Irlanda Regiment (Spain)
The Irlanda Regiment (''Regimiento "Irlanda"'') was one of the three Irish regiments in the service of the Spanish crown during the 18th and 19th centuries, its sister regiments being the Ultonia Regiment and the Hibernia Regiment. Background The three "Irish" regiments, like other units before them, such as the Irish Tercio (''Tercio de irlandeses''), also known as the Irish Brigade,Not to be confused with Irish Brigade of the French Royal Army, formed in May 1690, and also composed of Irish exiles, led by Lord Mountcashel, nor with France's Irish Legion, which also saw much action during the Peninsular War. which was raised in 1605 by Henry O'Neill to be incorporated into Spain's Army of Flanders,. Mesa Gallego, Eduardo de (2020)'Soldiers of 'nations' for the Army of Flanders: the Irish Tercio, 1605–1620". ''Cuadernos de Historia Moderna'', 45(1), 2020: 145–175.Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Accessed 22 March 2025. were raised from among the thousands of young Iris ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Irish Legion
The Irish Legion () was a light infantry regiment in service of the French Imperial Army established in 1803 for an anticipated invasion of Ireland. It was later expanded to a four battalions and a depot, the legion won distinction in the Walcheren Expedition, the Peninsular War, and the German campaign of 1813. Following the disbandment of the foreign regiments in 1815, the regiment's personnel were distributed. Establishment The first officers included members of the Society of United Irishmen who had fled to France in 1797. It also included Irishmen who had been taken during the 1798 rebellion who were freed during the short peace effected by the Treaty of Amiens on condition of exile, and who had sailed for France in June 1802. The treaty broke down in May 1803 with the start of the War of the Third Coalition. As a part of Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom in 1803–05, the Irish Legion was to provide the indigenous core for a much larger invasion force of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alejandro O'Reilly
Alejandro O'Reilly, 1st Count of O'Reilly, KOA (; October 24, 1723 in Baltrasna, County Meath, Ireland – March 23, 1794 in Bonete, Spain), English: Alexander, Count of O'Reilly, Irish: ''Alastar Ó Raghallaigh, ''was an Irish-born military reformer and Inspector-General of Infantry for the Spanish Empire in the second half of the 18th century. O'Reilly served as the second Spanish governor of colonial Louisiana, and is the first Spanish official to exercise power in the Louisiana territory after France ceded it to Spain following defeat by Great Britain in the Seven Years' War. For his much appreciated services to the Crown of Spain, O'Reilly was ennobled as a ''conde de O'Reilly'' (Count of O'Reilly), and granted a coat of arms. He fell out of favour after his calamitous failed attempt at the Invasion of Algiers. Origins and military career Alexander O'Reilly ( Irish: Ó Raghallaigh) was born in Baltrasna, County Meath, in the Kingdom of Ireland in 1723. His grandfathe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Somosierra
The Battle of Somosierra took place on 30 November 1808, during the Peninsular War, when a combined Franco- Napoleonic Spanish- Polish force under the direct command of Napoleon I forced a passage through a Spanish division stationed at the Sierra de Guadarrama, which shielded Madrid from direct French attack. At the Somosierra mountain pass, north of Madrid, a heavily outnumbered Spanish detachment of regulars, volunteers and artillery under Benito de San Juan attempted to block Napoleon's advance onto Madrid. Napoleon overwhelmed the Spanish positions in a combined arms attack, sending the Polish '' Chevau-légers'' of the Imperial Guard at the Spanish guns while French infantry advanced up the slopes. The victory removed the last obstacle barring the road to Madrid, which fell a few days later. Background French invasion of Spain had started with the Battle of Zornoza. By late November 1808 the French ''Grande Armée'' had overwhelmed and destroyed both wings of th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Benito De San Juan
Benito de San Juan (1727 – 7 January 1809) was a Spanish military officer and a notable commander of the Spanish forces during the Peninsular War. He was commanding officer of the Spanish forces at the Battle of Somosierra. Career Benito de San Juan started his military career as a Lieutenant Colonel of the hussars of Estremadura during the War of the Oranges (1801). Noticed by Manuel Godoy, he was promoted to colonel and in 1802 was named commander of Godoy's personal guard. He was promoted to Brigadier followed by his promotion in 1805 to the rank of ''Mariscal'' (field marshal). He then became general inspector of Spanish infantry and line cavalry. During the Peninsular War, he assumed command over some 12,000 troops, defending the passes of Guadarrama, Fonfría, Navacerrada and Somosierra in the mountain range to the north of Madrid. Knowing the weakness of his forces, much inferior to the French army (considered the best fighting force of its time), he prepared a plan of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Theodor Von Reding
Field Marshal Theodor von Reding (5 July 1755 – 23 April 1809) was a Spanish Army officer who served as the Captain General of Catalonia in 1809. Biography Reding was born in Schwyz, Switzerland, to Theodor Anton Reding and Magdalena Freuler. His father was a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish Army, and both of Reding's brothers, Alois and Nazar, also served in the Spanish army. He joined the Spanish Army at age 14, and was promoted to captain in 1772, to lieutenant-colonel in 1781, and to colonel of a Swiss regiment in 1788. He led troops against the French in Navarre and the Basque Country during the War of the Pyrenees, a theatre of the French Revolutionary Wars, and was wounded in action multiple times. Promoted to brigadier in 1793 and to field marshal in 1795, Reding fought in the War of the Oranges against Portugal. At the outbreak of the Peninsular War in 1808, Reding was Governor of Málaga. In July 1808 he fought under General Castaños at the Battle of Bailé ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Bailén
