Felix María Calleja del Rey

Felix María Calleja del Rey, cop of Calderón (November 1st 1753 with Medina del Campo, Spain - July 24th 1828 with Valencia, Spain) was an officer of the Spanish army and Vice-roi of News-Spain of March 4th 1813 at September 20th 1816, at the time of the Guerre of independence of Mexico.

Before the insurrection of 1810

The captain Calleja del Rey accompanies Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas there Aguayo, count de Revillagigedo in News-Spain in 1789, when Güemes takes its functions of Viceroy there. Calleja becomes commander of a brigade of infantry with San Luis Potosí. Under the Viceroy Miguel Jose de Azanza it fights with Indian force and cruelty to subject the . It also fights the Anglo-American Flibustier S which attacked the remote and soon abandoned Spanish territory of the Texas. Among the officers under its orders some Ignacio Allende will become later a hero of the Guerre of independence of Mexico.

Calleja marries Al Francisca Gánara, a creole rich person owner of the hacienda of Bledos.

General in the war against the insurrectionists

With the Grito de Dolores of Miguel Hidalgo the September 16th 1810, holding of independence appear everywhere in News-Spain. In one month the big cities of the center fall to the hands from the rebels - Celaya (September 21st), Guanajuato (September 28th), Zacatecas (October 7th), Valladolid (October 17th) and Guadalajara (November 11th).

To Goes up of mow Cruces, with the doors of Mexico City, 80 000 insurgent ordered by Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende demolishes the royalists the October 30th 1810. It is panic in Mexico City. Against any waiting, in one moment of apparent indecision, the Hidalgo Father orders reprocesses it towards Vallodalid. Today still one is not explained the reasons of his decision.

After the retirement of the insurrectionists, Venegas orders in Calleja to assist from the capital since San Luis Potosí. In its walk of Querétaro in Mexico City, Calleja meets the insurrectionists in the plains of San Jerónimo Aculco, where it demolishes them and the ten-per-cent tax on November 7th. Another group of rebels takes Guadalajara on November 11th. Calleja takes again Guanajuato on November 25th and Guadalajara the January 21st 1811.

Calleja again demolishes the insurrectionists at the time of the battle of Puente de Calderón the January 17th 1811. The rebels are about to gain the victory when a grenade explodes a coach of ammunition in their camp, throwing confusion. The royalists draw advantage and put in rout the insurrectionists from it. Part of the rebels manages to make retirement towards north where, they hope, they will obtain a moral and material help on behalf of the United States.

However the rebellious principal leaders - Hidalgo, Allende, Juan Aldama, Jiménez and Abasolo - are made prisoners with Acatita de Baján the March 21st 1811. They are sent to Chihuahua, where, the July 26th 1811 Allende, Aldama and Jiménez are shot for treason. Hidalgo is shot the July 30th 1811. Abasolo is condemned to the prison with perpetuity, it will die in Cadiz in 1816.

The troop of 4.000 men of Calleja becomes the heart of the Ejército del Centro (armed with the center) which fought Hidalgo, Ignacio López Rayón and the father Jose María Morelos.

Calleja is withdrawn in Mexico City after 58 days the unfruitful seat in Morelos in the Cuautla. In its residence it receives those of the royalists dissatisfied with the incapacity of the Viceroy with éradiquer the insurrection. The Audiencia and other Spanish partisans will complain near the Junta about Cadiz.

Viceroy

Calleja receives its nomination with the replacement of Venegas like Vice-roi the January 28th 1813, but it will take its station only the next on March 4th. Its initial evaluation of the businesses of the State is hardly encouraging. The cases of the government are empty and it is involved in debt. More than two million pesos are due to the troops. Certain units do not have any more uniforms or boots. The armament is in bad condition and one misses horses.

With the energy which characterizes it, it makes any possible sound to cure the situation. It confiscates the properties of the Inquisition which was abolished by the Constitution of 1812. He requests a loan of two million pesos near the commercial sector. He leases the Alcabala (tax on the sales). He reorganizes the public treasury and sets up a very strict accountancy of the incomes and expenditure of the viceroyalty. He restores the trade and the postal service which had been stopped by the insurrectionists.

With the money which it raises, it forms a powerful army, equipped well, paid and disciplined.

In second half of 1813, an epidemic fever kills out of tens of thousands of inhabitants. Morelos takes Acapulco the April 20th 1813. The November 6th 1813, the rebellious congress of Anáhuac meets in Chilpancingo and proclaims the independence of Mexico. The October 22nd 1814, the rebellious congress of Apatzingán proclaims a Constitution.

In Spain, Ferdinand VII goes up on the throne and repeals the constitution of Cadiz the May 14th 1814, restores the government institutions such as in 1808 and the Enquiry by a decree of the July 21st 1814. The May 19th 1816, it also authorizes the return of the Jesuits to Mexico.

Calleja exiled many insurrectionists in Cuba and now starts to off-set them towards the Filipino . With the capture and the execution of Morelos the December 22nd 1815, the insurrection seems breathless. But soon it reappears with the revolt of Vicente Guerrero in the south. Calleja controls then as a true dictator.

The Viceroy is determined, without scruple and cruel, it tolerates the exactions of its subordinates when they serve his goals. It east fears but also haï, even sometimes by certain royalists. They blame its brutal methods to have generated more rebellion after death of Morelos. The complaints against its dictatorial methods arrive to Cadiz and, the September 20th 1816, it is raised of its functions.

Return in Spain

It returns to Spain where it is seen rewarded by the title for cop for Calderón and Grand Crosses of Isabel the Catholic and San Hermenegildo. He is commander of Andalusia and governor of Cadiz, then charged to organize a forwarding towards America. The weather will be captive Rafael Riego, a rebel with Ferdinand VII.

He is commander of Valence when he dies in 1828.

Sources

"Calleja del Rey, Felix María, " Enciclopedia of Mexico City , v. 2. Mexico City City: 1987.
García Puron, Handbook, Mexico City known there gobernantes , v. 1. Mexico City City: Joaquín Porrua, 1984.
Orozco L., Fernando, Fechas Históricas of Mexico City . Mexico City City: Leading panorama, 1988.
Orozco Linares, Fernando, Gobernantes of Mexico City . Mexico City City: Leading panorama, 1985.

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