Juan Van Halen
Encyclopedia
Isla de León
Isla de León is a historical name for the piece of land between the city of Cádiz and the Spanish peninsula.In 1813 it was renamed San Fernando in honour of King Fernando VII of Spain for his courage in the defense of the city during the Siege of Cádiz by the French....
, Cadiz, Spain, 16 February 1788 - El Puerto de Santa María, Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, Spain, 8 November 1864, aged 76), was a Spanish military and liberal from Flemish ancestors, and Colonel in a Russian Caucasus Dragoon's Regiment for 18 months, until his removal by Tsar Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
.
Aged 15, he traveled in 1803 from Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
on the frigate "Anfitrite" as a Spanish Navy
Spanish Navy
The Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...
Cadet to La Habana, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, and Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Although he seems to have played a certain role at the events in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
of 2 May 1808, marking the beginning of the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
, till Madrid surrendered to Napoleonic Marechal Jean de Dieu Soult, (9 March 1769 -26 November 1851), Van Halen soon entered in the service of the French King of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily , and later King of Spain...
, leaving with him when King Jose took refuge in France around 1813.
On his return to Spain in 1815 Captain Van Halen was investigated about his undergoings during the Spanish Independence War and put in prison on 21 March 1817, first in Murcia, and later in Madrid, because of his connections with a Granada Masonic Lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
. He was also acquinted also with the later by a firing squad executed Liberal General José María de Torrijos y Uriarte.
Escaping from prison he traveled to Russia around the beginning of 1819, visiting in Saint Petersburg, between other Russian dignitaries, Prince Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky
Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky
Knyaz/ Prince Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky ) , Russian military commander, General-Field Marshal , Adjutant General to Alexander I, member of the State Council , His Serene Highness Knyaz/Prince .Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky was born in Saint Petersburg in 1776...
, (1776 - 1852), close advisor to Tsar Alexander I, Chief General Staff (1815–1823), etc., who resigned in 1824 after a conflict with the rather despotic War Minister Count Alexey Arakcheyev, (1769–1834).
He also visited the Tsar Assistant, Prince Dmitriy Vladimirovich Golitsyn
Dmitriy Vladimirovich Golitsyn
Serene Prince Dmitriy Vladimirovich Golitsyn was a Russian cavalry general prominent during the Napoleonic Wars, statesman and military writer....
, (1771–1844), who fought bravely during the Napoleonic wars, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and governed Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
for 25 years.
He also visited famous Engineer from the Spanish Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
Agustín de Betancourt
Agustín de Betancourt
Agustín de Betancourt y Molina was a prominent Spanish-Canarian engineer, who worked in Spain, France and Russia. His work ranged from steam engines and balloons to structural engineering and urban planning...
y Molina, (Puerto de la Cruz
Puerto de la Cruz
Puerto de la Cruz is a city and municipality located in Spain, on the north coast of Tenerife island, in the Orotava Valley...
, Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
, España, 1758 - Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, 1824), then the Director and one of the founders of the First Engineering Academy School of Russia. Supported by Betancourt, who was trusted by other Russian military leaders , Van Halen was appointed as Caucasus Dragoon's Regiment Colonel in Tblisi, Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
.
His Head Officers were them, among others, Generals Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov
Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov
Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov , or Ermolov , was a Russian Imperial general of the 19th century who commanded Russian troops in the Caucasus War.-Early life:...
and Armenian Prince Valerian Madatov
Valerian Madatov
Prince Valerian Grigoryevich Madatov was an Armenian prince and a lieutenant-general of the Russian Empire.-Early life:...
, participating in the conquest of Josereck on 21 June 1820, against the troops of Surghai Khan, replaced by Ashan Khan, in the region of Kazikoumik in Daghestan. For this he received the medal of the Russian Order of St. George
Order of St. George
The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George (also known as Order of St. George the Triumphant, Russian: Военный орден Св...
.
Juan Van Halen gave in in 1854 the tartar Yatagan
Yatagan
The yatagan or yataghan is a type of Ottomanknife or short sabre used from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries....
long knife he took on 12 June 1820 to the Naval Museum of Madrid.
