Melchior de Aymerich (

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, 5 January 1754 –

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, 11 August 1836) was a Spanish general and provincial administrator, serving as the last president of the

Royal Audience of Quito The of Quito (sometimes referred to as or ) was an administrative unit in the Spanish Empire which had political, military, and religious jurisdiction over territories that today include Ecuador, parts of northern Peru, parts of southern Colo ...

from April until May 1822.

Biography

He was the son of Brigadier Vicente d'Aymerich and Josefa Villajuana.
On 20 November 1762, he entered the Seville Infantry Regiment as a minor cadet and was promoted to second lieutenant on 17 April 1769. In 1775 he participated in the

Invasion of Algiers (1775) The invasion of Algiers was a massive and disastrous amphibious attempt in July 1775 by a combined Spanish and Tuscan force to capture the city of Algiers, the capital of the Deylik of Algeria. The amphibious assault was led by Spanish gene ...

, and was promoted to lieutenant on 14 February 1776.

Uruguay

That same year 1775, he took part in the Second Cevallos expedition to the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (; ), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda, Colonia, Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and ...

, distinguishing himself in the reconquest of

Colonia del Sacramento Colonia del Sacramento (; ) is a city in southwestern Uruguay, by the Río de la Plata, facing Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and the capital of the Colonia Department. As of the 2023 census, it has a populatio ...

on 30 May 1777.Real Academia de la Historia

Ceuta

He was promoted to captain on 9 August 1788, and served in the garrison of

between 1790 and 1792, assisting in its defense against the

Siege of Ceuta (1790–1791) The siege of Ceuta (1790–1791) was an armed confrontation between the Kingdom of Spain and the Sultanate of Morocco during the Spanish-Moroccan War of 1790–1791. The siege of this city was the central episode of this conflict. Siege On S ...

by the Moroccans.

France

Having received the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 16 April 1792, he was assigned to the army of Roussillon, fighting the French Republicans in the

War of the Pyrenees The War of the Pyrenees, also known as War of Roussillon or War of the Convention, was the Pyrenees, Pyrenean front of the First Coalition's war against the First French Republic. It pitted Revolutionary France against the kingdoms of History ...

. In 1793, he saw action in Palua, Argeles, Villelongue and Banyuls-les-Aspres. The following year he participated in the

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

of Boulou on 30 April, but was taken prisoner when the

Fort de Bellegarde The ''Fort de Bellegarde'' (''Fort'' or ''Castell de Bellaguarda / Bellaguàrdia'' in Catalan) is a 17th-century bastion fortification located above the town of ''Le Perthus'', in the Pyrénées-Orientales ''département'' of southern France. Hi ...

surrendered on 18 September 1794. After regaining his freedom, he received the rank of Colonel on 4 September 1795 and returned to Ceuta, where he served from 1797 to 1800.
He married Josefa Espinosa de los Monteros in

Algeciras Algeciras () is a city and a municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of G ...

on 27 September 1802.

Ecuador

On 1 May 1802, he was appointed Governor of the Cuenca Province in the Real Audiencia de Quito, taking office on 19 November 1803 and where he would remain until 1819. In 1809, he held the interim Presidency of the Real Audiencia de Quito and helped crush the Quito Revolution (1809-1812) in 1811-1812. Promoted to Mariscal de Campo on 20 June 1813, he replaced

Juan de Sámano Juan José Francisco de Sámano y Uribarri de Rebollar y Mazorra (1753 in Selaya, Cantabria – July 1821 in Panama), was a Spanish military officer and the last viceroy of Viceroyalty of New Granada, New Granada from March 9, 1818 to August 9, 1 ...

as Commander of the Northern Army the following year, and defeated

Nariño's Southern Campaign The Nariño Southern Campaign was a series of military actions between December 1813 and May 1814, under command of Antonio Nariño, leader of the Republican State of Cundinamarca, against Spanish forces in the south of New Granada. It had the ...

, taking Republican commander

Antonio Nariño Antonio Amador José de Nariño y Álvarez del Casal (April 9, 1765 – December 13, 1823),Hector, M., and A. Ardila. Hombres y mujeres en las letras de Colombia. 2. Bogota: Magisterio, 2008. 25. Print. was a Colombian ideological wiktionary:p ...

prisoner in

Pasto, Colombia Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto (; "Saint John of Pasto"), is the capital of the department of Nariño, in southern Colombia. Pasto was founded in 1537 and named after indigenous people of the area. In the 2018 census, the municipality ...

, on 10 May 1814. He continued in his government of Cuenca, again temporarily occupying the Presidency of the Real Audiencia de Quito from 1819 to 1821. In that last year he had to face the troops of Patriot General

Antonio José de Sucre Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá (; 3 February 1795 – 4 June 1830), known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" (), was a Venezuelan general and politician who served as the president of Bolivia from 1825 to 1828. A close friend and associate ...

, whom he first defeated in the

Second Battle of Huachi The Second Battle of Huachi was a confrontation that occurred on 12 September 1821 between pro-independence troops led by General Antonio José de Sucre and Royalist troops led by General Melchor Aymerich, president of the Real Audiencia of Quit ...

(12 September), but was himself later completely defeated in the

Battle of Pichincha The Battle of Pichincha took place on 24 May 1822, on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, 3,500 meters above sea-level, right next to the city of Quito, in modern Ecuador. The encounter, fought in the context of the Spanish American wars of ...

on 24 May 1822, immediately capitulating. Batalla de Pichincha libre

Cuba

He was expelled from Ecuador and sent to Cuba, where he was appointed sub-inspector of the troops of the island of Cuba in November 1824, a position he held until his promotion to Lieutenant General on 27 August 1834, when he retired. His offspring stayed in Cuba.

References

* Dupuy, Trevor N. ''The

Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography ''The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography'' () was written by Trevor N. Dupuy, Curt Johnson and David Bongard, and was issued in 1992 by HarperCollins Publishers. It contains more than three thousand short biographies of military figures ...

''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1992. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aymerich, Melchior 1754 births 1836 deaths Spanish generals 1822 in Ecuador People of the Spanish American wars of independence