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RIEGO

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 321 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RIEGO NUfEZ, RAFAEL DEL (1784-1823), See also:

Spanish See also:army officer, who has the See also:melancholy distinction of having begun the See also:long See also:series of See also:political military mutinies—pronunciamientos—in See also:Spain, was See also:born at See also:Santa Maria de Tuna in See also:Asturias on the and of See also:April 1784. He was educated for the legal profession at See also:Oviedo, and passed the necessary See also:examinations. But in 1807 he enlisted in the guard. When the See also:French invasion took See also:place in 18o8 he was employed by the See also:junta of Asturias and placed in command of a newly raised See also:battalion. He was taken prisoner at the See also:battle of Espinosa de los Menteros, on the loth and 1th of See also:November 18o8, and was sent to See also:France. During his years of imprisonment he, like many others of his countrymen, was converted to liberalism on the French See also:model. Riego had the See also:good See also:fortune to See also:escape and to reach See also:England after various wanderings in See also:Switzerland and See also:Germany. In England he was incorporated with other rescued or escaped Spaniards, in a See also:corps equipped by the See also:British See also:government, and was sent to Spain in 1814. He continued in service as a military officer, and was commandant of the second battalion of the See also:regiment " Asturias," which formed See also:part of the army, collected at See also:Cadiz to be sent to See also:South See also:America in 1819. Service in America was unpopular with the soldiers, and there was much discontent in the See also:country with the government of See also:King See also:Ferdinand VII. A See also:conspiracy was formed among the See also:officers to use the army for the purpose of forcing the king to See also:grant a constitution. They were betrayed by a See also:general who at first professed to sympathize with them, and many were arrested.

Riego was apparently not suspected, and he decided to See also:

act on his own See also:account. On New See also:Year's See also:Day 182o he made his pronunciamiento with his regiment at the See also:village of Cabezas de See also:San Juan. He proclaimed for the constitution See also:drawn up by the See also:Cortes in x8r2, which was unworkable, and which the chiefs of the conspiracy did not propose to restore. He hoped to seize Cadiz, but it was held by a loyal officer, and for a See also:time no popular See also:movement took place. Riego now started on a revolutionary propaganda through See also:Andalusia at the See also:head of his regiment. The country proved hostile or at the best indifferent. His following gradually melted away, and he was about to flee to See also:Portugal when See also:Galicia revolted. The See also:rebellion extended rapidly, and the king was compelled to yield. When the liberals were in See also:possession of See also:power they would gladly have kept Riego in a subordinate place. But he came to the See also:capital, where he was soon the most popular spokesman of the extreme parties. There he discredited himself by his vanity, and shocked even the populace of See also:Madrid by appearing drunk at the See also:theatre. He was at last persuaded to accept the military command in See also:Aragon, which he thought below his merits.

He began intrigues and agitations. The government was strong enough to put him under See also:

arrest at See also:Lerida. When the new Cortes was elected in 1822, he was chosen See also:deputy for his native See also:city Oviedo, and the radicals selected him as See also:president of the chamber on the 17th of See also:February 1823. The unceasing intrigues of the king, the incapacity of the moderate parties and the hysterical excitement of the See also:mob combined to make anarchy worse daily. Riego was the noisiest shouter of all. When the French intervention took place, he helped to carry the king to Cadiz, and he fought. a few unsuccessful skirmishes with the invaders. He was at last captured at a farmhouse near Arguillos in the See also:province of See also:Jaen. Unfortunately for him, he See also:fell into the hands of the royalist See also:volunteers, by whom he was carried to the capital. On his way he was repeatedly mobbed and had many narrow escapes from being torn to pieces. He was hanged at Madrid in the Plaza de la Cebada on the 7th of November 1823. At the end he professed abject repentance for his impiety and disloyalty. The popular revolutionary tune of Spain, the " himno de Riego," is named after him, and his picture is hung in the Cortes, but he was a poor creature, and a See also:bad example of the See also:light-headed military See also:agitators who have caused Spain much misery.

H. See also:

Baumgarten, Geschichte Spaniens (See also:Berlin, 1865-1871).

End of Article: RIEGO

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