Francisco Ballesteros

Francisco Ballesteros (* 1770 in Zaragoza, † June 29, 1832 ) was a Spanish general.

He fought in 1793 against the French. In 1804 he was dismissed for alleged misconduct of his service, but hired by Manuel de Godoy as head of the customs offices in Asturias again.

With the invasion of the French in 1808 he received from the Junta of Asturias, a regiment that was he who guided Blake and Castaño, and then fought successfully for several years in southern Spain. When he refused the appointment of the Duke of Wellington as commander of the Spanish troops to serve under the same, he was transferred to Ceuta.

Soon recalled, he commanded a corps longer time in the mountains of La Ronda, 1811 Lieutenant General and War Minister in 1815 Ferdinand VII. Overthrown by the clerical court camarilla, he was expelled in 1816 on half-pay to Valladolid.

Recalled at the outbreak of the revolution of 1820 to Madrid, he determined the king to accept the Constitution of 1812, was Vice President of the Provisional Junta and earned by closing the Inquisition dungeons and manufacture of municipal liberties great service.

The victory over the Royal Garden on July 7, 1822 Ballesteros prevented the overthrow of the Constitution. In 1823 he commanded against the French in Navarra and Aragon, but had to surrender on August 21, 1823 at Caporla and submit to the regency to Madrid. As at 1 October of the year Ferdinand VII declared all acts of constitutional government to be invalid, while all civil and military officers deposed the same to Ballesteros withdrew to Cadiz, where he, as the amnesty in 1824 explicitly exclude him on an English ship fled. Since then, living in Paris, he died there on 29 June 1832.