His liberal political convictions prompted the Tsar Secret Police to inform the Tsar, who in december 1820 removed Van Halen from the Caucasus and put him on the Austrian frontier.
in 1821 he returned to Spain which lived the Trienio Liberal (1820 - 1823), until this revolution was crushed by a European Kingdoms Absolutist coalition, (including Tsarist Russia). Here after he stayed for three years, (1823–1826), at Matanzas
Matanzas
Matanzas is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. It is famed for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore.It is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas , east of the capital Havana and west of the resort town of Varadero.Matanzas is called the...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, doing also business, apparently, in the USA (New York and Philadelphia).
In 1830, Van Halen went to war against Holland to liberate and create thus the new kingdom of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, as he felt the call of the blood from his Flemish Catholic Ancestors, sailing merchants, formerly settled in Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, Andalucia, Spain.
In 1831, as a "Condottiere" in the 15th century Italian Style, he formed a military brigade of Belgian subjects to defend Portuguese Liberals of the prosecutions of absolutist King Miguel I of Portugal, (October 26, 1802 - November 14, 1866). Money was provided by Cadiz businessman, banker and politician Juan Álvarez Mendizabal
Juan Álvarez Mendizábal
Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, born Juan Álvarez Méndez , was a Spanish economist and politician....
.
Before and after his trip to liberate Belgium from Dutch rule, he took part in the First Carlist War
First Carlist War
The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833-1839.-Historical background:At the beginning of the 18th century, Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, promulgated the Salic Law, which declared illegal the inheritance of the Spanish crown by women...
in Catalunya under Generals José María Torrijos, Francisco Miláns del Bosch and Francisco Espoz y Mina
Francisco Espoz y Mina
Francisco Espoz y Mina was a Spanish guerrilla leader and general.He was born at Idocin in Navarre. His father, Juan Esteban Espoz y Mina, and his mother, Maria Teresa Hundain y Ardaiz, belonged to the class of yeomen. Mina remained working on the small family inheritance until 1808...
.
Van Halen came back to Spain in February 1833, on the death of Absolutist King Fernando VII, but he would travel and stay shortly in 1835, 1837 and 1838 in Belgium and England.
Being very close to General Baldomero Espartero, (Granátula de Calatrava
Granátula de Calatrava
Granátula de Calatrava is a municipality in the province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. Itwas known as Oretum in ancient Iberian times....
, Ciudad Real
Ciudad Real
Ciudad Real is a city in Castile-La Mancha, Spain, with a population of c. 74,000. It is the capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It has a stop on the AVE high-speed rail line and has begun to grow as a long-distance commuter suburb of Madrid, located 115 miles to the north. A high capacity...
, 27 February 1793 - † Logroño, 8 January 1879), he went with Don Baldomero into English exile when Espartero fell from grace in 1843.
He only came back to Madrid in 1854, receiving on November 30 the Great Cross of King Carlos III.
He had been married to Maria del Carmen Quiroga y Hermida in 1821, (deceased 14 February 1859), and after her death to Clotilde Butler y Abrines, the daughter of a Spanish Navy Frigate Captain,, deceased after 1854.
Some references
- http://books.google.es/books?id=_kVYMyaNqBIC&pg=PA360&lpg=PA360&dq=Joserck&source=bl&ots=7b-qrmVcn1&sig=yUp0Jji7yS5VUSHCurY6qQ9Sx4I&hl=es&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA362,M1A
digitilized book by Google from Van Halen's book (English edition), described as:
Narrative of Don Juan Van Halen's Imprisonment in the Dungeons of the Inquisition at Madrid, and His Escape in 1817 and 1818: To which are Added, His Journey to Russia, His Campaign with the Army of the Caucasus, and His Return to Spain in 1821
Escrito por Juan Van Halen, Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez
Publicado por Collins and Hannay, 1828
Procedente de Universidad de Harvard
Digitalizado el 17 May 2006,
363 páginas
Version pdf 22.5 Megabytes.
- http://www.1808-1814.org/persones/vanhalen.html. With a colour portrait or perhaps a water - colour with Van Halen looking like if being in his early forties
- JUAN VAN-HALEN, EL OFICIAL AVENTURERO. EDICIÓN DE J. VAN-HALEN. Pío Baroja, (Editorial Edaf), 340 pages, 18x11 cm. ISBN 84-414-0406-2. ISBN 978-84-414-0406-9,
- http://www.archive.org/stream/narrativedonjua00gutigoog/narrativedonjua00gutigoog_djvu.txt