiers-of-the-1st-Company-of-the-Royal-Guard-Corps-during-the-reign-of-Philip-V.-Anne-S.-K.-Brown-Military-Collection-Rhode-Island-USA.-1-300x159.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/trajectories-of-reform\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/242\/2020\/08\/Jean-Alaux.-Bataille-de-Villaviciosa.-10-decembre-1710-1836.-Palace-of-Versailles.-Galerie-des-Batailles.-1-300x261.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/li>\nWhere\u2019s Wally? Tracing the life-trajectory of Antonio de Benavides. Part 1<\/h1>
An \u2018Illustrious Son\u2019 of Volcanic Islands<\/h1>
Frontpage of the manuscript version of C\u00f3logan\u2019s \u2018Elogio del Exmo. Sor. Dn. Antonio Benavides\u2019, Municipal Library of Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Ms. 62. (Our thanks to Dr Ana P\u00e9rez \u00c1lvarez for the image).[\/caption] \u2018Biograf\u00eda del Exmo. Sor. Dn. Antonio Benavides escrita por Dn. Bernardo Cologan\u2026\u2019 [Biography of His Excellency Don Antonio Benavides, written by Don Bernardo Cologan\u2026], El Eco del Comercio de Sta. Cruz de Tenerife, numbers 578-581, 584-587, 1857.[\/caption]Benavides & the Fate of the Bourbon Spanish Empire<\/h1>
Soldiers of the 1st Company of the Royal Guard Corps during the reign of Philip V<\/a>. Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Rhode Island, USA.[\/caption]
![Soldiers of the 1st Company of the Royal Guard Corps during the reign of Philip V<\/a>. Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Rhode Island, USA.[\/caption]With his new unit, Benavides saw plenty of action during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) and received a series of rapid promotions. Having joined the corps as a guardia<\/em>, a rank roughly equivalent to his previous one of teniente<\/em> in the regular armies, by 1705 he had been promoted to sub-brigadier<\/em> after serving in the campaigns in Portugal and Valencia. Between 1709 and 1710 he fought in the campaign of Catalonia, where Philip V often led his troops into battle, a practice that had earned him the moniker \u2018the brave\u2019.[9]<\/a> Benavides\u2019 actions at the siege of Tortosa, the battles of Zaragoza and Villaviciosa, and the siege of Campo Mayor, earned him a further promotion to the rank of brigadier<\/em> (equivalent to capit\u00e1n<\/em> in the regular armies).<\/p>The battle of Villaviciosa, fought near Villaviciosa del Taju\u00f1a<\/a> on 10 December 1710, is often considered a turning point in the war. It is also the background to, perhaps, the biggest myth associated with Benavides. Although the battle itself was a marginal Bourbon victory, it secured Philip\u2019s conquest of Madrid and delivered a significant blow to the pro-Habsburg forces. Thus, it is not surprising that C\u00f3logan would use this event to link the fate of the Bourbon dynasty to the bravery of his Canarian hero.<\/p>](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:1st_Company_of_the_Spanish_Royal_Guard_Corps.jpg\"){kind=link}