The Battle of Bailén was fought in 1808 between the Spanish Army's Army of Andalusia, under General Francisco Javier Castaños and the French Imperial Army's 2nd Gironde Observational Corps under Divisional-General Pierre Dupont de l'Étang. The first open-field defeat of a Napoleonic army, the battle's heaviest fighting took place near Bailén (sometimes anglicized as ''Baylen''), a village by the Guadalquivir river in the Jaén province of southern Spain. In June 1808, following the widespread uprisings against the French occupation of Spain, Napoleon organized French units into flying columns to pacify Spain's major centres of resistance. One column under Dupont was dispatched across the Sierra Morena and south through Andalusia towards the port of Cádiz where a French naval squadron lay at the mercy of the Spanish. The Emperor was confident that with 20,000 men, Dupont would crush any opposition encountered on the way, despite most of them being inexperienced new ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Francisco Javier Castaños, 1st Duke Of Bailén
Francisco Javier Castaños Aragorri, 1st Duke of Bailén (24 September 1758 – 22 April 1852) was a Spanish Army officer, politician and nobleman who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He presided over the Regency Council of Spain and the Indies ('' de facto'' head of state), in 1810. From July to September 1834, Castaños served as the first president of the Senate of Spain, at that time called the House of Peers. Castaños is remembered for his victory over the French under Dupont, whom he surrounded and compelled to surrender at the decisive Battle of Bailen in 1808, where the Napoleonic army was defeated in the open field for the first time and which led to King Joseph having to abandon Madrid at the end of that same month. Just months later he led his army to a decisive defeat at the Battle of Tudela. After this he served under Wellington in several engagements, and was commander of the Spanish army, if required, to invade France in 1815. In ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of books or individual stories in the public domain. All files can be accessed for free under an open format layout, available on almost any computer. , Project Gutenberg had reached over 75,999 items in its collection of free eBooks. The releases are available in plain text as well as other formats, such as HTML, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and Plucker wherever possible. Most releases are in the English language, but many non-English works are also available. There are multiple affiliated projects that provide additional content, including region- and language-specific works. Project Gutenberg is closely affiliated with Distributed Proofreaders, an Internet-based community for proofr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charles Oman
Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman, (12 January 1860 – 23 June 1946) was a British Military history, military historian. His reconstructions of medieval battles from the fragmentary and distorted accounts left by chroniclers were pioneering. Early life Oman was born in Muzaffarpur district, India, the son of a British planter, and was educated at Winchester College and at the University of Oxford, where he studied under William Stubbs. Here, he was invited to become a founding member of the Stubbs Society, which was under Stubbs's patronage. Career In 1881 he was elected to a Prize Fellowship at All Souls College, where he remained for the rest of his academic career. He was elected the Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1905, in succession to Montagu Burrows. He was also elected to the British Academy, FBA that year, and served as president of the Royal Historical Society (1917–1921), the Numismatic Society and the Royal Archaeological Institute. Among hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. The war can be said to have started when the First French Empire, French and History of Spain (1808–1874), Spanish armies Invasion of Portugal (1807), invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807 by transiting through Kingdom of Spain (1810-1873), Spain, but it escalated in 1808 after First French Empire, Napoleonic France occupied History of Spain (1808–1874), Spain, which had been its ally. Napoleon Bonaparte Abdications of Bayonne, forced the abdications of Ferdinand VII of Spain, Ferdinand VII and his father Charles IV of Spain, Charles IV and then installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne and promulgated the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Henry O'Donnell, 1st Count Of La Bisbal
Enrique José O'Donnell y Anatar, conde de La Bisbal or (English: Henry Joseph O'Donnell) (1769 – 17 May 1834) was a Spanish general of Irish descent who fought in the Peninsular War. Biography O'Donnell was born in San Sebastián, a descendant of the Irish noble dynasty of O'Donnell of Tyrconnell who left Ireland after the Battle of the Boyne, A member of the branch of the family that settled in Austria, General Karl O'Donnell Count of Tyrconnell (1715–1771), held important commands during the Seven Years' War. His father was Joseph O'Donnell y O'Donnell (1722–1787), Colonel of the Spanish Infantry Regiment of Ireland, Lieutenant General of the Spanish Army, and his mother was Mariana de Anethan y Mareshal, of Luxemburg. Born in Spain, he early entered the Spanish army, fighting in 1793–1795 in the Convention War, and in 1810 became general, receiving a command in Catalonia, where in that year he earned his title and the rank of field-marshal. While fighting agains ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charles O'Donnell (Spanish General)
Carlos Manuel O'Donnell y Anhetan, also known as Charles O'Donnell (1772–1830), was a Spanish general of Irish descent who commanded Spanish troops against Imperial France during the Peninsular War. Family His father was Joseph O'Donnell the elder. Carlos's five brothers all fought in Spain's armies, and two of them, like Carlos, were also generals; Enrique (Henry) O'Donnell, 1st Count of la Bisbal and José. His son, Leopoldo O'Donnell, would also become a general and was prime minister of Spain on three occasions between 1856 and 1866. Early career In 1777, he joined the Regimiento de Irlanda as an under-age cadet at the age of five before going on to join the Regiment of Hibernia. O'Donnell, Hugo"Carlos Manuel O'Donnell y Anhetan".''Diccionario Biográfico electrónico''. Real Academia de la Historia. Retrieved 14 February 2023. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1787 and for much of 1790 participated in operations to suppress the '' bandoleros''. Peninsular Wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |