Dos De Mayo Uprising
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The ''Dos de Mayo'' or Second of May Uprising took place in
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
, Spain, on 2–3 May 1808. The rebellion, mainly by civilians, with some isolated military action by
junior officer Junior officer, company officer or company grade officer refers to the lowest operational commissioned officer category of ranks in a military or paramilitary organization, ranking above non-commissioned officers and below senior officers. D ...
s, was against the occupation of the city by French troops, and was violently repressed by the French Imperial forces, with hundreds of public executions.


Background

The city had been under the occupation of
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
's army since 23 March of the same year. King Charles IV had been forced by the Spanish people during the
Tumult of Aranjuez The Tumult of Aranjuez (), also known as the Mutiny of Aranjuez, was an uprising led against King Charles IV that took place in the town of Aranjuez, Spain, on 17–19 March 1808. The event, which is celebrated annually in the first week of S ...
to abdicate in favor of his son Ferdinand VII, and at the time of the uprising both were in the French city of
Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...
at the insistence of Napoleon. An attempt by the French general
Joachim Murat Joachim Murat ( , also ; ; ; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French Army officer and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the military titles of Marshal of the ...
to move Charles IV's
daughter A daughter is a female offspring; a girl or a woman in relation to her parents. Daughterhood is the state, condition or quality of being someone's daughter. The male counterpart is a son. Analogously the name is used in several areas to show r ...
and her children along with his
youngest son The youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the third son, but sometimes there are more brothers, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters. In a family of many daughters, ...
to Bayonne sparked a rebellion.


Social aspects

The ''Dos de Mayo'' was among the few spontaneous popular uprisings of the war, launched without significant fore-planning, funding, or leadership by government elites. While elements within the Spanish military and state bureaucracy did envision military action to expel the French from the country, Murat's hold on Madrid was held to be unassailable in the short term. The two most senior uniformed leaders involved in the ''Dos de Mayo'', Daoíz and Velarde y Santillán, were caught unprepared by the actions of the laboring poor: Velarde, a 28-year-old artillery captain, was secretly plotting a campaign elsewhere in the country, but considered a direct attack on the Spanish capital impractical – drawn to the sound of gunfire, he joined the fighting contrary to his own military instinct, and would perish leading the defense of the Monteleón artillery barracks.


Beginning of the uprising

On 2 May a crowd began to gather in front of the Royal Palace in Madrid. Those gathered entered the palace grounds in an attempt to prevent the removal of Francisco de Paula. Marshal Murat sent a battalion of grenadiers from the Imperial Guard to the palace along with
artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...
detachments. The latter opened fire on the assembled crowd, and the rebellion began to spread to other parts of the city. What followed was street fighting in different areas of Madrid as the poorly armed population confronted the French troops. Marshal Murat had quickly moved the majority of his troops into the city and there was heavy fighting around the Puerta del Sol and the Puerta de Toledo. Murat imposed martial law in the city and assumed full control of the administration. Little by little, the French regained control of the city, and many hundreds of people died in the fighting. The painting by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, '' The Charge of the Mamelukes'', portrays the street fighting that took place. The Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard fighting residents of Madrid in the Puerta del Sol, wearing turbans and using curved scimitars, provoked memories of
Muslim Spain Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...
when
Arabs Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...
had ruled Spain. There were Spanish troops stationed in the city, but they remained confined to barracks. The only Spanish troops to disobey orders were from the artillery units at the
barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...
of Monteleón, who joined the uprising. Two officers of these troops,
Luis Daoíz y Torres Captain Luis Daoiz y Torres (10 February 1767 – 2 May 1808) was a Spanish Army officer who was one of the leaders of the Dos de Mayo Uprising which resulted in the outbreak of the Spanish War of Independence. His surname was derived from the ...
and Pedro Velarde y Santiyán are still commemorated as heroes of the rebellion. Both died during the French assault of the barracks, as the rebels were reduced by vastly superior numbers.


Impact of the uprising

The repression following the crushing of the initial rebellion was harsh. Marshal Murat created a military commission on the evening of 2 May to be presided over by General Grouchy. This commission issued death sentences to all of those captured who were bearing weapons of any kind. In a statement issued that day Murat said: "The population of Madrid, led astray, has given itself to revolt and murder. French blood has flowed. It demands vengeance. All those arrested in the uprising, arms in hand, will be shot." All public meetings were prohibited and an order was issued requiring all weapons to be handed in to the authorities. Hundreds of prisoners were executed the following day, a scene captured in a famous painting by Goya, '' The Third of May 1808''. As the French had been attacked with a variety of improvised weapons, any craftsmen found with shearing scissors, kitchen knives, sewing needles, or other tools of their trade were summarily shot. Only a handful of
French-speaking French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...
''madrileños'' were able to avoid execution by pleading in words intelligible to their executioners. That same day, in the nearby town of
Móstoles Móstoles () is a municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. With over 200,000 inhabitants, it is the region's second most populated municipality after Madrid. Móstoles was a small town for a long time, but ...
, news of the repression prompted Juan Pérez Villamil, who was secretary of the Admiralty and prosecutor of the Supreme War Council, to encourage the mayors of the town, Andrés Torrejón and Simón Hernández, to sign a
declaration of war A declaration of war is a formal act by which one state announces existing or impending war activity against another. The declaration is a performative speech act (or the public signing of a document) by an authorized party of a national gov ...
calling on all Spaniards to rise up against the invaders. The name of this declaration was "Bando de los alcaldes de Móstoles" or "bando de la Independencia", which means "Edict of the Independence."


Analysis

The ''Dos de Mayo'' Uprising, together with the subsequent proclamation of Napoleon's brother
Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...
as king led to a rebellion against French rule. While the French occupiers hoped that their rapid suppression of the uprising would demonstrate their control of Spain, the rebellion actually gave considerable impetus to the resistance. The uprising and subsequent revolts leading to the Peninsular War have sometimes been compared to the
War in the Vendée The War in the Vendée () was a counter-revolutionary insurrection that took place in the Vendée region of French First Republic, France from 1793 to 1796, during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately so ...
, as it shared some similarities in that both were counterrevolutionary uprisings ("the common people's Baroque victory over the Enlightenment", in the words of historian Ronald Fraser). However, the Spanish revolts originated amongst urban populations rather than the rural peasantry and were spread nationally instead of just being concentrated in one region, as well as being aimed to restore a popular king. The revolt also depended upon cross-class appeal, with the labouring classes willing to fight on the insistence that the nobility and clergy likewise enlisted into military service.Fraser, Ronald. ''Napoleon’s Cursed War: Spanish Popular Resistance in the Peninsular War, 1808-14''. Verso Books, 2023, p. 106.


Aftermath

The ''Dos de Mayo'' Uprising put Iberia in revolt against French rule starting with the Action of Valdepeñas. The Invasion of Portugal had started with the occupation of Lisbon in 1807. But the ''Dos de Mayo'' Uprising started a rebellion in Portugal with the Combat of Padrões de Teixeira. The British intervention started with the Battle of Roliça led by Wellington. The Spanish conventional warfare started with the Battles of El Bruch. Napoleon started his invasion of Spain with the Battle of Zornoza.


Commemoration

The Second of May is now a public holiday in the
Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...
. The place where the artillery barracks of Monteleón was located is now a square called the Plaza del Dos de Mayo, and the district surrounding the square is known as Malasaña in memory of one of the heroines of the revolt, the teenager Manuela Malasaña, who was executed by French troops in the aftermath of the revolt. Several memorials to the heroes of 2 May are located around Madrid, including the Monumento a los Caídos por España (Monument to those who fell to their deaths for Spain). The name of the
Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy, officially the Armada, is the Navy, maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation ...
screw frigate , in commission from 1863 to 1884, although literally meaning simply "City of Madrid", was chosen with the intention of honoring the role of the people of Madrid in the ''Dos de Mayo'' Uprising.


Notes


References

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See also

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Timeline of the Peninsular War The following tables show the sequence of events of the Peninsular War (1807–1814), including major battles, smaller actions, uprisings, sieges and other related events that took place during that period.Also included are naval actions which had ...


Further reading

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External links


A Spanish language account of the events


{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Dos de Mayo'' Uprising 19th-century rebellions Conflicts in 1808 Battles of the Peninsular War involving Spain Rebellions in Spain Military history of Madrid 1808 in Spain May observances 19th century in Madrid May 1808 Massacres in Spain Joachim Murat Massacres committed by France French war crimes in Spain Massacres in 1808 19th-century mass murder in Spain Mass murder in Madrid