Juan Miguel de Vives | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu |
| Born | c. 1745 |
| Died | 27 April 1809 (1809-04-28) Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain |
| Allegiance |  Kingdom of Spain |
| Branch | Infantry |
| Rank | Captain General |
| Battles / wars | |
| Other work | Governor ofMallorca |
Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu, in Catalan:Joan Miquel Vives i Feliu, (c. 1745 — 27 April 1809) was a Spanish general.
In 1794 he capably led a division against the French in theWar of the Pyrenees. He led his division at the battles ofBoulou andthe Black Mountain in the eastern Pyrenees.
In 1795,José de Urrutia, the captain general of Catalonia gave him the command of 20,000migueletes which, together with volunteers raised in Valencia by theMarquis of La Romana, expulsed the French forces fromCerdanya, in the Catalan Pyrenees.[1]
In 1796 he was appointed military governor ofCartagena, and in 1799 he was appointedCaptain General ofMallorca.[1]
On 30 June 1808, soon after the outbreak of the war, his second-in-command, theMarquis del Palacio, who had taken up the post of governor ofMinorca earlier that month,[2] joined the open mutiny of the Aragonese and Catalan battalions of the corps of 10,000 men stationed in theBalearic Islands, garrisoned at Majorca and Minorca, demanding to be transferred to Barcelona to take up arms against the French, finally set sail fromPort Mahon to mainland Spain.[3]
Vives had been reluctant to leave Port Mahon without troops due to his "deeply rooted idea"[3] that the English would once again take over Minorca, as they had done for the greater part of the 18th century. While the Aragonese regiment landed nearTortosa and marched for Saragossa, the bulk of the expeditionary force, nearly 5,000 strong, was put ashore in Catalonia between 19 and 23 July.[3] The Marquis del Palacio was appointedCaptain General of Catalonia shortly thereafter,[2] Vives having turned down the appointment in June.[1]
The following October, when the Marquis del Palacio was recalled for having lain idle at Tarragona all through September, the Central Junta again offered Vives the post,[4] which this time he accepted, taking up his new posting ten days after leaving Majorca. His predecessor, and former second-in-command of the Balearic Islands, the Marquis del Palacio then accused Vives of being aBonapartist.[1]
On 1 October 1808,Floridablanca signed the order for lieutenant generalReding to head urgently for Catalonia.[5]
At the beginning of November 1808, Vives's Army of Catalonia numbered 20,033 men, of which 780 are cavalry.[3] His divisions were led by Brigadier-GeneralÁlvarez (Vanguard Division); GeneralConde de Caldagues (1st Division); GeneralLaguna (2nd Division); GeneralLa Serna (3rd Division) and GeneralMilans (4th Division),[3] with another 15,000 troops of General Reding's Army of Granada marching towards Catalonia,[3] which would arrive towards the end of the month.[5]
Vives was in charge of theblockade of Barcelona and its French Imperial garrison led byGuillaume Philibert Duhesme. He failed to take vigorous action at Barcelona and was defeated by a second column of French troops underLaurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr at the battles ofCardadeu andMolins de Rey in December.[1]
On resigning his command,[5] Vives was replaced as captain general of Catalonia by Reding the following January,[5] Vives was appointed captain general of Old Castile, post he held at his death, the following year, atCiudad Rodrigo.[1]
When writing about hisPeninsular War service, historianDavid G. Chandler called Vives "an aged, overcautious, Anglophobic booby".[6]
