JoaquÃn Abarca
Joaquín Abarca y Blanque ( May 22nd 1778 in Huesca ( Aragon ), † June 21, 1844 in Lanzo Torinese ) was a Spanish prelate. He held office since 1824 as Bishop of León and was later during the First Carlistenkrieges ( 1833-1840 ) one of the leading supporters of the Spanish pretender Don Carlos.
Life
Joaquín Abarca y Blanque studied law at the University of Zaragoza, received his doctorate in civil and canon law and became a lawyer in Zaragoza. Then he entered the clerical state and acted as ex officio proceedings of the Diocese of Huesca. In 1820 he was one of those clerics who advocated against the re-enactment of the liberal constitution of 1812. He was an advocate of absolute monarchy and therefore had to flee to France in 1822. After the restoration of absolute monarchy in Spain, he was recalled by King Ferdinand VII. The Spanish rulers rewarded him with a benefice in Tarazona and appointed him in 1824 as Bishop of León and in 1826 a member of the State Council. Six years Abarca was a key adviser to the king.
Due to the change in the succession law in favor of Ferdinand's daughter Isabella II Abarca left the party of Ferdinand VII and went over to his younger brother Don Carlos. He was banished from the capital and remained until the death of the King ( 1833) in his parish system. Then he called for a rebellion against the government of Maria Christina, took part in the Carlist uprisings in Vitoria and Logroño, then went to Don Carlos to Portugal and from there accompanied him to England. Here he represented the interests of the returning soon to Spain pretenders. In 1836 he was close to Bordeaux, where he had want to procure weapons, arrested by order of the French Government and brought to the German border. He then went to Frankfurt, where he lived for several months. Then he went to London, settled advance by the Tories significant financial resources, followed with these equipped Don Carlos in the Basque provinces after 1837 and came to the top of the Carlist Ministry. Pope Gregory XVI. had appointed him by a statute enacted on August 20, 1836 decree of the Church leaders in the areas dominated by the Carlists. Abarca helped the pretenders in the organization of the army and took care of the diplomatic correspondence with the courts of other European countries. But he eventually fell out of favor with Don Carlos, had to leave in 1839 towards the end of the First Carlistenkrieges Spain and went to France. He could not stay too, and went to Italy. He retired to a Carmelite convent at Lanzo Torinese, where he died in 1844.