Spanish soldier and politician, born in Manila in 1832. He early saw service in Spain during the mutinous outbreaks in Isabella’s reign (1854–56) and was next sent to Cuba and on a special mission to Mexico, later belonging to the expeditionary army against that country. He was promoted colonel in 1866 and entered the Ministry of War. He was employed by the Spanish republican Government of 1868 as chief of staff at Cartagena and later of the army of the North. After the accession of Alphonso XII. he became field marshal and Under-Secretary for War. He sat as deputy for Morella in the first restoration Parliament. In 1885 he was elected senator for Navarre and was Minister for War under Cánovas (1891–92) and again in 1895, becoming head of the Cabinet in 1897 after Cánovas’s assassination. In September 1904 he retired from the army at the age of seventy with the rank of general, and in December of that year was again for a few weeks prime minister. Throughout his political career he was associated with the Conservatives but took little part in party struggles. He died on the 30th of May 1915.
